Hastily gathering up the 5th corps from Bitsch--the corps which ought to have been at Woerth--that gallant but unfortunate general struck out to the south-west for the great camp at Chalons.

The triumph, however, cost the Germans dear.

As many as 10,600 men were killed or wounded, the 5th Prussian corps alone losing more than half that number.

Their cavalry failed to keep touch with the retreating French.
On that same day (August 6) a disaster scarcely less serious overtook the French 2nd corps, which had been holding Saarbruecken.

Convinced that that post was too advanced and too weak in presence of the foremost divisions of the First and Second German Armies now advancing rapidly against it, General Frossard drew back his vanguard some mile and a half to the line of steep hills between Spicheren and Forbach, just within the French frontier.