The 4th Brigade of Foot Guards, in obedience to orders, proceeded in the direction of Jerusalem, immediately south of St.-Privat.  As soon as General von Manstein, in command of the IXth Corps, observed this, he ordered the 3d Brigade of Guards, which had been placed at his orders, to advance from Habonville toward Amanvillers.

Between these two brigades marched the Hessians, but it was not till half an hour later that the First Division of Guards joined from Ste.-Marie, marching on St.-Privat, on the left of the Second.  This attack was directed against the broad front of the French IVth and VIth Corps.  Their fortified positions at St.-Privat and Amanvillers had as yet hardly felt the fire of the German batteries, which had found sufficient employment in replying to the enemy’s artillery outside the villages.

Several ranks of riflemen, one above the other, were placed in front of the French main position, on the hedges and fences in a slope up the ridge.  At their back towered St.-Privat, castle-like, with its massive buildings, which were crowded by soldiers to the very roof.  The open plain in front was thus exposed to an overwhelming shower of projectiles.

The losses of the attacking Guards were, in fact, enormous.  In the course of half an hour five battalions lost all, the others the greater part of their officers, especially those of the higher grades.  Thousands of dead and wounded marked the track of the troops, who, in spite of their losses, pressed forward.  The ranks, as fast as they were thinned, closed up again, and their compact formation was not broken even under the leadership of young lieutenants and ensigns.  As they got nearer to the enemy the needle-gun did good service.  The French were driven from all their foremost positions, where, for the most part, they did not await the final struggle.  By a quarter-past six the battalions had advanced to within 600 to 800 paces of Amanvillers and St.-Privat.  The troops, weary from long combat, halted under the steeper slopes offering some, though small, protection, and in the trenches just abandoned by the enemy.  Only four battalions now remained in reserve at Ste.-Marie, behind the German line, which now extended to a length of 4,000 paces.  Every charge of the French cavalry and of Cissy’s Division had been persistently repelled with the aid of twelve batteries of the Guards which had now put in an appearance; but the German troops, reduced, as they were, by untold losses, had to face two French Corps for thirty minutes longer before reinforcements came to their aid.

It was nearly seven o’clock when, to the left of the Guards, two brigades of the Saxon infantry arrived on the field; the other two were still assembling in the forest of Auboue; their artillery, however, had for some time kept up a lively fire on Roncourt.