It was fought between Fifth French Corps d'Armee under General Pierre Louis Charles de Failly, and the IV and XII (Royal Saxon) Army Corps under Prince George of Saxony (the XII Army Corps was all-Saxon, while the IV Army Corps was a mix of regiments from Anhalt, Prussian Saxony and the Thuringian states) along with the I Royal Bavarian Corps under general Ludwig Freiherr von der Tann. The French were surprised in their cantonments and driven back upon Mouzon, with losses of 4,800 men and 42 guns to the Germans' 3,500.