Germans immediately sent a train of food and live cattle to the city they had just conquered. The French prisoners were sent by way of Saarbrücken and Trier to prisoners of war camps, guarded by Landwehr battalions. Bazaine was sent as a captive to Kassel. The German 26th Brigade was stationed in Metz as garrison, with General von Kummer as commandant. Dead horses, unburied corpses and burnt or putrefying refuse greeted the German conquerors on their entry, a testament to the suffering the French had endured. Aftermath Prince Friedrich Karl and the Prussian Second Army were now free to move against the French force in the Loire area. The siege is commemorated by the "Siegesmarsch von Metz" which uses parts of the "Die Wacht am Rhein". One notable figure present on the Prussian side was the prominent philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who served as a medical attendant. Nietzsche contracted both diphtheria and dysentery during the siege, worsening his already poor state of health. Casualties The French lost 167,000 enlisted men and 6,000 officers taken to POW camps on 27 October, as well as 20,000 sick who temporarily stayed behind in Metz. Material losses were enormous and amounted to 622 field guns, 2,876 fortress guns, 72 mitrailleuses, 137,000 chassepots, 123,000 other small arms, vast stores of ammunition and 56 French Imperial Eagles, all captured by the Germans. The Germans lost 5,500 enlisted men and 240 officers killed and wounded, as well as large numbers of sick. Citations References 1870 in France Conflicts in 1870 Sieges involving France Metz, Siege of Sieges of the Franco-Prussian War Metz 1870 Siege August 1870 events September 1870 events October 1870 events