The French and the Prussians

The french army was nominally about 400 thousand strong, but it was mostly filled with unhappy conscripts serving seven year hitches. So just as he had done to austria four years earlier, bismarck had maneuvered the french into a position of total diplomatic isolation. In the summer of 18 70, it was estimated that the french would need a million men to fight the prussians,. But they could only scrounge up about 280 thousand actually ready to fight soldiers.