_January 11th._--On this day the IIIrd German Army Corps was directly opposed to the main body of the French forces. It could not for the present hope for any assistance from the corps of the flanks, and had before it the certainty of an arduous struggle.
On the left, the Xth Corps was still this morning at Grand Lucé, and on the right the XIIIth Corps had been detained on the previous day by the obstinate resistance of the French, who had held their own between Les Cohernières and La Chapelle, and occupied Le Chêne in their front.
The troops of the 22nd Division had necessarily lost their formations and become mixed up in the course of the struggle in the wood, and it was not till they had been re-formed and the enemy's position had been reconnoitred by both the Divisional Commanders that the attack was renewed at about eleven o'clock.
Two battalions of the 17th Division and one battery were left in observation in front of Pont de Gesnes, on the southern bank of the Huisne; on the northern side, the Mecklenburg battalions stormed Cohernières in the afternoon after a sharp contest, and in conjunction with the Hessians forced their way westward up to the Gué and on towards Lombron about four o'clock.
Further to the right two companies of the 90th Regiment (22nd Division) meanwhile took Le Chêne by a closed attack on the obstinate defenders; the 83rd Regiment, after a sharp fire fight, stormed the farmsteads of Flouret and La Grande Métairie. Colonel von Beckedorff, on being relieved at Chanteloup by the 4th Cavalry Division, had driven the French out of St. Célerin, and he then advanced to La Chapelle-St. Rémy on the right of the Division, which occupied wide quarters behind the points it had seized.
The Mecklenburg Grenadiers had held their own for a long time at Le Gué and La Brosse against superior numbers attacking from Pont de Gesnes; but the main body of the 17th Division was retired in the evening further back to Connerré.
The more completely that General von Alvensleben had to rely solely on his own command, the more essential it was to keep the troops composing it closely concentrated. But a strong force of the enemy was now on his flank, almost indeed in his rear, on the heights of Auvours, where it was only kept at bay by his 12th Brigade, which therefore for the present was not free to advance.