The Franco-German War of 1870-71 Part 39

On this day, however, the IInd Army Corps marched only to Dompierre on a parallel front with the VIIth, its advanced guard pus.h.i.+ng forward on the Drugeon to Ste. Colombe and La Riviere. Thence, in the evening, a company of the Colberg Grenadiers crossed the steep mountain ridge and descended on La Planee, where it took 500 prisoners. A right-flank detachment of two battalions and one battery under Lieutenant-Colonel Liebe marched unopposed up the long pa.s.s of Bonnevaux to Vaux, and took prisoners 2 officers and 688 men. The enemy then abandoned the defile of Granges Ste. Marie and retired to St. Antoine in the mountains.

The Corps had found every road strewn with cast-away arms and camp utensils, and had taken in all 4000 prisoners.

Of the VIIth Corps, as soon as the enemy had been informed of the resumption of hostilities, the 14th Division bent leftward on the Drugeon and up to La Vrine, whence a connection was effected with the 4th Reserve Division of the XIVth Corps in St. Gorgon. The 13th Division advanced to Sept Fontaines. Pontarlier was now completely surrounded, and General von Manteuffel fixed February 1st for the general attack thereon. The IInd Corps was to advance from the south-west, the VIIth from the north-west; General von der Goltz was to establish himself in front of Levier in reserve.

Meanwhile the French Commander-in-Chief had conceived doubts whether everything was quite right with the communications from his Government.

All the mountain-pa.s.ses leading to the south were now lost, and an escape in that direction was no longer to be hoped for. General Clinchant had already sent rearward the baggage and ammunition columns, the sick and worn-out men, through La Cluse under shelter of the forts of Joux and Neuv. And when in the afternoon a message from Bordeaux brought the intelligence that in fact the Army of the East had been excluded from the armistice, the Commander-in-Chief summoned his generals to a council of war. Every General present declared that he could no longer answer for his troops. General Clinchant himself therefore went out the same evening to Les Verrieres, to conclude negotiations he had already opened, in virtue of which on the following day, February 1st, the army was to cross the Swiss frontier by three roads.

To cover this retreat, the Army Reserve was to hold Pontarlier till all the baggage-trains should have pa.s.sed La Cluse, while the XVIIIth Corps was to take up a covering position between the two forts. Defensive works there were at once set about. What of the XVth Corps on the way by Morez had failed in getting through with the cavalry was to try to cross into Switzerland at any available point.

_February 1st._--When the advanced guard of the IInd Corps now advanced on Pontarlier from Ste. Colombe, it met with but slight resistance at the railway station. The Colberg Grenadiers took possession of the town without a struggle, and captured many prisoners, but then found the road on the further side entirely blocked by guns and waggons. They could pa.s.s beyond on either side of the road only with difficulty through deep snow. Just in front of La Cluse the road winds between high rocky precipices into the wide basin of the Doubs, completely commanded by the isolated fortalice of Joux perched on the solid rock. On debouching into the open the foremost companies were received by a hot fire. Four guns, dragged up thither with the greatest exertions, could make no head against the heavy guns of the fort, and the French themselves here pa.s.sed to the attack.

The Colberg Fusiliers had meanwhile climbed the heights to the left, followed by the 2nd Battalion of the Regiment and a battalion of the 49th Regiment, which drove the French out of the farmsteads on the rifted upland. The steep cliff on the right was also scaled, several rifle sub-divisions of the 49th climbed the acclivity up to La Cluse, and the Colberg Grenadiers advanced to the foot of Fort Neuv.

To take the strong fortalices by storm was obviously impossible, and furthermore because of the nature of the ground the fugitive enemy could scarcely be overtaken in force. Of the French, 23 officers and 1600 men were taken prisoners, with 400 loaded waggons; of the Germans, 19 officers and 365 men had fallen, mostly of the Colberg Regiment. The troops spent the night on the field of the fighting.

As no large force could come into action at La Cluse, General von Fransecky had ordered the main body of the Corps to march further southward to Ste. Marie. To avoid the necessity of crossing the steep chain of the Jura, General von Hartmann first betook himself to Pontarlier to avail himself of the better roads from thence, but his progress was stopped, the fight at La Cluse having a.s.sumed unexpected proportions. The VIIth Corps and the 4th Reserve Division, which had reached the Doubs at noon, were equally unable to get at the enemy.

During the whole day the French columns were crossing the Swiss frontier. The Army Reserve in Pontarlier was at the beginning swept away by the tide of baggage-waggons and drivers, and only joined the XVIIIth Corps on reaching La Cluse. During the night they both followed the general line of retreat. Only the cavalry and the 1st Division of the XXIVth Corps reached the neighbouring department of l'Ain to the southward, the latter force reduced to a few hundred men. There crossed the frontier on to Swiss soil some 80,000 Frenchmen.

General Manteuffel had transferred his headquarters to Pontarlier.

There, in the course of the night, he first heard through Berlin of the convention arranged between General Clinchant and Colonel Herzog of the Swiss Confederation.

General von Manteuffel had achieved the important success of his three weeks' campaign by hard marching and constant fighting, although there had been no pitched battle since that of the Lisaine. These marches, indeed, had been such as none but well-seasoned troops could have accomplished under bold and skilful leaders.h.i.+p, under every form of fatigue and hards.h.i.+p, in the worst season and through a difficult country.

Thus two French armies were now prisoners in Germany, a third interned in the capital, and the fourth disarmed on foreign soil.

FOOTNOTES:

[81] Men of the 2nd Battalion, 61st Regiment, 8th Brigade, 4th Division, IInd Corps, which Corps consisted exclusively of Pomeranians.

[82] "Conviction bien arretee."

[83] The 77th Hanoverian Fusilier Regiment, of which this was the 2nd battalion, belonged to the 25th Brigade, 13th Division, VIIth (Westphalian) Army Corps.

GENERAL HANN VON WEYHERN'S MARCH ON DIJON.

It only remains to cast a backward glance on the advance on Dijon, with the conduct of which General Hann von Weyhern was charged on January 26th.

On that same day Garibaldi received instructions there to take energetic measures against Dole and Mouchard.

To support him, the Government, indefatigable in the evolution of new forces, was to put in march 15,000 Gardes-Mobiles under General Crouzat from Lyons to Lons le Saulnier, and a XXVIth Corps in course of formation at Chatellerault was to be sent from thence to Beaune. As it was beyond doubt that General von Manteuffel had moved with a strong force on the communications of the Army of the East, the specific order was transmitted on the 27th to the Commander of the Army of the Vosges, to leave only from 8000 to 10,000 men in Dijon and to advance at once with his main force beyond Dole.

But the General was always greatly concerned for the safety of Dijon; he occupied the princ.i.p.al positions on the slopes of the Cote d'Or and detached a small force to St. Jean de Losne, behind the ca.n.a.l of Bourgogne. Of 700 volunteers who had marched on Dole, no trace was ever found there.

Langres had shown more energy; several and often successful attacks on small outpost companies and etappen troops had been made from it from time to time.

General Hann von Weyhern's purpose of attacking Dijon from the south had to be abandoned, because the bridge over the Saone at St. Jean de Losne had been destroyed. He therefore on the 29th crossed the river at Apremont, and on the 31st a.s.sembled his detachments at Arc sur Tille.

Here again General Bordone, the Chief of the general staff of the Army of the Vosges, vainly insisted that an armistice was in force. On the 31st General von Kettler marched with an advanced guard on Varois. To cut off the enemy's communications with Auxonne a left-flank detachment made itself master of the bridge over the Ouche at Fauverney. The first sh.e.l.ls drove the French back on their intrenched position on the line St. Apollinaire--Mirande.

When the attempt to establish an armistice failed, General Bordone determined to evacuate Dijon in the course of the night and retire upon a.s.sured neutral ground. Thus, on February 1st, the head of the advanced guard found the position in front of the city abandoned, and General von Kettler marched in without encountering any opposition, just as the last train of French troops moved out of the railway-station. Sombernon and Nuits were also occupied on the 2nd.

OCCUPATION OF THE DEPARTMENTS OF THE DOUBS, JURA, AND CoTE D'OR.

Nothing now remained for General von Manteuffel but to establish the military occupation of the three Departments which he had won, and to guard them from without.

General Pelissier was still in the open field within their bounds, having reached Lons le Saulnier with the 15,000 Gardes-Mobiles who had come up from Lyons and had been joined by the battalions sent back from Besancon by General Rolland, by no means an insignificant force numerically, but practically of no great efficiency. The commanders were recommended to retire and avoid further bloodshed; and they did so, as soon as some detachments of the IInd German Corps advanced on Lons le Saulnier and St. Laurent. Others occupied Mouthe and Les Allemands, where were found twenty-eight field-guns which had been abandoned by the French. As a measure of precaution, the Swiss frontier was watched by eight battalions. The fortalices of Salins, the little fortress of Auxonne, and Besancon, were kept under observation from the eastward.

Although the Department of Haute-Marne was included in the armistice, the commandant of Langres had refused to recognize the authority of his Government. So this place had to be invested, and probably besieged.

General von der Goltz was promptly ordered to advance once more on it, and General von Krenski was already on the march thither with seven battalions, two squadrons and two batteries, and a siege train from Longwy, which he had brought to capitulate on January 25th, after a bombardment of six days' duration. But it was not called into requisition at Langres. General von Manteuffel aimed at no further tactical results; he was anxious to save his troops from further losses, and to afford them all possible relief after their exceptional exertions. Not till now were the baggage-waggons brought up, even those of the superior staff officers having been necessarily left behind during the advance into the Jura. The troops were distributed for the sake of comfort in roomy quarters, but in readiness for action at any moment, the IInd Corps in the Jura, the VIIth in the Cote d'Or, the XIVth in the department of the Doubs. But the siege of Belfort was still to be vigorously carried on.

PROSECUTION OF THE SIEGE OF BELFORT.

Immediately after the battle on the Lisaine the forces investing Belfort were increased to 27 battalions, 6 squadrons, 6 field batteries, 24 companies of fortress artillery, and 6 companies of fortress pioneers; 17,602 infantry, 4699 artillerymen, and 1166 pioneers, in all 23,467 men, with 707 horses and 34 field-guns.

The place was invested on the north and west by only a few battalions, and the main force was a.s.sembled to the south and east.

On January 20th the eastern batteries opened a heavy fire on Perouse.

Colonel Denfert concluded that an attack was imminent, and placed four battalions of his most trusted troops in the village, which had been prepared for an obstinate defence.

At about midnight, two battalions of the 67th Regiment advanced from Chevremont on the Haut Taillis wood without firing a shot. Once inside it there was a determined struggle, but the French were driven back on the village, and the pioneers immediately intrenched the skirt of the wood towards Perouse under a heavy fire from the forts. Half an hour later two Landwehr battalions advanced from Bessoncourt to the copse on the north of the village. They were received with a heavy fire, but made their way onward over abatis, pits and wire-entanglements, driving the enemy back into the quarries. A stationary fight now ensued, but the 67th presently renewed the attack, and without allowing themselves to be checked by the earthworks forced their way into Perouse. They took possession of the eastern half of the straggling village at about half-past two, and the detachment defending the quarries, finding itself threatened, retreated. At five o'clock, Colonel Denfert abandoned the western part of the village, which was now completely occupied by the Germans. The losses on the German side were 8 officers and 178 men; the French left 5 officers and 93 men prisoners.

_January 21st to 27th._--The next day the construction of the first parallel was undertaken, extending about 2000 yards from Donjoutin to Haut Taillis. Five battalions and two companies of Sappers were employed in this work, and were undisturbed by the French; but the rocky soil prevented its being constructed of the prescribed width.

General von Tresckow considered that he might thus early succeed in carrying both the Perches forts by a determined a.s.sault. Two half redoubts with ditches more than three yards deep cut perpendicularly in the solid rock, casemated traverses and bomb-proof blockhouses in the gorge, afforded protection to the defenders. Each work was armed with seven 12-cm. cannon, and they were connected by trenches, behind which reserves were in readiness. On the right flank this position was protected by a battalion and a sortie-battery in Le Fourneau; on the left the adjacent wood was cleared, cut down to a distance of 650 yards, and wire-entanglements between the stumps formed an almost impenetrable obstacle. In front the gentle slope of the ridge was under the cross-fire of the two forts.

When on the previous evening of the 26th the construction of the parallel was sufficiently advanced to allow of its being occupied by larger detachments, the a.s.sault was fixed for the 27th. Two columns, each of one battalion, one company of Sappers, and two guns, pa.s.sed to the attack at daybreak on that morning. Two companies of Schneidemuhl's Landwehr Battalion advanced against the front of Ba.s.ses Perches and threw themselves on the ground within from 65 to 110 yards of the work.

A sub-division of sharp-shooters and a few pioneers reached the ditch and unhesitatingly leaped in; the two other (Landwehr) companies, going round the fort by the left, got into its rear, and here too the men jumped into the ditch of the gorge. But the French who had been driven out of their shelter-trenches were now a.s.sembled, and the battalion from Le Fourneau came up. All the forts of the place opened fire on the bare and unprotected s.p.a.ce in front of the parallel, and an attempt of reinforcements to cross it failed. The 7th Company of the Landwehr Battalion was surrounded by greatly superior numbers, and after a brave struggle was for the most part made captive. Most of the men in the ditch were still able to escape.

The advance of the right column against Hautes-Perches also failed. It had to cross 1100 yards of open ground. The encompa.s.sment of the fort was attempted, but it was impossible to force through the abatis and other obstacles under the destructive fire of the enemy.

This abortive attempt cost 10 officers and 427 men; and the slower process of an engineer attack had to be resumed.

_January 28th to February 15th._--As the approaches to the forts progressed the flying sap could be carried forward about 330 yards every night unopposed by the enemy. In spite of all the difficulties caused by the nature of the soil, on February 1st the second parallel was thrown up at half distance from the Perches.

As the Fort of la Justice was a special hindrance to the operations, two new batteries had to be constructed to the east of Perouse against it.

Four mortar-batteries on the flanks of the parallel now directed their fire on the Perches at very short range. Three batteries were also constructed in the Bois des Perches to fire on the citadel, and one on the skirt of the wood near Bavilliers against the defences of the city.

Henceforward 1500 sh.e.l.ls a day were fired on the fortress and its outworks.