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Page 32
This army either did not entertain, or appeared not to entertain, for
the moment any immediate uneasiness. They knew, or at least they
thought they knew, that the enemy was a long way off. On calculating
the stages at four leagues daily, it was three days' march distant.
Nevertheless, toward evening the leaders took some wise strategic
precautions; they protected the army, which rested in the rear on
Sedan and the Meuse, by two battle fronts, one composed of the Seventh
Corps, and extending from Floing to Givonne, the other composed of the
Twelfth Corps, extending from Givonne to Bazeilles; a triangle of
which the Meuse formed the hypothenuse. The Twelfth Corps, formed of
the three divisions of Lacretelle, Lartigue and Wolff, ranged on the
right, with the artillery between the brigades, formed a veritable
barrier, having Bazeilles and Givonne at each end, and Digny in its
centre; the two divisions of Petit and Lheritier massed in the rear
upon two lines supported this barrier. General Lebrun commanded the
Twelfth Corps. The Seventh Corps, commanded by General Douay, only
possessed two divisions--Dumont's division and Gilbert's division--and
formed the other battle front, covering the army of Givonne to Floing
on the side of Illy; this battle front was comparatively weak, too
open on the side of Givonne, and only protected on the side of the
Meuse by two cavalry divisions of Margueritte and Bonnemains, and by
Guyomar's brigade, resting in squares on Floing. Within this triangle
were encamped the Fifth Corps, commanded by General Wimpfen, and the
First Corps, commanded by General Ducrot. Michel's cavalry division
covered the First Corps on the side of Digny; the Fifth supported
itself upon Sedan. Four divisions, each disposed upon two lines--the
divisions of Lheritier, Grandchamp, Goze and Conseil-Dumenil--formed a
sort of horseshoe, turned toward Sedan, and uniting the first battle
front with the second. The cavalry division of Ameil and the brigade
of Fontanges served as a reserve for these four divisions. The whole
of the artillery was upon the two battle fronts. Two portions of the
army were in confusion, one to the right of Sedan beyond Balan, the
other to the left of Sedan, on this side of Iges. Beyond Balan were
the division of Vassoigne and the brigade of Reboul, on this side of
Iges were the two cavalry divisions of Margueritte and Bonnemains.
These arrangements indicated a profound feeling of security. In the
first place, the Emperor Napoleon III. would not have come there if he
had not been perfectly tranquil. This Givonne Valley is what Napoleon
I. called a "wash-hand basin." There could not have been a more
complete enclosure. An army is so much at home there that it is too
much so; it runs the risk of no longer being able to get out. This
disquieted some brave and prudent leaders, such as Wimpfen, but they
were not listened to. If absolutely necessary, said the people of the
imperial circle, they could always be sure of being able to reach
Mezieres, and at the worst the Belgian frontier. Was it, however,
needful to provide for such extreme eventualities? In certain cases
foresight is almost an offence. They were all of one mind, therefore,
to be at their ease.
If they had been uneasy they would have cut the bridges of the Meuse,
but they did not even think of it. To what purpose? The enemy was a
long way off. The Emperor, who evidently was well informed, affirmed
it.
The army bivouacked somewhat in confusion, as we have said, and slept
peaceably throughout this night of August 31, having, whatever might
happen, or believing that they had, the retreat upon Mezieres open
behind it. They disdained to take the most ordinary precautions, they
made no cavalry reconnoissances, they did not even place outposts. A
German military writer has stated this. Fourteen leagues at least
separated them from the German army, three days' march; they did not
exactly know where it was; they believed it scattered, possessing
little unity, badly informed, led somewhat at random upon several
points at once, incapable of a movement converging upon one single
point, like Sedan; they believed that the Crown Prince of Saxony was
marching on Chalons, and that the Crown Prince of Prussia was marching
on Metz; they were ignorant of everything appertaining to this army,
its leaders, its plan, its armament, its effective force. Was it still
following the strategy of Gustavus Adolphus? Was it still following
the tactics of Frederick II.? No one knew. They felt sure of being at
Berlin in a few weeks. What nonsense! The Prussian army! They talked
of this war as of a dream, and of this army as of a phantom....
The masterful description of the great novelist and poet then
continues in a narrative of the attack and catastrophe:
Bazeilles takes fire, Givonne takes fire, Floing takes fire; the
battle begins with a furnace. The whole horizon is aflame. The French
camp is in this crater, stupefied, affrighted, starting up from
sleeping--a funereal swarming. A circle of thunder surrounds the army.
They are encircled by annihilation. This mighty slaughter is carried
on on all sides simultaneously. The French resist and they are
terrible, having nothing left but despair. Our cannon, almost all
old-fashioned and of short range, are at once dismounted by the
fearful and exact aim of the Prussians. The density of the rain of
shells upon the valley is so great that "the earth is completely
furrowed," says an eye-witness, "as though by a rake." How many
cannon? Eleven hundred at least. Twelve German batteries upon La
Moncelle alone; the Third and Fourth _Abtheilung_, an awe-striking
artillery, upon the crests of Givonne, with the Second Horse Battery
in reserve; opposite Digny ten Saxon and two Wurtemburg batteries; the
curtain of trees of the wood to the north of Villers-Cernay masks the
mounted _Abtheilung_, which is there with the third Heavy Artillery in
reserve, and from the gloomy copse issues a formidable fire; the
twenty-four pieces of the First Heavy Artillery are ranged in the
glade skirting the road from La Moncelle to La Chapelle; the battery
of the Royal Guard sets fire to the Garenne Wood; the shells and the
balls riddle Suchy, Francheval, Fouro-Saint-Remy, and the valley
between Heibes and Givonne; and the third and fourth rank of cannon
extend without break of continuity as far as the Calvary of Illy, the
extreme point of the horizon. The German soldiers, seated or lying
before the batteries, watch the artillery at work. The French soldiers
fall and die. Amongst the bodies which cover the plain there is one,
the body of an officer, on which they will find, after the battle, a
sealed note containing this order, signed Napoleon: "To-day, September
1, rest for the whole army."
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