| 668 | 669 | 670 | 671 | 672 |
| 1 | 171 | 343 | 514 | 685 |
|
CHAPTER VI.
This disaster of Sedan was easy of avoidance by any other man, but
impossible of avoidance for Louis Bonaparte. He avoided it so little
that he sought it. Lex fati.
Our army seemed expressly arranged for the catastrophe. The soldier was
uneasy, ignorant of his whereabouts, famished. On the 31st of August, in
the streets of Sedan, soldiers were seeking their regiments, and going
from door to door asking for bread. We have seen the Emperor's order
announcing the next day, September 1st, as a day of rest. In truth the
army was worn out with fatigue. And yet it had only marched by short
stages. The soldier was almost losing the habit of marching. One corps,
the 1st, for example, only accomplished two leagues per day (on the 29th
of August from Stonne to Raucourt).
During that time the German army, inexorably commanded and driven at the
stick's end like the army of the Xerxes, achieved marches of fourteen
leagues in fifteen hours, which enabled it to arrive unexpectedly, and
to surround the French army while asleep. It was customary to allow
oneself to be surprised. General Failly allowed himself to be surprised
at Beaumont; during the day the soldiers took their guns to pieces to
clean them, at night they slept, without even cutting the bridges which
delivered them to the enemy; thus they neglected to blow up the bridges
of Mouzon and Bazeilles. On September 1st, daylight had not yet
appeared, when an advance guard of seven battalions, commanded by
670
Page
Quick Jump
|