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Army of the Loire

In the month of September 1870, about a fortnight after the sudden close of the Imperialist epoch of the war by the catastrophe at Sedan, a delegation of the Government of the National Defence was installed at Tours, to secure, among other ends, the formation of an army of succour behind the Loire. The result of its efforts was the formation of the 15th Corps d'armee, afterwards known as the "First Army of the Loire," under D'Aurelles de Paladines. The investment of Paris commenced on the 19th September, and on the 9th October, M. Gambetta arrived at Tours by balloon, armed with special powers, and at once assumed the united duties of Minister of War and the Interior. His arrival was speedily followed by the formation, during the last half of October, of the 16th Corps d'armee, under the command of General Pourcet, who was soon after succeeded by General Chanzy, under whose leadership it became expanded into the "Second Army of the Loire."

Near the scene on which tho operations of tho Fourteenth Corps were conducted, a new army was forming about this time under the command of Garibaldi. At the beginning of the war, tho old revolutionary general had denounced the aggressive polioy of Louis Napoleon; but, after the proclamation of the French Republic, his sympathies were strongly enlisted on the side of France. Gambetta promised to add a sufficient number of National and Gardes Mobile to make "the Army of the Vosges" an irresistible corps. Garibaldi went from Besançon to Dole, where he applied himself to the organization of tho Army of the Vosges. He formed three brigades, which were commanded by the Polish General Bossak, Colunel Marin, and his son, Menotti Garibnldi. The conduct of tho French Gardes Mobile was severely censured by Garibaldi, who says of them in a letter: "These cowards cannot stand the fire; they either throw themselves into the ditches, or fly like frightened sheep."

Gambetta made preparations for a new and mighty effort. With wonderful energy and administrative power, he formed a 17th corps on the Loire, near Blois, and an 18th far higher up, at Nevers ; he had, with admirable secrecy and skill, moved a 20th corps from the Army of the East; these arrays had been drawn, by degrees, towards the Army of the Loire, and the uniting masses, from 150,000 to 200,000 strong, were being combined on a front extending from the eastern verge of the Great Wood of Orleans.

The operations of the 3d and 4th of December, which have become known as the battle of Orleans, were a succession of combats ill-sustained by the French. The battle of Orleans cut the French army of the Loire in halves. D'Aurelle with the 15th, 18th, and 20th corps retreated upon Bourges, while Chanzy with the 16th and 17th corps retreated along the other bank of the Loire under cover of the newly formed 21st corps as far as Beaugency. These two forces were immediately denominated by Gambetta as the first and second armies of the Loire. It soon became evident that the former Army of the Loire had been divided ; part of it, with the Army of the West, under Chanzy, was rallied at Le Mans, while the remaining three corps, under Bourbaki, formed the new Army of the Jura.

The second army of the Loire invariably fought against inferior numbers, and yet was invariably worsted. Where perhaps five or six thousand of its troops met the soldier's fate in wounds or death, nearly twenty thousand laid down their arms in terror. Werder with 40,000 men maintained the siege of Belfort, frightened Garibaldi into inaction at Dijon, hoodwinked Bourbaki by a demonstration, while he chose a defensive position on the Lisaine, and then in a three days' battle completely foiled and demoralized the three corps of the first army of the Loire. The Army of the North, under Faidherbe, advanced against Amiens in the middle of December. The army of the north (22d and 23d corps), which never attained the cohesion of the army of the Loire, was shattered at Pont-a-Noyelles in December by Manteuffel, and practically destroyed on the 19th of January 1871 in a fight at St. Quentin.