Page 356 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

338 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

when this happens, they must just eat meat and potatoes that in woods or
elsewhere can be easily roasted.
«Since it is not easy to bring with you carriages or donkeys with reserve
ammunitions, each soldier must jealously guard his cartridges and, most of
all, must shoot well and rarely.
«I strictly recommend a good behaviour with the inhabitants, who must
love and respect the soldiers of the Republic.
«And any infringement whatsoever of this rule must be severely punished.
«Loved by the inhabitants, you will easily have good guides; that has never
to fail you, as also precise information on the enemy’s positions and its forces.
«Arrived at the enemy’s lines of communication, you must destroy rail-
ways, telegraphs.
«If you could succeed in destroying that on the Strasbourg-Paris line, that
would be really a coup de main.
«I expect from you all news that can interest me either via telegraph or in
any other way.
«Eight hundred men are too many to march always together; it twill be
difficult to feed them and find them a shelter.
«You therefore have to divide them and use them all together only when
the threat is serious. Get some maps from municipal authorities.
«If chased or pursued by overwhelming forces, divide your men into many
small detachments that will deceive the enemy by taking different directions
and to whom you will indicate a meeting point where to reassemble».

th
The surprise attack of Châtillon-sur-Seine. – At dawn of the 14 , Ricciotti
left Autun in a very bad weather; on the evening, he stopped in Lucenay, the
day after he reached Saulieu. The patrols sent to different directions reported
Montbard clear; Ricciotti, with a forced march, passed Semur late at night
and reached Montbard; he left from there the next morning, November 18,
and reached Coulmier-le-Sec, where he got in contact with Zastrow’s forces.
The young and brave commander planned the attack that would surprise
them; he knew from some inhabitants that Châtillon was occupied by weak
forces: he decided to pounce on them and capture them. At 1 am, after mid-
night, the Brigade started to move under a heavy rain; after some hours, they
penetrated unnoticed in the built-up area from many directions: the snipers
immediately attacked the houses where the Prussians were quartered.
In the dark, the fight broke out violently everywhere, but the Prussians,