Page 359 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE FRENCH CAMPAIGN 1870 - 1871 341

Garibaldi ordered his Batteries to take up positions and open their fire
against the Baden troops; in the meantime he deployed his troops: 3 rd and
4 th Brigades in the front line, 2 nd Brigade in the second line and at about
11 am he launched an attack on Pasques where the enemy’s vanguard had
already arrived. The enemy, as for him, attacked from Plombières the 1 st
Brigade and drove it back to Velars; it took up position on the northern side
of the valley.
Garibaldi, on horseback, at the farmhouse of Puit-de-Mont, directed the
action: the frontal attack of Pasques with the two Brigades of the front line;
the outflanking on the left side with the 2 nd Brigade; the mobilisés as reserves.
The rush of Tanara’s volunteers and the other two units of snipers soon
gained the upper hand over the enemy’s resistance. Degenfeld risked of being
outflanked just one hour after the beginning of the action, was forced to leave
Pasques and, strongly chased by the Garibaldians, tried to resist first in
Prenois and then in Darois. Garibaldi, on horseback, was in the first line and
roused with his calm and smiling presence the spirit of the volunteers and of
the snipers, who, overwhelmed by enthusiasm, advanced fighting in long
chains and in perfect order, as they were manoeuvring on a drill ground.
In Prenois and Darois, Garibaldi was at the head of the columns attack-
ing at the point of bayonets, a perhaps inopportune example of recklessness
for a commanding general, but necessary in those circumstances for those
improvised troops facing in the open and for the first time the most famous
troops in Europe.
It was getting dark, and in the cold twilight an icy rain fell, a fine, pene-
trating drizzle: the pursuit had to stop and troops had to be reorganised; the
enemy withdrew in a rush to Daix and Talant where they too had to stop and
barricaded the carriageway to Dijon with outposts near Hauteville.
As reinforcements, a battalion of riflemen from the 3 rd Baden had rushed
from Talant and Daix.

The night attack. – The stop, however, was short. Garibaldi, seeing the
retreat of the enemy and considering that his adversary’s troops had not
received any reinforcements for the whole day, thought that there were no
more troops in Dijon and therefore he wanted to continue the pursuit to
occupy the city. The spirit of his victorious troops was very high; it seemed
therefore opportune, nay, necessary to seize the favourable occasion that he
had lacked the day before due to Bosak’s unexpected arrival. As a conse-