CHANZY^S CAMPAIGN. 
89 
15th, the 18th, and the 20th; others came between the Loire and the 
Loir. I have not sufficienct delicacy of French pronunciation to audibly 
discriminate between Loire and Loir—the right one is the Loire and the 
left one is the Loir (describing the position on a blackboard). Between 
these two, the Loire and the Loir, were the 16th, 17th, and 21st Corps, 
and part of the 19th; along the Loire, and south of it and to the east, 
were the 15tli, 18th and 20th. These three latter were ultimately 
known as the army of Bourbaki, and after an attempt on the German 
communications of a very feeble character, and a kind of rush to raise 
the siege of Belfort, they were driven into Switzerland, where they were 
obliged to put themselves under the shelter of neutrality on the 2nd of 
February under most deplorable, most harrowing conditions. With 
them again we have little or nothing todo, except so far as they in¬ 
fluenced the policy of Chanzy. 
Now we come to Chanzy himself. As I said, the three corps, the 
15th, 18th, and 20th went east under Bourbaki. Three, the 16th, 17th, 
and 21st retreated, as the Germans thought, towards Blois under 
Chanzy. By this time Chanzy had so distinguished himself as to obtain 
the entire confidence of Gambetta, who was practically the military 
Dictator of France and of the Tours Government 1 2 ; and I may just as 
well tell you who Chanzy was. He was born at Nouart in the Arden¬ 
nes, well known in connection with the campaign of Sedan, just up here 
above Verdun on the left, tie served in Algeria ; he served in Italy in 
1859; he served in Syria; he was not involved in any of the transactions 
on the north-east, Woerth or Gravelotte, or Sedan. He, like many 
officers from Algeria, helped the Government of National Defence, and 
he was put in command of the 16th French Corps during the operations 
to the north of Orleans. He now, about the 5th December, got com¬ 
mand of the 16th, 17th, and 21st Corps. The officers in command of 
these respectively were in the Le Mans campaign—Admiral Jauregui- 
berry, General de Colomb, and General Juares. He very soon puzzled 
the Germans, and made himself remarkable in a great variety of ways. 
The Germans, as I said, were the 9th, the 3rd, and the 10th, originally 
stationed from the Orleans and Paris road to Beaune la Bolande. 
But on the right the Duke of Mecklenburg had the 13th 3 Corps and the 
1st Bavarians. These came to the forest of Marchenoir, which is 
marked on the hand map which your Committee have been good enough 
to provide. 
In the centre, the forest of Marchenoir : near it to the right Cravant, 
Beaumont, Josnes, and a lot of other places. When the Germans were 
going down towards Blois they came to Meung to reconnoitre and found 
themselves stopped; they were stopped on the 6th and 7th December; 
they were involved in a great number of village actions; there was a 
considerable amount of artillery fighting 3 ; they were stopped at these 
1 Gambetta had escaped out of Paris in a balloon and, after a remarkable display of gallantry 
under fire in the air, had early in October established a fairly efficient new government in Tours. 
2 A mixed corps, consisting of the 17th and 22nd Divisions, which in the ordinary course of 
events would have belonged to the 9th and 11th Corps. 
3 Artillery officers will not find lessons in the Le Mans campaign as to the grouping of artillery 
such as are abundant in the early part of the war, but they will find many cases of admirable 
skill in the use of a battery or a division. See Appendix. 
