69 
THE FRENCH MANOEUVRES OF 1891. 
BY 
CAPTAIN J. F. MANIFOLD, R.A. 
This year may be marked as the one in which the training of troops 
in peace time has been carried out on a scale which, in point of num¬ 
bers of the men brought together, much more approaches the actual 
conditions of war than what has ever been seen before in Europe. In 
Germany, on several previous occasions, two Army Corps have been 
assembled and manoeuvred together, but the numbers have then not 
exceeded 50,000 or 60,000 men. This year Germany has again assem¬ 
bled about that number at Erfurt, with another large army manoeuvring 
on the Rhine ; while Austria has massed the immense number of 70,000 
men at Schwarzenau, and, with two Emperors directly superintending 
the movements of the army, has largely added to the importance of the 
occasion. It is France, however, which has far surpassed all other 
military Powers, and which, with manoeuvres, at which an army of 
120,000 men has taken part, completely puts in the shade all previous 
records. 
The occasion was a notable one for the French nation, as it was the 
anniversary of the coming of age of the Republic. The end of the war 
of 1870-71 saw France left absolutely without an army, all her regular 
troops, together with their arms and equipment, had been captured by 
the Germans and taken across the Rhine, while all her arsenals, except 
those in the very south of France, were in the hands of the enemy. 
The army as a regular force had ceased to exist, and the commence¬ 
ment of 1871 saw France start at the great task of forming an army 
from the very beginning. The manoeuvres, which have just been 
concluded, show with what effect this work has been carried out, and 
may be considered to mark a great epoch in the history of the French 
Republic. 
The ground selected for the manoeuvres was that lying between 
the upper portions of the Marne and the Seine, enclosed in a 
quadrangle, of which Vitry-le-Fran^is, Troyes, Clairmont, and St. 
Dizier form the angles. The geography of this tract of country has 
been probably more studied by all students of military history, than 
that of any other part of Europe, as the theatre of Napoleon's great 
campaign of the early part of 1814, when, by a most brilliant power of 
concentration, with his small army of 85,000 men, he completely checked 
tbe allied forces of Austria, Germany, and Russia from advancing on 
Paris for the space of four months. The country is, for the most part, 
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