GENERAL BOURBAKI’S CAMPAIGN. 139 
“This gallant division reached the Lisaine battle-field on the 15th, and 
opened fire on the Germans on that day. Neither officers nor men had 
anything to eat from 7 a.m. on the 14th till 6 p.m. of the 15th, although 
during that time they had marched over 40 miles, and had been for 
several hours under the fire of the enemy.” Iam sure that no gentle- 
man present will grudge credit to Cremer. 
But, gentlemen, there was another forced march,—fortitude and 
military spirit not being confined to any one race,—and that was the 
march of No. VII. and No. II., under Manteuffel, who commanded both, 
the II. corps being under Fransecky, and the VII. under Zastrow. Let 
us see what the same writer says about this incident : “The march of 
Manteuffel has scarcely had a parallel in modern war, and forms a most 
striking proof of the perfection of the Prussian administration of 
supplies upon the march. In 16 days his force, with all its trains of 
necessaries and other impediments, crossed two ranges of mountains, 
over by-roads, and having enemies at Langres and Dijon, plunged into 
the heart of one poor district, plunged directly into another equally 
poor, to intercept and finally to destroy an army numerically twice as 
large.” 
When Nos. VII. and II. were thus marching, a desperate combat 
occurred at the Lisaine on the 15th, 16th and 17th December. First 
the French tried by their right between Montbeliard and Héricourt ; 
next they tried by their centre principally at a fortified position in 
front of Héricourt, and finally they tried with their left, when Cremer 
came up. If permitted, I propose to put in an appendix instances 
of the different phases of the fight, such as artillery fire, and the 
way in which the French, issuing from the woods, came under range, 
features of particular combats, and other matters of interest, but I 
am afraid that if I were to read any of these now, Colonel Trench, my 
address would stretch past the legitimate hour. 
Tue Caairman—We shall not object on that score. 
Dr. Macuire—The French failed repeatedly, hour after hour their 
attacks were repulsed easily, except on the German extreme right, which 
indeed was the inner and dangerous flank. That Bourbaki did not 
press them about Frahier from the first is prima facie extraordinary 
but nob so very strange when you remember that the troops were 
without food, or efficient officers, or thorough training, and were 
really no soldiers at all; there were 150,000 of them, what Lord 
Wolseley calls “men with muskets,’—men without boots, with- 
out food, without officers to instruct them, without a staff, without 
everything which is the differentia of an army as compared with a mob. 
But there was no lack of bravery, and there was no lack of endurance. 
On the German side endurance and valour were also displayed ; but the 
German staff was wiser about the comfort of its men. I could have 
gone on reading items about flannels, comforters and mittens sup- 
plied to the soldiers. And the Germans used to withdraw as many 
men as they could back to the rear each day and put them in villages 
and houses to sleep ; whereas the French slept on the ground with the 
thermometer abnormally low, even for a severe winter. The French 
