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The arrival of Bourbaki's army at Les Verrières: The internment of the First French Army in Switzerland on 1 February 1871

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

François Bugnion
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Extract

“The army is ready; not a gaiter button is lacking”, declared Marshal Leboeuf, Napoleon III's Minister of War, when the funds needed for mobilization were being voted.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 36 , Issue 311 , April 1996 , pp. 181 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1996

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References

1 Benaerts, Pierre, Hauser, Henri, L'Huillier, Fernand and Maurain, Jean, Nationalité et nationalisme (1860–1878), new ed., Presses universitaires de France, Paris, 1968, pp. 198–209.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., pp. 209–216.

3 Secretan, Colonel É., L'Armée de l'Est (20 décembre 1870–1er février 1871), 2nd ed., Attinger Frères, Neuchâtel, 1894, pp. 26–48.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., pp. 154–315.

5 Ibid., pp. 345–498.

6 Ibid., pp. 549–550; Documents diplomariques suisses (1848–1945), vol. 2, Berne, 1985, p. 497 Google Scholar; De Clerq, , Recueil des Traités de la France, vol. X, p. 421 Google Scholar; Parry, Clive (ed.), The Consolidated Treaty Series, vol. 142, pp. 475–476.Google Scholar

7 Davall, Major E., Les troupes françaises internées en Suisse à la fin de la guerre franco-allemande en 1871. Rapport rédigé par ordre du Département militaire fédéral sur les documents officiels déposés dans ses archives, Bern, 1873, pp. 42–44.Google Scholar

8 Secretan, É., op. cit., p. 553 Google Scholar. When the campaign started at the end of December 1870, the Army of the East was estimated to number between 120,000 and 140,000 men.

9 Davall, E., op. cit., pp. 50–51, 61–62 and 83–87 Google Scholar; Secretan, É., op. cit., p. 575.Google Scholar

10 Secretan, É., op. cit., p. 579 Google Scholar. When the Army of the East departed from Besançon on 25 January, between 8,000 and 10,000 sick and wounded men were left behind in improvised hospitals and dressing stations (Ibid., p. 474). Davall, Major (op. cit., p. 290)Google Scholar noted that 17,897 internees were treated in makeshift hospitals and dressing stations. However, this number does not include all those who received treatment during the first days of the internment, when no records were kept because of the urgency of the needs to which medical staff had to attend.

11 Documents diplomatiques suisses, vol. 2, pp. 498–526 Google Scholar; Davall, E., op. cit., pp. 215–218 Google Scholar; Secretan, É., op. cit., pp. 576–578.Google Scholar

12 Davall, E., op. cit., p. 263 Google Scholar; Secretan, É., op. cit., pp. 578–579.Google Scholar

13 Davall, E., op. cit., pp. 263 and 291–297 Google Scholar; Secretan, É., op. cit., p. 579.Google Scholar

14 Davall, E., op. cit., pp. 304–311 Google Scholar; Secretan, É., op. cit., p. 579.Google Scholar

15 Other divergences relating to the law of neutrality had appeared at the start of the war, when the Prussians asked for permission to use the Belgian and Luxembourg railways to evacuate men wounded at Metz and Sedan. Conférence internationale de la Paix, La Haye, 18 mai-29 juillet 1899, new ed., Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, 1907, Part III, pp. 87–88.Google Scholar

16 Actes de la Conférence réunie à Bruxelles du 27 juillet au 27 aoflt 1874 pour régler les lois et coutumes de la guerre, in Martens, (ed.), Nouveau Recueil général de Traités, Second Series, vol. IV, pp. 26–27, 90, 162–168, 182–189, 195–197 and 225–226.Google Scholar

17 Articles 57 to 60 of the Regulations annexed to the Convention of 29 July 1899 with respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land, Conférence Internationale de la Paix, La Haye, 18 mai-29 juillet 1899, Part I, pp. 30–31, 46–47, 54–55 and annexes, pp. 27–28; Part III, pp. 22, 37–38, 46–47, 85–88 and 146.

18 Hague Convention V of 18 October 1907.

19 Second International Peace Conference, The Hague, 15 June-18 October 1907, Actes et documents. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, 1907, vol. I, pp. 125, 136–150, 345–346 and 640 Google Scholar; vol. III, pp. 33–40, 51–62, 134, 179–185, 241, 246 and 257–267.

20 Second International Peace Conference, The Hague, 15 June-18 October 1907, Actes et documents, vol. I, p. 640 Google Scholar; Handbook of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, 13th ed., International Committee of the Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 1994, pp. 310–311.Google Scholar

21 Bonjour, Edgar, Histoire de la neutralité suisse, translated by Charles Oser, La Baconnière, Neuchâtel, 1970, vol. VI, pp. 41–95 Google Scholar; Lasserre, André, Frontières el camps. Le refuge en Suisse de 1933 à 1945, Payot, Lausanne, 1995, pp. 150–158.Google Scholar

22 Secretan, É., op. cit., p. 557.Google Scholar

23 Unfortunately, as far as we know there is no general report covering all the activities of the Swiss Red Cross in connection with the arrival of the Army of the East. However, we do have the report of the Neuchâtel branch which, because of its geographical location, was the first to come to the assistance of the internees. This describes the arrangements which were made on an ad hoc basis during the initial passage of the troops and which became increasingly well-organized as the weeks went by: kitchens were set up to provide hot meals for soldiers passing through; the infirmaries were opened to tend the sick and wounded awaiting evacuation to hospital; both the sick and the able-bodied were accommodated in public buildings and private homes; food, clothing, fodder, firewood, etc. were distributed. Société suisse de Secours aux Militaries blessés, Neuchâtel branch, Rapport général, 1 07 1871 Google Scholar, Imprimerie James Attinger, Neuchâtel, 1871.

24 Meyer, André and Horat, Heinz, Bourbaki. Episoden und Erlebnisse aus der Internierungszeit der Bourbaki-Armee 1871, Edition Erpf, Bern, 1981.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., pp. 15–16. The panorama was a mode of artistic expression which enjoyed a great vogue during the second half of the 19th century. It consisted of a circular building in the form of a rotunda, the inside wall of which was covered by a circular canvas depicting a landscape or some great historical event and designed to create an illusion of depth. The floor and ceiling were similarly decorated so that the visitor, entering the panorama by an underground passage and a spiral staircase giving access to an elevated platform in the centre of the rotunda, felt himself suddenly transported into the middle of the scene depicted. Many Western European cities had their own panoramas and the companies which operated them would circulate the canvases from one town to another. This mode of expression foreshadowed the cinema, the medium which eventually supplanted it. A few of the rotundas have survived and been converted into theatres, a good example being the “Rotonde des Champs-Elysées”. To the best of our knowledge, the only panorama which has remained continuously on show since its creation is that of Les Verrières in Lucerne. According to contemporary accounts, it was also the finest of them all.

26 Ibid., p. 53. Édouard Castres came to prominence in 1872 with the exhibition of his painting L'ambulance dans la neige. This work, one of the first depicting a Red Cross mobile field hospital, won a gold medal and critical acclaim.

27 Journal de Genève, 28 09 1881.Google Scholar

28 Kämpfen-Klapproth, Brigit, Das Bourbaki-Panorama von Édouard Castres, 2nd ed., Éditions de la Ville de Lucerne, Lucerne, 1983, pp. 39–47.Google Scholar