On 9 January 1871 General August von Werder's German corps attacked the French Army of the East under General Charles Bourbaki at Villersexel, in eastern France. The Germans had to give up the town, and the French counted it a success, but the fight delayed Bourbaki's march to relieve the besieged fortress of Belfort.
Bourbaki's march east
By the winter of 1870 the Franco-Prussian War was going badly for France. The emperor's army had surrendered at Sedan, and Paris was under siege. In the east the fortress of Belfort, besieged by the Germans since early November, was still holding out.1
The government sent a new army, the Army of the East under General Charles Bourbaki, to relieve Belfort and then to strike at the German lines of communication. Friedrich Engels, who followed the war as a military commentator for the London <cite>Pall Mall Gazette</cite>, called the move the most promising any French general had made in the war, provided it was carried out with full force. Facing Bourbaki was General August von Werder's XIV Corps.2
The fight at Villersexel
Werder chose to attack the French flank at Villersexel rather than simply race them to Belfort, and on 9 January his troops went in. By the end of the day the Germans had to give up the positions they had taken in the town, and the French counted the fight a success.3
Accounts of what it meant differ. Engels, writing on 14 January, noted that both sides claimed the victory and judged it a rearguard action that let Werder get his troops away. A history of Garibaldi's campaign published by the Italian Ministry of Defense argues that Werder got exactly what he wanted, because the fight stopped Bourbaki for several days. The French engineers' museum makes the same point: the Army of the East moved so slowly that the Germans had time to build a strong defensive line on the Lisaine River, between Bourbaki and Belfort.4
We found no casualty figures for the battle in two independent sources, so none are given here.
The Lisaine and the retreat
In mid-January the Army of the East attacked Werder's line on the Lisaine. After three days of fighting it had to break off, and Belfort was not relieved. As a German army under General Edwin von Manteuffel came up on its flank, the demoralized French army fell back and was pushed toward the Swiss border.5
In the despair of the retreat Bourbaki tried to shoot himself, and command passed to General Justin Clinchant. Rather than let his army go into German captivity, Clinchant asked Switzerland to intern it.6
Internment in Switzerland
From 1 to 3 February 1871 about 87,000 French soldiers crossed into Switzerland at Les Verrières and other points in the Jura, and laid down their arms. The Swiss spread them across the country and gave them food, shelter and medical care.7
The crossing is still remembered in Lucerne, where a panorama painting of it by Edouard Castres, finished in 1881, is on display.8
