page_title: Bazeilles
section_title: Franco-Prussian War
hierarchical_section_title: Bazeilles / History / Franco-Prussian War
caption_attribution_description: Photogravure of Bazeilles (1870), by François Lafon.
context_page_description: Bazeilles is a commune in the Ardennes department in the Grand Est region of northern France. On 1 January 2017, the former communes of Rubécourt-et-Lamécourt and Villers-Cernay were merged into Bazeilles.
  The inhabitants of the commune are known as Bazeillais or Bazeillaises.
  The commune has been awarded three flowers by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom.
context_section_description: Related article: Battle of Sedan.
  During the Battle of Bazeilles on 1 September 1870 the commune was the scene of intense fighting between units of French marines and Bavarian regiments. Under the command of Commander Lambert and Captains Aubert, Bourgey, Delaury, Picard and the Blue Division, in the Bourgerie Inn, a few hundred men and officers resisted until their ammunition was completely exhausted. This moment of history was illustrated by the famous painting by Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville painted in 1873: The last cartridges and conserved in Bazeilles in the House of the last cartridge.
  During the battle, French civilians actively participated by firing on Bavarian troops and tending to the wounded. Angered by the casualties the civilians inflicted, the Bavarian soldiers killed many of them, setting fire to houses from which the shots were fired. By midday, the whole village was on fire. Captured Franc-tireur partisans, along with other civilians who were considered unlawful combatants, were later executed. Although French propaganda showed massacres of men, women and children, an official French investigation found that only 39 civilians from Bazeilles died. An additional 150 people (10% of the village population) died from injuries in the subsequent months.
  Bazeilles was awarded the Legion of Honour on 9 October 1900.
  Bazeilles is one of the communes where is the action of the novel "La débâcle" by Emile Zola is set.
caption: Photogravure of Bazeilles (1870) by François Lafon
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