The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-16


$1,000 artillerymen, including marine
gunners and engineers. The garrison
itself consisted of:
First-Two army corps, the Thir-
I tenth Vinoys, the Mezieres Prodigals
and the Fourteenth corps, commanded
by General Ducrot, about $4,000 men il
all, and $50 field pieces. Vinoy's mer
camped on the left bank of the Seine
Ducrot's or the right bank.
Second-One hundred and five thou
sand Mobiles, not only from the de-
partment OF the Seine, but also from
every department of France. They
were distributed between the forts anc
the city.
Third-Seven thousand sailors from
the war ports on the coast, 5000 GUS
toms guards, forest guards, and expo
iiceme2.
Fourth-About so franc tireur corps
more or less unruly and useless, tota
of nearly $1,000 men.
F1fth-A few thousand regular troops
at st. Denis, brave, devoted men.
Sixth-The national guard, 266 battal-
ions Of them, nuisance to everybody
except themselves, partly on account
Of the foolish policy pursued by their
superiors. in keeping them inside the
ramparts, instead of habituating them
to the discipline and severe regime of
active service outside the city, and
partly o. account of the elective ;ys-
TEN common to each battalion. Any
body might believe, after this long
enumeration of defensive works, that
the labor Of Transforming Paris into a
vast fortress was pushed with unex-
ampled, not to say miraculous, speed.
That was not the case, and two gener-
ais of engineers, whose names it is not
necessary to mention. were to blame.
With the German armies within a few
days march from Paris, with two great
redOubts of Chatillon and Montretout
unfinished, these generals did not think
it necessary for the workmen, masons,
stonecutteTs, terrassiers and carpenters
to labor during the night. With energy
and the employment of 10000 or 10 600
workmen. Chatillon and Montretout
could have been saved before the ar
rival of the Germans. More than that,
ramparts that We're criminally neglect
ed-especially the Bas- Meudon gate,
where the moat was scarcely begun,
and not a mire was placed.
Was Moltke badly informed? Was
Bismarck asleep? Where were their
spies? The German army, with a little
audacity, could have made itself mas
ter of Paris during the first days of
Investment How? It would merely
nave DCE-l W mass IdDluly
during the night corps of 10000 reso-
lutte men between SevreS and Bas- Meu-
don. This corps, composed of equal di-
visions of cavalry, artillery and infant
ry, could have been hurled at the Bas-
Meudon gate, where only handful Of
Mobiles stood guard. At the same time
the cavalry. arriving at a gallop, along
the Vanguard and Point de Jour bas-
lions, could have sabred the cannoneers
and national guards on the ramparts.
leaving the artillery to unlimber behind
the Ceinture railroad tracks, and hold
the ground against any attack. Rein
forcements could have arrived from
Sevres and Versailles embarrassed, ex-
cept by the fort of Issy.
1t was too simple, perhaps, for the
great German master of strategy. If,
therefore, the work on the defenses of
Paris attained really splendid results,
the credit was neither due to the two
engineer generals, nor to the apathy of
the Germans; it was due-strange as it
may appear-to Haussmann. Why? Be
cause the work could never have been
accomplished had not the government
been able to summon to its aid the
splendid army of contractors and their
men, schooled, during NJ. Haussmann's
magnificent administration. to under
take and execute vast enterprises of
construction and demolition with in
credible rapidity. How the irony of his
tory repeats itself