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| auf Deutsch |
(Click on the images to enlarge.)
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| Morning in our bivouac, at the side of the romantic Kaja village pond. |
At our drill weekend in Kapellendorf, we also learned guard and outpost duties, in Großgörschen we could put them into practice.
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| Impressions from Großgörschen and Kapellendorf. | |||||
Together with the 4e de ligne, the 40e de ligne, the 67e de ligne and the 111e de ligne we formed a common peloton, so that we could act in three ranks during the combats.
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A soldiers' cycle: Confection of cartridges, rest before battle, cleaning of weapons, a decent pipe and a good beer. |
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| Feu de deux rangs. | |||
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All soldiers keep their muskets in the position of "Apprêtez — vos armes". On the command "Commencez — le feu !", the men of the first and second rank in the first file give fire in the same moment. Then the man of the first rank reloads his musket and continues to fire and reload, without paying attention to the other soldiers of his peloton. The man in the second rank exchanges his fired musket with the loaded musket of the man in the third rank (the right hand gives, the left hand takes) and fires again. Then he reloads this musket, fires again, exchanges the musket with the musket reloaded in the meantime by the man of the third rank, fires, loads, fires, exchanges, fires, loads, and so on. The man in the third rank always reloads the musket given to him by the man in the second rank, and then retakes the position of "Apprêtez — vos armes". The following files fire in the same way, as soon as the man in the first rank of their neighbouring file is putting powder on his pan. |
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| A soldier of the Compagnie de Réserve de la Dyle contemplating the canton Léman. |
Originally, we were to reinforce the garrison of the French Fort de Joux, near Pontarlier. Hasty political decisions changed that, but the counter-orders reached only a part of our unit. Thus, three isolated grenadiers arrived at the fort, left without any further instructions or orders. So they decided on their own to explore the trails in the surrounding mountains, just in case one day competent guides would be needed, for conducting a corps of troops sent to assist our neighbouring Helvetian sister republic. At the evening of the first day, they were joined by a soldier of the Compagnie de Réserve de la Dyle, who was also stranded in the commanding nirvana.
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We began the march of the first day in the hamlet Les Hôpitaux-Neufs. After inspecting a redoubt, the construction of which had begun in 1793 and still had not yet been accomplished, we crossed the border of the Helvetian Republic and continued through hills and valleys, meadows and forests. Finally, our path went along the ridge between the summits of Mont d'Or and mount Moron. In the East, we perceived our objective for the next day: mount Le Suchet. |
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In order to warm us up during the cold night with a warm fire, we collected wood in the forest. Straw we received from the Fort de Joux. The next morning we spent with a visit to the fort. After an intensive drill for the two recruits amongst us, in the afternoon we marched from the small hamlet Entre les Fourgs up to the summit of mount Le Suchet. A wonderful view on the canton Léman, with the snow-covered mountains of the Alps at the horizon, rewarded our efforts. |
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| Crossing the Thuringian Forest. |
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Grenadiers Pas Perdu, Belle-Humeur and Sans-Souci at the beginning of the march. We saw future backpacks, a beautiful countryside, enchanted grottos, and met extremely hospitable inhabitants. Our shoes suffered a bit though. |
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Our quarter for the night of 12th October was Leuchtenburg castle. Approaching it, already from the distance we saw its tower on a steep hill. We were provided with wood for a warming fire, and straw for a pillowy rest in a stable. The next day we inspected the castle and enjoyed the sight, but soon had to move on for our next quarter: the equally hospitable Zinsspeicher in Thalbürgel. |
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| The morning after the battle. |
During the weekend, we formed part of the bataillon uni, commanded by Capitaine Caporali. Thanks to his active and resolute leadership during the battle, the opposing Prussian and Saxon troops stood no chance against us.