Order of the Day from Vice-Admiral De La Roncière de Noury
to the Naval Troops sent to help defend Paris
18th August 1870
(Text in English)
The French Navy, in 1870 second to the Royal Navy in terms of the numbers of ships, provided some 57,000 men, many guns and large quantities of other equipment for the ground war in 1870-71. A division of 15,000 naval troops took part in the defence of Paris, both as infantry and manning guns in the Paris forts (the navy supplied 170 guns for the defence of Paris). Other units fought in the field, with the Army of Châlons (naval infantry defended Bazeilles at Sedan) and later with the hastily-raised republican armies, where they provided some of the small numbers of reliable and effective units.
Paris, 18th August
Officers and Men of the Navy!
You have been called to Paris to work with our brothers of the National Guard and the Army in the defence of the capital city. The fatherland is relying on your courage, your devotion and your discipline. You will show that these qualities of the sailor are not less on the floor a bastion than on the deck of a ship. You will be on the walls of Paris what you were in the redoubts of Sebastopol, and if the hour requiring your greatest effort should strike, you will show that you have been rightly called to defend the heart of our dear fatherland.
Vice-Admiral Commanding the Division of Naval Troops detached to Paris
De La Roncière De Noury
Website "The Franco-Prussian War 1870-71"
©Martin Tomczak 2004