1870
IN THE ORSINI CAFE--GREAT NEWS FROM FRANCE--WHAT THE EXILES
THINK--LETTER FROM GENERAL SHERMAN--I GET PERMISSION TO GO
AND LOOK AT THE WAR--IN THE SNOW OF THE JURAS--ARRESTED--
THE SURRENDER OF THE 80,000--ZURICH IN THE HANDS OF A MOB--A
FRIENDLY HINT.
_August 15, 1870._--At six in the evening of this day I was sitting
with these other friends in the little corner of the Orsini, when a boy
called out:
“Great news from France!”
Yesterday (August 14, 1870) was a day to be forever remembered in
history, the day that was to begin the foundation of the German Empire.
Louis Napoleon had declared war against Prussia. The news came into
our little corner of the Orsini like a clap of thunder--but the exiles
around that table went right on drinking beer. Pretty soon, grave
Johannes Scherr, the historian, spoke: “It is good-by to Napoleon’s
crown, that.” “They don’t know Bismarck in Paris yet,” said Beust.
Beust did not like Bismarck very much either. “And what can we do?”
said another. “Nothing,” replied Brentano. “Look on. We are exiles.”
They all loved Germany.
Twenty years they had been waiting in Switzerland, to see what would
happen. A new war tocsin was now really sounding. One empire was
dying--great, new Germany was about at its birth. Almost that very
night the strongest-souled, most dangerous man in modern times was
playing his cards for empire. Even then, in a little German town,
Bismarck was manipulating telegrams, deceiving the people, “firing the
German heart,” deceiving his own Emperor, even. That was diplomacy. A
hundred thousand men were about to die! What of it? Get ready, said
the man of blood, dig their graves. The hour for Prussian vengeance on
the name of Napoleon had arrived. “We are ready for war, to the last
shoe-buckle,” wrote the French war minister to Louis Napoleon. Bismarck
knew that to be a lie. His spies and ambassadors in Paris had not spent
their time simply sipping wine on the boulevards. They had been seeing
things, and he knew ten times more about the shoe-buckles of the French
army than the French themselves did.
The next morning (August 16) things sounded strange enough to American
ears in Zurich. A trumpeter rode through every street, blowing his
bugle blasts between his cries for every German in Zurich to go home
and fight for fatherland. But the exiles were not included and the
little meetings in the Orsini went on. Then came a note from Napoleon
to the Swiss government: “Can you defend your neutrality?” If not,
he would instantly surprise Bismarck and Von Moltke by overrunning
Switzerland and suddenly pour his armies all over South Germany. Then
the Rhine would be behind him, not in front.
Switzerland saw her own danger. Permit this once, and her name would be
wiped from the map of Europe. She knew that. A few days’ hesitancy and,
for her, all would have been lost. That night at midnight the Swiss
drums beat in every valley of the Alps. Twenty-three thousand men,
with a hundred cannon, were thrown into the fastnesses and passes of
the Jura Mountains, on the French frontier, inside of three days. That
was the answer to Napoleon’s note, and it changed the destinies of the
war. That prompt deed of the Swiss _made the German Empire_. Had the
French army got possession of the Alpine passes once, and the Rhine,
they would have taken Berlin. The backbone of the German minister at
London was what brought on the war at last. England had proposed to
join France in requesting the King of Prussia to promise that no German
prince should aspire to the Spanish throne. The German minister at St.
James indignantly declined to even report the British suggestion to
his government. Had he reported England’s wishes, Bismarck, possibly,
fearing two against him now instead of one, would have given that one
little promise, and then the war would not have taken place.
The Americans had the war news by cable almost as soon as the Swiss,
who were in sound of the guns.
Shortly I received a little note from General Sherman:
“WASHINGTON, D. C., Aug. 19, 1870.
“DEAR BYERS: Consul H. did not hand me your letter of May 1 st
until to-day, else it should have been answered earlier. I was
very glad to see that your health was improved by the change of
climate and country, and that you had entered on your new career
with zeal and interest. So interesting a country as Switzerland,
topographically and historically, cannot but prove of inestimable
value to you, in whatever after career you may engage, and I feel
certain that you will profit by the opportunity.
“At this moment we are all on tiptoe of expectation to hear of
the first events of the war begun between France and Prussia.
The cause assigned for this war seems to us in this distance so
trivial that we take it to be a mere pretext, and that the real
cause must lie in the deeper feelings of the two countries. You
are so near and so deeply concerned in the lines of traffic that
must cross the paths of the contending armies that you cannot
escape the consequences. Many Americans will go abroad to see
these armies, and as much of the war as will be permitted them,
and it may be that you will see at Zurich some of our soldiers.
General Sheridan proposes to start at once, and one of my aids,
Colonel Audenreid, begs to go along. If Sheridan wishes it I will
let Audenreid go, and I will remind him that you are at Zurich,
and he may drop in on you, and you can talk over events. You will
remember him as one of my aids at Columbia, S. C.
“Always wishing you honor and success, I am truly your friend,
W. T. SHERMAN.”
With almost unbroken success for the Prussians, the dreadful war went
on all that autumn. The Swiss were neutral and their sympathies were
divided, or, if one-sided, they were with the Germans; at least, until
that terrible Sedan day, when the Emperor himself fell a prisoner. Then
Bismarck wanted more. It was Paris, and French humiliation, he wanted.
He had tasted blood, and was he never to have enough? The war went on
into the cold and storm of winter. Troops were nearly freezing to death
in both armies in the east of France, and half the Swiss people were
changing their minds. France was down, and Bismarck must not play the
monster.
_December, 1870._--I had been a soldier four years in our own great
war, and was anxious to see European armies on a battlefield. The
commander of the Swiss troops gave me a letter to the leader of the
German army next the frontier, and got me passes. It was midwinter,
and fearfully cold, and the snow was two feet to three feet deep when
I went into the camp of the Swiss, away up in the Jura Mountains. None
but well-clad, well-fed men could stand guarding the passes in such
weather. What must the French army be doing, not far away, in their
worn-out shoes and ragged overcoats? The German army lay not far from
Montbeliard, when one cold evening I passed the frontier, and on foot,
in the snow, wended my way to a deserted French hamlet. The village
just beyond was occupied by a squadron of German Uhlans. Now all was
new to me. Not far away that evening I heard the constant thundering
of the cannon at Belfort. At the place where I stayed, an attack
by the French could be expected any moment in the night. Shortly I
saw captains of Uhlans ride to every house in the village and put a
chalk-mark on the door, designating what companies were to take it for
quarters. There was no room left anywhere, and one could freeze out of
doors, unless hugging a camp-fire. An officer of Uhlans took me in and
shared his bed on the floor of a cabin. We had a cup of coffee, a glass
of brandy and some rations. Nobody knew that night what would happen
out in the snow before morning. Next day I could get no horse; but if
I could get to General Manteuffel at the next village, I would be all
right. On I trudged afoot, but the advanced pickets outside the village
could not read my French papers. They fearing me to be a French spy, I
was arrested and jogged about very unceremoniously. The General was out
somewhere with the troops, and it was hours before I was released. All
this time I was kept in a little café that was full of Uhlans carousing
and drinking, and acting as if they would like to make short work of
me. On the General’s return, I was marched up to headquarters, followed
by a number of idle soldiers, who anticipated a drumhead court-martial
and a little shooting. Of course, I was promptly released with an
apology. But there I was, on foot, in the snow, and not a horse to
be had, had the King himself wanted it; for the French army, 80,000
strong, was making for a battle, or else for the Swiss frontier. It was
the frontier. That very night, Bourbaki, the French commander, shot
himself, and the whole army, 80,000 strong, tumbled, pell-mell, into
Switzerland, and surrendered. That was January 31st.
It was a sad-looking army that gave itself up to Switzerland. Their red
trousers were worn, dirty and black, their shoes were almost gone. Some
wore wooden sabots, some had their feet wrapped in rags. Their faces
and hands were black as Africans’, from close huddling over scanty
camp-fires, to keep from freezing. All were discouraged, disgraced,
many boiling over with wrath at their incompetent leaders. And these
leaders, hundreds of them, were followed by courtesans of Paris, in
closed carriages. That was a spectacle for the gods; this host of
poor, ragged, freezing privates, wading through the snow of the Alps,
followed by a procession of gilded carriages, filled with debauched
women, drunken officers and costly wines.
The surrender there in the snow included the whole army of 80,000 men,
284 cannon, 11,000 horses and 8,000 officers’ swords.
In a week’s time the Swiss had this great army of Frenchmen quartered
at the different cities. Zurich had 11,000 of them. They were a happy
lot of men, to be out of a dreadful war, and in the hands of a people
who bestowed on them every kindness. Many never left Switzerland, but
settled among their sympathizers and benefactors for the remainder of
their lives.
The war went on. Paris, for months, lay besieged and starving. Then the
end came.
[Illustration: Tower in Old Zurich.]
At Zurich, the friends of Germany now undertook to celebrate the close
of hostilities. Speeches and a banquet were to be had one night at the
great Music Hall on the lake. Some consuls were invited to take a part,
myself among the number. I was to be asked to send a telegram to our
President. At four o’clock of the afternoon a man called at my office
and whispered in my ear, “Stay away from that banquet; something is
to happen.” I remained at home. That night, just as the toast to the
new German Emperor was being read, and at a preconcerted signal, every
window in the vast hall was smashed in. Stones and clubs were hurled
at the banqueters. A large and excited mob of French sympathizers and
French prisoners, with side-arms, surrounded the building. Many dashed
into the galleries, waved French flags, struck people down with sabers
and fired revolvers. The banqueters were in terror till, led by the
courageous among them, they broke their five hundred chairs into
clubs and drove the rioters from the hall. A few had been killed, a
number injured. All the night the mob stayed outside and howled. The
police fled for their lives. The militia, called out, stood in line,
but when the order to fire on the mob was given, threw down their arms.
Inside the hall, the banqueters stood with clubs in their hands till
the grey of morning, waiting the attack. The women, alarmed and
terrified, were hidden under the tables, or in corners.
Zurich seemed in the throes of a revolution. The bad elements of every
kind joined in the mob, and the Socialists and Anarchists cried out:
“This is the people, striking for their rights.”
Ten thousand troops were hurried into Zurich from other cantons. Cannon
bristled at the street corners, and placards warned the people to stay
in their houses. A battery was posted in the street in front of our
door. Climbing up on to the terrace by the minster, I saw a terrible
mob below, and watched a cavalry squadron ride through it with drawn
sabers. The mob gave way, and the alarm was at an end. Murders had
been committed, and many men were arrested and punished. The man who
had kindly whispered to me to keep away from the banquet, fled. He was
afterward condemned, and is to this day a fugitive in England.