Mémorial des chasseurs d'Afrique

The Prussian and Bavarian artillery, more numerous and more effective, quickly neutralized the French artillery, then, with its terribly effective fire, massacred with impunity our magnificent regiments of Chasseurs d?Afrique, Hussards, Cuirassiers... General Margueritte?s cavalrymen could only charge for honor in a desperate situation, but their heroic charges were the last and most pathetic in the history of French cavalry. The Memorial and the steles of the twelve regiments of the Chasseurs d?Afrique that line the right and left of the central monument are indeed dedicated to the memory of the Chasseurs d?Afrique, but this monument, by the sculptor Emile Guillaume, bears across its entire width the large inscription "In honor of the French cavalry", which leaves no doubt as to the national importance of this high place. It is also known as "les braves gens", a reminder that King William I of Prussia, in admiration of this heroism, could not help exclaiming "Ah, les Braves Gens", as he followed the battle through binoculars from the Chemin des Romains in Frénois. At the foot of the monument, in 1950, the bodies of Lieutenant-Colonel de Liniers, who commanded the 3rd Regiment of Chasseurs d?Afrique, and those of some 150 officers and cavalrymen who fell during the charges, were grouped together under a large slab. They had previously been buried at the foot of Sedan?s oldest oak tree, surrounded by an enclosure that remains a place of remembrance and contemplation to this day, at a place known as "Fond de Cazal".

DATAtourisme France