Remembrance Trail – Battle of Loigny, 2 December 1870

On 19 July 1870, the French Empire of Napoleon III declared war on Chancellor Bismarck’s Prussia. Within six weeks, the French imperial army had been overwhelmed and Napoleon III taken prisoner at the Battle of Sedan (2 September 1870). The Third Republic was proclaimed and endorsed the continuation of the war. Soon, Paris was besieged by the Prussians. In the provinces, relief armies were formed to liberate the capital. On 2 December 1870, the French army encountered Prussian and Bavarian troops on the Paris road, near the village of Loigny.

The battle went down in history due to the heroism of a small group of soldiers commanded by General de Sonis and General de Charette. On the evening of the battle, to save the French army from being surrounded, the two officers led 800 men (300 of them Papal Zouaves) in a charge on a small wood where several thousand Prussians were entrenched. Bearing the banner of the Sacred Heart, General de Sonis’s men showed heroic and mystical courage
The enemy troops briefly withdrew, before reorganising and taking the initiative once more. The French retreated; the village and the battle of Loigny had been lost, but the sacrifice of a handful of men enabled the French army to withdraw and continue fighting.

In memory of this battle, many funerary and commemorative monuments were erected. Since 2007, there have been information panels to explain each monument and an orientation table to show the position of the troops and how the battle unfolded.
Since the museum reopened, a map of the battlefield showing the different monuments has been available free of charge from reception.

As of 2019, the remembrance trail partly overlaps with a virtual reality tour of the battlefield.