de la Tour D’auvergne to the minister of France at Washington, August 31, 1870
The minister of foreign affairs to the minister of France at Washington.
Sir: In a telegram addressed to Count Bernstorff, to be communicated to us through the agency of the minister of the United States at Paris, Count Bismarck makes known the treatment which Prussia intends to reserve for our independent marksmen. He declares that only men who can be recognized within gunshot, as soldiers, shall be considered and treated as such. He adds that the blue blouse is the national costume; that the red cross on the arm can only be discerned at a short distance, and may be removed or replaced at any moment, so that it becomes impossible for the Prussian troops to distinguish the persons from whom they have to expect acts of hostility and on whom they ought to fire. He announces, in consequence, that all those who, not being on all occasions and at a proper distance recognizable as soldiers, may kill or wound any Prussians, shall be tried by court-martial.
I have transmitted this communication to the minister of war. The following is his reply:
The national garde mobile and the independent marksmen, who are assimilated thereto by their organization, or who have been formed by regular authority, represent a force constituted by French law. Their costume has been defined, and the blue blouse with red ornaments of the men of the national garde mobile, who also wear the military cap, cannot be confounded, in good faith, with the garb of the peasants of France. The minister of war does not, therefore, hesitate to declare that if Prussia treats such troops as not belonging to the army, the French corps commanders will retaliate upon the men of the landwehr and of the landsturm, who represent the same forces in Germany.
I beg you, sir, to bring this declaration to the notice of the government to which you are accredited, and I do not doubt that it will share the impression made upon us by the proceeding in question, as likewise by the painful necessity under which it places us.
Receive, &c.