mber 30-December 2) culminated in the terrible fight and
repulse of Villiers and Champigny. In the north, a small army hastily
brought together under temporary command of General Favre was defeated
at Villers-Bretonneux and Amiens (November 27).

The last phase of the Franco-Prussian War begins with the crushing of
the Army of the Loire and the check of the advance to Champigny. With
unwearied tenacity Gambetta tried to reorganize the Army of the Loire. A
portion became the second Army of the Loire or of the West, under
Chanzy. The rest, under Bourbaki, became the Army of the East. Faidherbe
tried to revive the Army of the North.

To Chanzy, on the whole the most capable French general of the war, was
assigned the task of trying, with a smaller force, what d'Aurelle had
already failed in accomplishing, a drive on Paris. In this task Bourbaki
and Faidherbe were expected by Gambetta to cooperate. Instead of
succeeding, Chanzy, bravely fighting, was driven back, first down the
Loire, in the long-contested battle of Josnes (Villorceau or Beaugency)
(December 7-10), then up the valley of the tributary Loir to Vendome
and Le Mans. There the army, reduced almost to a mob, made a new stand.
In a battle between January 10 and 12, this army was again routed and
what was left thrown back to Laval.

Faidherbe, taking the offensive in the north, fought an indecisive
contest at Pont-Noyelles (December 23) and took Bapaume (January 3). But
his endeavor to proceed to the assistance of Paris was frustrated, he
was unable to relieve Peronne, which fell on January 9, and was defeated
at Saint-Quentin on January 19.

Bourbaki, in spite of his reputation, showed himself inferior to Chanzy
and Faidherbe. He let his army lose morale by his hesitation, and then
accepted with satisfaction Freycinet's plan to move east upon Germany
instead of to the rescue of Paris. On the eastern frontier Colonel
Denfert-Rochereau was tenaciously holding Belfort, which was never
captured by the Germans during the whole war.[2] Bourbaki's
dishearteningly slow progress received no effective assistance from
Garibaldi. This Italian soldier of fortune, now somewhat in his
decline, had offered his services to France and was in command of a
small body of guerillas and sharpshooters, the Army of the Vosges. With
alternate periods of inactivity, failure, and success, Garibaldi perhaps
did more harm than good to France. He monopolized the services of
several thousand