The Advance of the Ist Army in November.
The newly-formed levies in northern France were not remaining inactive. Rouen and Lille were their chief centres. In front of the latter place, the Somme with its fortified passages at Ham, Péronne, Amiens, and Abbeville afforded a line equally advantageous for attacks to the front or for secure retreat. Isolated advances had, indeed, on various occasions, been driven back by detachments of the Army of the Meuse, but these were too weak to rid themselves of the continued molestation by pursuit pushed home.
We have already seen how, after the fall of Metz, the IInd Army marched to the Loire, and the Ist into the northern departments of France.
A large portion of the Ist Army was at first detained on the Moselle by having had to undertake the transport of the numerous prisoners and the observation of the fortresses which interrupted the communications with Germany. The whole VIIth Corps was either in Metz or before Thionville and Montmédy. Of the Ist Corps, the 1st Division was detached to Rethel,[48] the 4th Brigade transported by railway through Soissons to the investment of La Fère, and the 3rd Cavalry Division sent on towards the forest of Argonnes. The remaining five brigades followed with the artillery on the 7th November.[49]
Marching on a wide front, the force reached the Oise between Compiègne and Chauny on the 20th. In front of the right wing the cavalry, supported by a battalion of Jägers, came in contact with Gardes-Mobiles at Ham and Guiscard; in face of the infantry columns the hostile bodies fell back on Amiens. It was learned that 15,000 men were there, and that reinforcements were continually joining.
On the 25th the 3rd Brigade reached Le Quesnel. The 15th Division of the VIIIth Corps advanced beyond Montdidier, and the 16th to Breteuil, whence it established connection with the Saxon detachments about Clermont. On the 26th the right wing closed up to Le Quesnel, the left to Moreuil and Essertaux. The cavalry scouted forward towards the Somme, the right bank of which it found occupied. The enemy's attitude indicated that he was confining himself to the defence of that position. General von Manteuffel thereupon determined to attack, without waiting for the arrival of the 1st Division, the transport of which from Rethel was extraordinarily delayed. His intention, in the first instance, was to utilize the 27th in drawing closer in his forces, which were extended along a front of some nineteen miles. But the battle was unexpectedly fought on that same day.