January 31st.—Early in the morning of this day the French Colonel Varaigne made his appearance at General von Manteuffel's head-quarters at Villeneuve, with the proposal that a cessation of hostilities for thirty-six hours should be agreed upon, till the existing condition of uncertainty should be removed; but this proposal was refused, as on the German side there were no doubts whatsoever. Permission was granted for the despatch of an application to Versailles, but it was at the same time explained that the movements of the Army of the South would not be suspended pending the arrival of the answer.
On this day, however, the IInd Army Corps marched only to Dompierre on a parallel front with the VIIth, its advanced guard pushing forward on the Drugeon to Ste. Colombe and La Rivière. Thence, in the evening, a company of the Colberg Grenadiers crossed the steep mountain ridge and descended on La Planée, where it took 500 prisoners. A right-flank detachment of two battalions and one battery under Lieutenant-Colonel Liebe marched unopposed up the long pass of Bonnevaux to Vaux, and took prisoners 2 officers and 688 men. The enemy then abandoned the defile of Granges Ste. Marie and retired to St. Antoine in the mountains.
The Corps had found every road strewn with cast-away arms and camp utensils, and had taken in all 4000 prisoners.
Of the VIIth Corps, as soon as the enemy had been informed of the resumption of hostilities, the 14th Division bent leftward on the Drugeon and up to La Vrine, whence a connection was effected with the 4th Reserve Division of the XIVth Corps in St. Gorgon. The 13th Division advanced to Sept Fontaines. Pontarlier was now completely surrounded, and General von Manteuffel fixed February 1st for the general attack thereon. The IInd Corps was to advance from the south-west, the VIIth from the north-west; General von der Goltz was to establish himself in front of Levier in reserve.
Meanwhile the French Commander-in-Chief had conceived doubts whether everything was quite right with the communications from his Government. All the mountain-passes leading to the south were now lost, and an escape in that direction was no longer to be hoped for. General Clinchant had already sent rearward the baggage and ammunition columns, the sick and worn-out men, through La Cluse under shelter of the forts of Joux and Neuv. And when in the afternoon a message from Bordeaux brought the intelligence that in fact the Army of the East had been excluded from the armistice, the Commander-in-Chief summoned his generals to a council of war. Every General present declared that he could no longer answer for his troops. General Clinchant himself therefore went out the same evening to Les Verrières, to conclude negotiations he had already opened, in virtue of which on the following day, February 1st, the army was to cross the Swiss frontier by three roads.
To cover this retreat, the Army Reserve was to hold Pontarlier till all the baggage-trains should have passed La Cluse, while the XVIIIth Corps was to take up a covering position between the two forts. Defensive works there were at once set about. What of the XVth Corps on the way by Morez had failed in getting through with the cavalry was to try to cross into Switzerland at any available point.
February 1st.—When the advanced guard of the IInd Corps now advanced on Pontarlier from Ste. Colombe, it met with but slight resistance at the railway station. The Colberg Grenadiers took possession of the town without a struggle, and captured many prisoners, but then found the road on the further side entirely blocked by guns and waggons. They could pass beyond on either side of the road only with difficulty through deep snow. Just in front of La Cluse the road winds between high rocky precipices into the wide basin of the Doubs, completely commanded by the isolated fortalice of Joux perched on the solid rock. On debouching into the open the foremost companies were received by a hot fire. Four guns, dragged up thither with the greatest exertions, could make no head against the heavy guns of the fort, and the French themselves here passed to the attack.
The Colberg Fusiliers had meanwhile climbed the heights to the left, followed by the 2nd Battalion of the Regiment and a battalion of the 49th Regiment, which drove the French out of the farmsteads on the rifted upland. The steep cliff on the right was also scaled, several rifle sub-divisions of the 49th climbed the acclivity up to La Cluse, and the Colberg Grenadiers advanced to the foot of Fort Neuv.
To take the strong fortalices by storm was obviously impossible, and furthermore because of the nature of the ground the fugitive enemy could scarcely be overtaken in force. Of the French, 23 officers and 1600 men were taken prisoners, with 400 loaded waggons; of the Germans, 19 officers and 365 men had fallen, mostly of the Colberg Regiment. The troops spent the night on the field of the fighting.
As no large force could come into action at La Cluse, General von Fransecky had ordered the main body of the Corps to march further southward to Ste. Marie. To avoid the necessity of crossing the steep chain of the Jura, General von Hartmann first betook himself to Pontarlier to avail himself of the better roads from thence, but his progress was stopped, the fight at La Cluse having assumed unexpected proportions. The VIIth Corps and the 4th Reserve Division, which had reached the Doubs at noon, were equally unable to get at the enemy.