Two kilometres beyond Chevières the road crosses the railway (l.c.) and runs into the Senuc road. Turn to the right and cross the Aire. Grandpré, a pretty little town, many of whose houses have been destroyed, is next reached (2 km. 900 from Chevières).
B. CO. OF 303RD ENGINEERS (78TH INF. DIV.) BUILDING BRIDGE OVER THE AIRE, DESTROYED THREE TIMES BY ENEMY ARTILLERY FIRE. At back: GRANDPRÉ.
Grandpré
Grandpré lies at the eastern end of the pass formed by the Valley of the Aire, which cuts deeply into the Argonne. The town is very old. To the south, on the Nègremont Mountain, there are traces of a camp which is supposed to be Roman. Attila, after his defeat in the Champs Catalauniques, also camped there, and long after him, Dumouriez. The village was possibly founded or extended by a follower of Clovis, who built a château there, but of which nothing now remains. Grandpré was pillaged in 884, by the Normans; during the Hundred Years’ War, by the English; and, under the League, by the rival troops of the Marshal of St. Paul, Mayenne, and Henri IV. The latter stayed there in 1591. His letter of October 3, 1591, in which he relates the events of the preceding days, was dated from Grandpré. During the Fronde the country was again ravaged, and at a later date, pillaged by the Dutchman Growenstein.
In 1792, Dumouriez had his headquarters at Grandpré, and after the battles of Croix-aux-Bois and Montcheutin, the headquarters of the King of Prussia were transferred there. In October of the same year, during the Prussian defeat, Grandpré was crowded with enemy sick, struck down by dysentery.