The road joins that leading to Neuvilly; cross the bridge over the railway and enter Clermont, coming out at the Place de la Mairie.
Clermont-en-Argonne
The history of this picturesque little town, which was the capital of the old Comté of Clermont, has been a troubled one. In 719, Charles-Martel gave it and its dependencies to the Bishop of Verdun. In 1094 it was taken by an adventurer named Odon, and recaptured from him by the Bishop of Verdun. In 1110, Dudon, Count of Clermont, having insulted the Bishop of Verdun, the town was besieged by the Emperor. In the subsequent struggles between the Bishops of Verdun and the Counts of Bar for the possession of the town, it was several times besieged and burnt. The Counts of Bar, who finally gained the upper hand, on the condition that they would pay homage to the Bishops of Verdun, strongly fortified it. A fortress, added by Henri II., Count of Bar, in the 13th century, was built on the St. Anne Plateau. Letters of enfranchisement were given to the inhabitants of the fortress by Count Tiébault II. in 1246, and to the people of the town by the Duke Henri IV. in 1339. In 1354, Yolande of Flanders, Countess of Longueville, Bar, and Cassel, had a mint at Clermont. In 1539, Clermont became a feudatory state of the Empire. Ceded to France in 1634 by the Treaty of Liverdun (confirmed by the Treaty of the Pyrénees in 1659) it was definitely incorporated in France by the Treaty of Paris on March 29, 1641. In 1648, Louis XIII. settled it on the Great Condé, whose family held it until the Revolution. During the Fronde, Clermont took part in the war of the rebel princes; in 1654, the town was besieged by the royal troops, the siege being conducted by Vauban, who had himself fortified the place in 1652. On November 8, 1654, the Marquis de Riberpray took the fortress and church by assault, and on the 22nd, after a siege lasting one month, the town surrendered. The upper town and the fortress were entirely destroyed, while the peasants of the surrounding district were made to pull down the fortress. Clermont and its dependencies were added to the national domain in 1790. In 1792, Clermont was occupied by the Austrian and Hessian troops under Hohenlohe. On September 11, enemy hussars surprised and captured some French troops near Clermont, who, while foraging, had lost their way in the fog; they also surrounded a company of infantry in the gardens of the town. On September 20, the French, who were holding the pass of Les Islettes, took their revenge on the Hessians. The latter, held up by the fire of the French artillery, were forced to retreat, and the sharpshooters, under Marceau, drove them back to the gardens of Clermont.
CLERMONT-EN-ARGONNE. GENERAL VIEW OF RUINS, SEEN FROM THE TERRACE OF THE CHURCH
In 1914, Clermont was occupied by German troops of the Crown Prince’s Army. The town was almost deserted, with the exception of the old men’s asylum, in which the pensioners remained under the care of Sister Gabrielle. During the night of September 4, the 121st and 122nd Wurtemberg Regiments broke in the doors of the houses with the butt-ends of their rifles and pillaged the town. At the asylum, after smashing the doors, officers entered with revolvers in their hands, but Sister Gabrielle, surrounded by her nuns and the inmates, received the invaders, and by her firm demeanour won their respect. In the rest of the town the pillaging went on throughout the day. About noon 3 German soldier started an incendiary fire; everything was burned or destroyed, with the exception of the asylum, which owed its escape to Sister Gabrielle.
At the Place de la Mairie turn to the right into the Grand Rue.