Between the city limits of Fribourg and the municipality of Villars sur Glâne, opposite the Canton Hospital of Fribourg on the «Plateau de Bertigny», there is a large allotment garden. Well-kept allotments, flower and vegetable beds and garden houses with red gable roofs are arranged according to a clear plot plan, an image of the urban garden culture that can be found throughout Switzerland.
Few garden owners who seek tranquility and a change from everyday life here probably know that 175 years ago cannonballs and musket balls hissed through the air, orders were shouted and marching drums were beaten. Where beans are grown and raspberries grow today, wounded and dead soldiers lie on the ground.
On November 13, 1847, the only and largely forgotten skirmish between Swiss and Freiburg troops during the Sonderbund War took place on the site of today’s allotment: the battle of the field fortifications of St. Jacques near Bertigny.
The canton of Friborg, surrounded by the cantons of Bern and Vaud, was isolated from its allies. When war broke out, the connection to Valais or Central Switzerland was extremely difficult to maintain, and supplies and troop movements were impossible without crossing Bern or Vaud territory. The commander-in-chief of the troops of Friborg, Colonel Philippe de Maillardoz (1783-1853), had to defend the canton with his troops without outside support. According to his own statements, he had 5,115 militiamen and about 7,000 Landsturm men at his disposal.
While the regular militias were well equipped and trained militarily, the Landsturm was an “ad hoc unit” formed in the event of an invasion by all male residents of the canton between the ages of 17 and 65 who were not part of the troops of the canton. dishonorable or sick. These robbers had to provide their own armaments, so simple, often homemade weapons were used. There were no uniforms either, the Freiburger Landstürmer marched out in their everyday clothes. Only a black and white armband identified them as fighters in the canton.
The commander of Freiburg relied on the defense with his limited resources. While the various Landsturm units had to engage the Tagatzung troops approaching from Bern and Vaud in a kind of guerrilla war, De Maillardoz concentrated the regular troops around the city of Freiburg, which was equipped with a belt of field fortifications, trenches and barricades on both sides. sides of the Saane.
West of the Saane, this belt was used by the field fortifications (sconces) Torry, Quintzet and St. Jacques near Bertigny, who had to defend the cantonal roads to the city of Fribourg. However, to avoid bypassing the south of Bertigny via unpaved roads, a grove was named Les Dailettes placed about 200 militiamen and Landsführer. This, according to Maillardoz, was a weakness in the defensive ring and had to be held at all costs.
General Dufour, on the other hand, planned to attack the canton of Fribourg from different sides with about 25,000 men. While one division from the side of Bern was to make a mock attack in the German-speaking district of the canton of Freiburg, another division advanced stealthily from Laupen and Gümmenen across the Saane to Murten and thence to Freiburg.
The main attack on Freiburg, however, fell to the army divisions of Colonel Louis Rilliet-de Constant (1794-1856) (contingents from Vaud, Neuchâtel and Geneva) and Peter Ludwig von Donatz (1782-1849) (contingents from Solothurn and both Basels ), who would attack the city from the west. Dufour’s plan was simple: Freiburg was to be surrounded and forced to surrender with as many troops as possible.
The deployment of the Swiss troops against Freiburg took place from 10 to 13 November 1847. The Rillite Division had advanced to the village of Villars and the main elements were within sight of the Schanze St. Jacques near Bertigny on the afternoon of 13 November.
Since an armistice had already been negotiated on an official level between the Federal General Staff and the Freiburg Government, which was to last until 07:00 on 14 November, an armistice was also agreed between the federal and Freiburg officers in and around the St. Jacques Fortress . So Fribourg and troops from Geneva, Vaud and Neuchâtel faced each other a few hundred yards away and waited to see whether the Fribourg government would decide to fight or to surrender.
Which side began hostilities in the evening and thus began the skirmish at the St. Jacques redoubt is not clear to this day. While liberal-radical reporting and historiography later claimed that the armistice was broken by gunfire from the Freiburg Fortress, the Freiburg side presents the course of events differently.
Around 4 p.m., the crew of the ski jump at Bertigny was suddenly startled by a firefight. From their elevated position, they could see three sniper companies of the Confederate troops approaching the woods Les Dailettes had approached the local Freiburgers and engaged in a firefight. To support their troops stationed in the south, the garrison of the fortress of St. Jacques opened fire with their cannons and muskets on the advancing troops.
A gun battery from the canton of Vaud was quickly moved up the Confederate side to silence the guns of Fort St. Jacques with their cannon fire. However, due to poor visibility due to fog, this unit overshot the redoubt, while the Freiburg artillery fired more accurately at the Swiss artillery. A Swiss artillery corporal was killed when a gunner’s arm was torn off. Eventually the battery had to give up its position.
Meanwhile, Swiss snipers had positioned themselves on the Plateau de Bertigny and fired on the garrison of the fortress. But the fort replied with cannon and musket fire. Brigade commander Colonel Frédéric Veillon (1804-1872) of the Rillite Division decided to storm the fortress of St. Jacques, drew his sword and placed himself at the head of a Vaud battalion. The tambourines drummed up the storm and the battalion, gun in arm, marched at full speed across the plateau to the redoubt.
Under constant fire from Freiburg, the Vaud troops reached the Schanzengraben and began to open fire. As night was already falling, the soldiers hesitated to cross the ditch and climb the ramparts. Suddenly there was unrest among the attacking soldiers. It was shouted: “Mines! They must have mined everything!” or “I don’t want to get blown up!”
Some turned to flee, taking other soldiers with them. The officers unsuccessfully tried to get the fleeing men to attack again, so that the drums sounded a retreat. This attack cost the Vaudois troops a heavy toll in blood: seven dead and 50 wounded.
Despite the short and fierce battle, both sides remained calm through the night of November 14, until the morning of the Freiburg government officially capitulated and ordered its army to lay down its arms.
The idea of the army of Freiburg, the ski jump at Bertigny « St Jacques redoubt » baptism was no accident. At the time when the field fortifications were built to repel the Swiss troops, a stone cross stood on the road to Freiburg about 300 meters southwest of the fortress. This was built in 1771 on the spot where originally a chapel dedicated to Saint Jacob stood.
This Jakobskreuz played an important role during the battle of November 13, 1847. It served the fort garrison and the federal battery as a terrain point to aim their guns accordingly, as it was practically in the center of the line of fire and fog was rising at the time of the conflict. The cross was later moved several times. Today it stands further west of its original location on the edge of a forest and instead of cannonballs, cars hiss on the nearby road past it.
Another contemporary witness to the battle is now in the collection of the Swiss National Museum. It is a mark of arms, made by a Freiburg spitz, a saber made from a scythe. For this, the pliers were straightened, a curved steel band was attached as fist protection and a piece of round wood was attached as a handle. Such an “emergency weapon”, built from agricultural implements, was typical of the armament of the Landsturm, which did not have access to proper military equipment.
What is special here, however, is that the scythe is not attached to a kind of long stick Halbarte or Glaze was reused, as was often the custom, but intended to emulate an infantry saber of the period. The Vaud soldier, who must have found this “scythe” near the woods Les Dailettes as a war trophy, inscribed on the coat of arms with a label on it as follows:
Guerre du Sonderbund 1847
False price on a Landsturm tué sous mes yeux à nos avant-postes devant Friborg
13 9bre
Source: Blick
I am Ross William, a passionate and experienced news writer with more than four years of experience in the writing industry. I have been working as an author for 24 Instant News Reporters covering the Trending section. With a keen eye for detail, I am able to find stories that capture people’s interest and help them stay informed.
