How can one lack strength, replied the young hero,
when one may usefully serve one's country?
Unlike other child heroes of the First Republic, the drummer boy Pierre Bayle had to wait over two hundred years to be remembered. It was only in 2006 that he was formally recognised as "the youngest combatant to die in battle since the formation of the French Republic" (a sad epithet that...).
The case provides an interesting insight into the dynamics of commemoration in modern France.
A Short life
Bayle's birthplace, the Commune of Tourreilles, is a tiny, isolated village seven miles south-west of Limoux in the department of Aube in the historic province of Roussillon, close to the Spanish border. In the late 18th century the population was around 300, which is possibly slightly more than live there today.
Pierre Jacques Bayle ("Baïlé" in Occitan) was born on 2nd February 1783 and baptised in the little parish church. His parents were Jean-Baptiste Bayle and Marguerite ["Touffine" or "Mansou"]. Both belonged to long-established local families. They were poor. The father's occupation at the time of his son's birth was given as "brassier", labourer, that is to say he scratched a living by casual agricultural work in the surrounding fields and vineyards
Pierre had a brother, Guilhaume, who was six years older. There were also two children who died in infancy and later a younger sister.
The modest family home, now marked with a gold plaque, is in the heart of the village, in one of the narrow alle
ys [les "carrierous"] behind the Church, where once the wine harvest was stored for safety.
The local "Chemin du Petit Tambour" website informs us that, since the 13th century, Tourreilles had been directly administered by the Crown, then in 1696 the seigneurie had been sold to the family Lombard de la Digne d'Aval. A château had been built in the village on the site of an ancient tower. Shortly before the Revolution, in 1780, the inhabitants had successfully taken their lord to court over his "feudal" exactions and obtained a royal decision depriving him of his jurisdiction. The village then passed to the fiscal and administrative control of the Diocese of Narbonne until 1789. It is tempting to interpret see the villagers' action against their lord as a sign of local radicalism but there is no direct evidence for their response to the Revolution. However, in 1792 their parish priest Guillaume Pages took the oath to the Constitutional church.
In March-April 1793, with Spanish troops massing on the frontier, the region answered the Levée en masse. The 8th Battalion of the Department of Aude was formed in Limoux on 13th April 1793, with 563 volunteers. We learn that Tourreilles, with 250 inhabitants, was required to furnish five men. Jean-Baptiste Bayle, a veteran of 42, and his son Guilhaume, aged 16, both of whom had already served for over a year in Savoy, re-enlisted. This time, his wife followed, along with her second son Pierre, aged 10 years and 2 months, who was enrolled as an élève-tambour.
The Registre matricule of the 8th Battalion, lists:
Baptiste Bayle, born 27th February 1751, Sergeant, then, from 2nd January 1794, sub-lieutenant; Previously served thirteen months in the 1st Battalion of the same department.
Guilhaume Bayle, born 1777, tambour-corporal
Pierre Bayle, son of Baptiste Bayle and Marguerite Manso[n], élève-tambour in the 5th Company. His height in given as 4 feet.
Bayle's mother is also listed, as vivandière-blanchisseuse.
It should be emphasised that little Pierre, No.395 on the register, was a formal member of the Battalion and presumably drew a small wage. Since 1766 provision had existed for two boys, generally the sons of soldiers or petty officers, to be admitted to each Company, often as apprentice drummers; under the Empire this arrangement was to be further formalised into the system of enfants de troupe. Pierre doubtless served alongside his older brother, who was drum-corporal in the Battalion.
In all probability it was not so very unusual for whole families to take to the road with the army in this way. Military life, however harsh, represented an assured subsistence and a respite from rural poverty.
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| Battle of Le Boulou, Historic circuit 2. Information panel by Amédine Mas |
On 15th April the Division of the Aude, including the Brigade de Limoux, formed from the 2nd, 4th and 8th Battalions of volunteers, left to join the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees near the fortress of Salses, a march of four days. Only two days later, on 17th April, a Spanish army commanded by General Ricardos, invaded Roussillon.
By this point, we lose all record the little drummer boy, and can only imagine his life as it played out in the wider theatre of the war in the Pyrenees.
Ill equipped, badly trained and decimated by typhus, the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees contained the Spanish advance with difficulty. Many local inhabitants welcomed the Spaniards, who dreamed of reconquering Catalan territories lost to Louis XIV. The first engagements in which the 8th were involved were indecisive and bloody. The Spanish were forced back to the Tech River at the Battle of Peyrestortes on 17th September but on 22nd September the French suffered defeat at Trouillas in an engagement which left 3,000 men dead on the field. Further encounters on the Pla del Rey confirmed the stalemate by the end of 1793.
The arrival of General Dugommier in March 1794 heralded a new offensive. At this point Bayle and his compatriots were integrated into the Division of General Augereau, where they formed part of the famous infantry brigade led by General Jean Guieu. In April 1794 they were stationed at Oms. The Brigade participated in a successful attack on the bridge at Céret then, on 1st May 1794, took part in the decisive defeat of the Spanish at the Battle of Le Boulou, one of the victories commemorated on the Arc de Triomphe.
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| Jacques Gamelin, View of the Battle of Le Boulou , Musée des Beaux-Arts de Béziers [Wikimedia] |
Augereau's troops now began an arduous advance up the valley of the Tech into Catalonia. The going was tough. They retook Saint-Laurent de Cerdans and crossed the Pyrénées at the Coustouges pass, taking with them their horses, cannons and baggage. There were further engagements at Coustouges and San-Lorenzo-de-la-Muga. Finally, on 17th-20th November 1794, the Spanish were defeated at the Battle of Mont-roig, a victory which paved the way for the capture of Figueras and the successful Seige of Rosas.
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| Ruined fortifications at Mont-roig |
Little Pierre Bayle did not live to see this triumph, but was killed in a preliminary action. Augereau had established his command post on the outskirts of the village of Biure to the west of Figueras, adjacent to the slopes of Mont-roig. On the night of 31st October to 1st November 1794, Bayle, as drummer at one of the advanced posts, was required to beat the diane (that is the reveille) to mask the noise made by the movement forward of the French artillery. The Spanish suspected such a manoeuvre and pounded the position. At daybreak Pierre Bayle was killed by a cannon shell. He was aged eleven years and 9 months.
The incident is recorded in two letters addressed by General Dugommier to the Committee of Public Safety. In the first, dated Dugommier reports the success of the action, which had resulted in few casualties - six men with minor wounds, "and a young Drummer, aged ten, killed by a cannon shell." The second letter, dated 20 Brumaire II (10th November) is entirely devoted to the dead boy:
"This young Republican, named Pierre Bayle, drummer in the 8th Battalion of the Aude, was with the guard at one of our advanced posts. In spite of his feeble age, he beat the Diane with tremendous effort, to mask the movement of our artillery. He did as he had said the day before to the General of the Post:
Do you have enough strength, this latter asked, to beat the Diane and prevent the enemy hearing our light artillery? How can one lack strength, replied the young hero, when one may usefully serve one's country?
So it was that young Bayle, at age eleven, a worthy imitator of Bara, already appreciated how sweet it is to have a Fatherland, to live and to die for it. It should be added to the glory of this child, that he had a family of little means which since the Revolution has entirely devoted itself to the service of the country. His father, aged 45 and his elder brother, aged 17, both took part in the first campaign in Savoy and now serve in the 8th Battalion of the Aude...and the mother has tirelessly served the corps as a laundress.
All these circumstances, which earn the Bayle family the right to national recognition, deserve to be publicised. They will teach posterity the virtues which Love of Liberty instils in all hearts, especially those of the poor.
This letter, written as it was six days before Dugommier's own death in battle, was destined to remain forgotten in the archives until the 20th century.
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Dugommier's letter of 20 Brumaire
Armée des Pyrenée orientales. Correspondance du général en chef Dugommier, SHD Vincennes.
[Reproduced on the AET, Herault website] |
Comparison can be made with General Desmarres's sponsorship of Joseph Bara. There is no suggestion that Dugommier had ulterior motives, but nonetheless his letter belongs to a particular point in time. At this juncture, the Republican government sought actively to publicise acts of heroism. The Recueil des actions heroiques, published Feb-Aug 1794, was to become the most widely disseminated work of the age, whilst on 28th April, on the proposition of Barère, the Convention decreed the erection of a marble column in the Pantheon, on which the names of Republican heroes were to be inscribed. This hunger for heroism communicated itself to the Front. Among the papers of the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees is an order of the day, dated 13 Ventôse, (3rd Mars 1794) which required each battalion to forward examples of courage, republicanism and humanity from the ranks. Dugommier, on 11 Messidor (29th June), had already reported the bravery of a group of soldiers who had spontaneously fashioned makeshift soles for their shoes in order to run to attack the enemy. Now he took the opportunity to single out the dead drummer boy as the worthy subject for a patriotic set piece.
See, Captain V. Fanet, Carnet de Sabretache, 1902, p. 606-8.
Pierre Bayle - modern memory
1911 - a first statue
Dugommier's letter was published for the first time in 1902, in the article cited above. The editor contacted the mayor of Tourreilles for further information, but he reported that nothing was known about Bayle in the village. However, the deputy for the department of the Aude, Étienne Dujardin-Beaumetz, agreed that some form of commemoration was in order. In a first abortive initiative, a statue was commissioned for Tourreilles but the mayor refused it on the pretext that there was no money for a plinth. Instead the statue was erected in Limoux to mark the inauguration of the Lycée Jacques Ruffié in 1911. It stood on the former parade ground in front of the school (now Esplanade François Mitterrand). We learn that the statue was renovated in 1999 and it is still marked in situ on the current tourist guide to the town, although it no longer seems to be there on Google maps. It is described as a "very fine bust of bronze".
1979 onwards - Modern revivals
It was to be another sixty years before Bayle's story attracted sustained interest. In 1979 an account of his life was published in a regional cultural review La Beluga de Limós. Also in 1979, a second statue, by a local artist Vincent Perez, was commissioned by the departmental council for the main square in Tourreilles and inaugurated in the presence of the mayor Mr François Alazet.
Finally, in the 1990s a new initiative was launched under the aegis of the Association des Anciens Enfants de Troupe (AET), an organisation of former pupils of military schools. We are told that in 1993 one of its members, Pierre Pilissier, came across the statue in Tourreilles and felt that Pierre Bayle had a better claim to recognition than Bara or the t
ambour d'Arcole, especially as the latter did not die in combat.
Branches of the AET in Roussillon and the Aude, together with various local historical associations, embarked on an extensive five-year long investigation, including forays into the archives at Vincennes, and into
local archives in both France and Spain. A biography based on their research was published in 2000 by André Benabid, a retired army colonel and himself a former enfant de troupe.
After a long campaign, the AET obtained the cession of land in Spain in order to erect a monument on the site of Bayle's death near the town of Biure. The commemorative iron column was created by the ironsmith Henri Delomca.
In 1998 Bayle was formally recognised as the first and youngest
enfant de troupe to die in combat.
Ceremonies to mark the occasion took place in three different locations associated with his life: at Tourreilles: in the commune of Le Boulou, close to the battle site, and in Biure. At Le Boulou a new bronze statue was unveiled, commissioned by the AET National Association from the army artist and sculptor Gérard Vié.
The AET and Souvenir Français continue to fulfil a "duty of remembrance", with annual commemorative events attended by veterans. In 2015 the Souvenir Français des Pyrénées Orientales, based in Perpignan, created a "section Pierre Bayle" of young flag-bearers which now takes part regularly in these ceremonies. Here they are in January of this year, at a journée de formation in Biure:
Commemoration not just a military preserve, but a civic and community affair: in France even a village of 250 inhabitants has its mayor! In August 2012 a local association, "Le Chemin du petit tambour", was set up in Tourreilles to
organise commemorative and cultural events, and to foster co-operation with Le Boulou and Biure (with which Tourreilles was formally twinned in 2015). There are currently 43 members. The group maintains a 5.5 kilo circular walk around the village, since 2018 furnished with information panels designed by the students of the lycée Jacques Ruffié in Limoux. Assistance is also occasionally provided by other local organisations: in April 2014."Toques et clochers", a charitable association of winegrowers in the Limoux region, held their annual weekend gala in Tourreilles, and included a thoughtful historical pageant on Pierre Bayle.
Covid has inevitably caused a bit of a hiatus, but the initiative is still thriving; see the "Chemin" website for upcoming events!
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Tourreilles is fortunate in its local artists. The above plaques were created by Jean Faure, a photographer and artist born in the village but now based in Paris. A book by Jean Faure, Pierre Bayle sur les pas du plus jeune des héros 1783-1794, was published in 2021. (I assume the author is the same person, though I'm not quite sure!)
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In the footsteps of the Petit Tambour
Historic walking routes give visitors a chance to experience, even if only vicariously via the websites, the vast distances and harsh terrain in which this bloody combat was fought out.
The major initiative in this respect has come from Amédine Mas and Pierre Vigo, two amateur historians and detectorists based in Terrasse, 6 kilometres north of Le Boulou. In 2003 the two were invited by Jean Salgas, mayor of Le Boulou to create a historical circuit of the battlefield. A first 7-kilometre route was completed in 2006, with an Orientation table and 17 information panels. In 2010 they formed an association, "Les Chemins des soldats de l'an II", and in 2011 their book on the battle was published by the local cultural organisation, ASPAVAROM (ASsociation PAtrimoine VAllée de la ROMe). In June 2019 an extension to the circuit, "From the Army of the Eastern Pyrenées to the Army of Italy", was added with a further 30 information panels, including one devoted to Pierre Bayle.
I see that
Wikiloc also features a suggested hiking trail up to Mont-roig and the Pierre Bayle monument - looks too hard going for me though.....
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View from Montroig
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References
Pierre Bayle (1783-1794) - Wikipedia.fr
André Benabid, L'enfant-Héros oublié [Extract].
More recent biographies are: Pierre Bayle, le Petit Tambour by Gérard Vié and Pierre Bayle sur les pas du plus jeune des héros 1783-1794 by Jean Faure.
Videos created by the Comité du Souvenir Français de Saint Jean Lasseille
"Le chemin du Petit Tambour",Tourreilles [website]
"Les Chemins des soldats de l'an II" [website]
"Bataille du Boulou" - blog associated with the Sentier historique
Walking tour in Mont Roig region [Wikiloc]:
Finally, in the 1990s a new initiative was launched under the aegis of the Association des Anciens Enfants de Troupe (AET), an organisation of former pupils of military schools. We are told that in 1993 one of its members, Pierre Pilissier, came across the statue in Tourreilles and felt that Pierre Bayle had a better claim to recognition than Bara or the tambour d'Arcole, especially as the latter did not die in combat.
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