Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 5, 1870

No. 70.

Mr. E. B. Washburne to Mr. Fish.

No. 274.]

Legation of the United States, Paris, September 2, 1870. (Received September 15.)

I have the honor to inclose you herewith copies of telegraphic dispatches from Count Bismarck to Count Bernstorff, sent to me by Mr. Motley, to be by me transmitted to the French government, together with my notes accompanying the same.

E. B. WASHBURNE.

Mr. E. B. Washburne to the Prince de la Tour d’Auvergne.

Legation of the United States, Paris, August 28, 1870.

Mr. Washburne, minister of the United States, presents his respectful compliments to the Prince de la Tour d’Auvergne, and begs leave to inclose him herewith, copies of two dispatches which have just been transmitted to him by Mr. Motley, the minister of the United States at London, and which explain themselves.

No. 1.

Count Bismarck to Count Bernstorff.

Palikao declares in the Corps Legislatif that franc-tireurs must be considered as soldiers. I beg you will communicate the following to Mr. Washburne:

Only persons recognizable as soldiers at rifle-range can be considered and treated as such. Blue blouse is general national costume; the red cross on the arm is only to be discerned at a short distance, and can at every moment be removed and replaced; so that it becomes impossible for our troops to know the persons from whom they may expect hostilities and at whom they have to shoot. If persons who are not always, and at the necessary distance, recognizable as soldiers, kill or wound German soldiers, we can only have them tried by a court-martial.

No. 2.

Count Bismarck to Count Bernstorff.

Please announce once more to Mr. Washburne that Captain Rochous, who was sent by General Alvensleben to Toul with a flag of truce, has been repulsed by successive shots, and that a trumpeter accompanying, yesterday, another flag of truce to Verdun has been killed. We protest solemnly against these repeated violations of international law, and declare that we shall be henceforth in the impossibility of sending flags of truce to the French army.

Mr. E. B. Washburne to the Prince de la Tour d’Auvergne.

Legation of the United States, Paris, September 1, 1870.

Mr. Washburne, minister of the United States, presents his respectful compliments to his excellency the Prince de la Tour d’Auvergne, minister of foreign affairs, and begs to inclose him a dispatch, which he has just received from Mr. Motley, the minister of the United States in London, and which explains itself.

Count Bismarck to Count Bernstorff.

Clermont, August 29, 1870.

Will you kindly let the following be known to Mr. Washburne, which only now comes to my knowledge.

On the 15th instant General Von Bothmer sent Captain Hanfstangel with a flag of truce to the commandant of the Fortress Mucal. The surrender of the fortress was refused. Before the captain was out of shot’s range he was shot at from the fortress, and was severely wounded. This is the fourth case of breach of international law coming to our knowledge.