Stele of Colonel de Marolles

General de Langle de Cary's 4th French Army continued its strategic withdrawal. Its 11th army corps reaches Sedan on Monday, 24 August 1914. Caught up by the enemy on the following morning, he resisted until the 26th, and received the order to move onto the left bank, not long before noon, towards Wadelincourt and Noyers. During the night of 26 to the 27, the Germans besieged the plateau of La Marfée and took hold of Chaumont- Saint Quentin at around 6 o'clock in the morning.
On the morning of 27 August, the men of the 137th Infantry Regiment struck back, charging with fixed bayonets, reaching Noyers at 9am and pushing back the invaders to the banks of the Meuse. The last words of their fatally wounded chief-Colonel de Marolles were:
‘I die happy, my soldiers are so courageous’.

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