The Emperor blames the insufficiency of the batteries on land. However, from Cap Corse to Propriano, the population, mayors in the lead, sailors and peasants, but also women and children, are mobilizing to support the troops in the event of an attack.
After the crushing defeat at Trafalgar, Napoleon, being anxious to ward off any eventuality of an English attack in the North Sea, annexed Holland in July 1810. However, it was in the Mediterranean and particularly around Corsica that English pressure is the most threatening, as evidenced by the recurrent attacks both against grain convoys to Corsica and against boats loaded with construction timber leaving there. The objective of the English, who were driven out of Toulon for the first time by Bonaparte in 1793, and who were forced to withdraw from Corsica in 1796, was to strangle France’s maritime trade. Edifying in this regard, the coup de main against two French ships in the Gulf of Sagone on 1is May 1811.
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That day, two frigates, the Nourrice and the Girafe, were moored near the coast to load wood. Equipped with sixty guns, they are protected by an artillery piece on the ground. But the English have imagined an offensive of rare audacity. In the absence of wind, they had their vessels towed by rowboats. Arrived at a safe distance, they bombarded the French for more than two hours, then withdrew once the ships were on fire in order to avoid damage caused by an explosion.
Learning twenty days later of the attack on the fleet at Sagone, Napoleon fulminated. In a letter to the Minister of the Navy, he sharply reproaches the maritime prefect of Toulon for not having built sufficient batteries and suggests ” that he won’t let this matter go unfinished “… Thus, Napoleon wrote on August 23 to Vice-Admiral Decrès: ” Order that the captain of the barge La Nourrice and that of the barge La Girafe, who blew themselves up in the Bay of Sagone, be arrested and put on trial. This case is outrageous. The tower is in good condition and has not suffered. The Nurse blew herself up within gunshot of the tower and the battery: it was impossible for the enemy to anchor her so close to the beach. »
On May 21, Napoleon ordered Vice-Admiral Decrès to put the various anchorages in Corsica in a state of defence, and on July 15, ordered General Clarke to build batteries in the Gulf of Sagone.
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It was through a letter from the prefect Arrighi de Casanova dated May 7 that the Emperor learned of the details of the attack. As soon as the English frigate is seen off the Gulf, the commander of the Vico garrison sends 30 men and an officer. The next day, in front of the reinforcement of another English frigate and a brig, he went himself to the scene with a hundred soldiers and sixty inhabitants armed with guns.
Carabiners and cartridges left available by Morand
Because the threat is not taken lightly: The sub-prefect Susini, at the same time, dispatches a gendarme to the neighboring localities of Arbori, Coggia, and Apricciani to gather the mayors and the inhabitants. The enemy attack appearing to take shape, new express are sent to Murzo, Soccia, Poggio, Orto, Guagno, Marignana, Cristinacce and Evisa, to invite the mayors and the inhabitants to go in the same night to Sagone. » (1) When the sub-prefect arrives on the scene with the mayors of Vico and Letia and 115 armed men, the action is already underway.
« Already the mayors of Cargese and Apricciani, who arrived first, have joined the troops and lined up on one of the shores of the port, while on the other side, 200 men from Coggia and Arbori await the enemy. » (2) However, from the beginning, the besieged found themselves in difficulty, the cannon of the port having been put out of use, and the two French ships riddled with cannonballs leaked from all sides. ” Then, Commander Renault of the Girafe, and Commander Figanière of the Nourrice, disembark the crews under the protection of the fire of the earth which keeps the enemy at a distance.. » (3)
In Sagone, the mobilization is total as indicated by the prefect to the Minister of the Interior: ” All night the road from Sagone to Vico was crowded with men, women and children, the first to come running to fight, the others carrying baskets of tow to bandage the wounded, eggs and provisions to supply the fighters. » (4)
Sagone is not an isolated case, it is a concerted plan, as the prefect points out: on February 17, 1812, in Cap Corse, combat begins between an English frigate and the corvette Mook which manages to get under the protection of the Giraglia’s battery. ” Here again, at the first news of the danger, the inhabitants, led by the mayor of Tomino, Giorgi, came running armed with guns and took part in the fight. » (5)
On October 14, a French schooner leaving Saint-Florent was threatened by the English in front of the Giraglia. Immediately, a company of chasseurs and a line company prepared the defence, supported by the inhabitants. who cease their work and abandon their harvest “. Carabiners and cartridges previously made available by General Morand were distributed… Faced with mobilization, the enemy withdrew. In the Valinco on April 23, 1813, it was the civil defense that once again stepped up to the plate. Eight English sailors
disembark, taking advantage of the deserted place. The prefect sends three columns. ” Two detachments of inhabitants arm themselves under the direction of Jean-Paul Rocca Serra and Captain Durazzo. Faced with this deployment of forces, the two enemy ships withdrew, not without throwing a large ball of 120 which fell on the beach and was reported triumphantly to the sub-prefect. » (6)
This stubborn resistance of the Corsicans repels any invasion. This is confirmed on December 22 when the English come in front of Calvi to bomb the Libio and the Baleine. ” Sub-prefect Giubega will report with pleasure that more than four hundred people, mayors, deputies and justices of the peace in the lead, went to the beach to protect the two buildings.. » (7)
« From the end of 1813, there is constant mention in the official correspondence of the passage of English military convoys: the sub-prefect of Bastia, Paul-Louis Stefanini speaks in his report of March 8, 1814 of a convoy of 55 sails sailing near Bastia. » (8)
In April 1814, an English fleet set foot in Corsica, because solicited by a group of insurgents from Bastia at the head of a provisional committee in revolt against Napoleon, but unaware at the same time that the Emperor had abdicated.
(1 to 7) E. Franceschini. Corsica at the end of the Empire and the return of the Bourbons. (8) A.-M. Graziani. Napoleonic Corsica. History of Corsica Volume 2
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