2-969-733 - /Heritage Images

Arrival of the French Crimean Troops at the Place de la Bastille, Paris, 1856. 'A triumphal arch...from the designs of M. Baltard...[was] inscribed "To the Glory of the Army." In the middle...was an escutcheon bearing the word "Sebastopol" in letters of gold...[The emperor said:] "I have recalled you, though the war is not ended, because it is just to replace by turns those regiments that have suffered most"...It was...impossible to see these thousands of brave men, with the marks of severe toil and fatigue on their bronzed features, their dingy uniforms, and tattered standards, without a recollection of the dangers they had gone through, and a passing sigh for those of their gallant comrades they had seen fall at their side...The tumultuous applause and...clapping of innumerable hands, which, in the open space, sounded like distant, musketry continued until they disappeared in the windings of the Boulevards....From "Illustrated London News", 1856.