Lucien de Montagnac

Responding to the call of neighboring tribes who feared a raid led by Abd el-Kader, Lieutenant-Colonel Montagnac with 450 men of the 15th Léger moved into the area (390 from the 8th Battalion of Chasseurs d'Orléans and 60 from the 2nd Hussar Regiment).

[1] The company of carabiniers that remained in the bivouac had managed to reach the marabout of Sidi Brahim where they resisted the attacks of the algerians.

The Emir Abd El Kader had the head of Captain Dutertre cut off, taken prisoner and brought before the marabout to demand the surrender of the hunters.

Towards the evening of the 2nd day, Captain Géreaux, the only officer who had not been killed with Lieutenant Chappedelaine, went out with his soldiers to head towards Djemaâ Ghazaouet.

I personally warn all good soldiers whom I have the honour to lead that if they happen to bring me a living Arab, they will receive a beating with the flat of the saber.

This is how, my dear friend, we must make war against Arabs: kill all men over the age of fifteen, take all their women and children, load them onto naval vessels, send them to the Marquesas Islands or elsewhere.