The text mentions Polish souvenirs in Burgundy, including the monument erected in honour of General Hauke-Bosak, located near Dijon. The road to the monument, the sculpture itself and the inscription on it are described (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1913, Półrocze I, p. 234, after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text

Polish souvenirs in Burgundy. Monument to General Bosak.

When we leave the town of Dijon and head towards the Paris road leading to the Suzona river valley, at the 8th kilometre of this road we come across a monument erected in honour of General Bosak. His proper name is Joseph Count Hauke. The road we take towards this monument is sad. On this side - just below the town itself - intoxicating vineyards laugh at us. Further on, barren fallow land begins, grey and gloomy. Some stony hills, stripped of woods, and the quiet charms of vast fields. This is the view that accompanies us from the moment we pass the natural defensive ramparts of Dijon - the villages of Talent, to the left, Fontaine, to the right. Now we have Dijon's strongest fort, Mont Afrique, fading into the distance on the left, and the black mound of the Hauteville redoubt on the right. Ahead of us unfolds a ribbon of woods thrown across the hills. There is a strange silence all around. The place - a ragged expanse of great land ownership - is scarcely populated. We enter groves of young oaks, from where a rustle of leaves full of sorrow flows towards us. To the right is a clearing. In the middle of the glade, against a backdrop of young trees (the old forest has apparently been cut down), is the monument.

The place is poignantly lonely. The monument, whose likeness we present, is a simple and unsophisticated obelisk (not quite correct) of grey sandstone. In the upper part there is a bas-relief depicting the coats of arms of Poland, Lithuania and Ruthenia and the Hauke coat of arms. The shields of the coat of arms are folded over a pile of war emblems and cannons, scythes and broken sabres. Polish and French banners peek out from the sides. This is where General Joseph Count Hauke-Bosak, commander of the first Vosges brigade of Garibaldi's army, died on 21 January 1871. On the monument the inscription:

"Bosak-Hauke Ne le 19 mars 1834, mort le 21 janvier 1871. Noble enfant de la Pologne il fut en 1863 un de ses plus braves défenseurs et en 1871 il vint verser son sang pour la France".

In Dijon, in the meeting room of the local mayor's office, there is a reproduction of a small portrait sketch where Bosak is depicted in the last years of his life. It is the face of a wise man and, at the same time, a soldier hardened in battle and misery. The soul peers through those sombre eyes, hard as bullion and steadfastly heroic. This painting is among other portraits depicting the heroes from below Dijon during the bloody war of 1870-71. In January 1871, Garibaldi arrived in Dijon - and it was then that the bloodiest act of the Burgundian tragedy and 1870 Garibaldi embedded troops in the defensive forts of Dijon took place. Bosak, on 17 January, was embedded with the 1st Brigade and 12 cannons in the village of Fontaine, dominating the whole area.

There, on 21 January, a bloody battle began on the fields of Fontaine, Hauteville and Chaumont. Bosak, who formed the centre of the defensive line, sent a reconnaissance that day towards the Suzony River. But there the German General Kettler was watching, who greeted Bosak's scouts with cannon fire. Thereupon Bosak, having sent Garibaldi a despatch:

"Apparently cannons can be heard across the Suzona River. I'm going to find out",

he mounted his horse and, at the head of a dozen soldiers and officers (12?), headed for the aforementioned river. He had barely reached the forest - known as the Haute-Serve or also as the Bois de Chêne - when shots rang out from beneath the oak trees. Kettler's vanguard had fallen out. Bosak and his soldiers clashed breast to breast with the enemy. Fatally stabbed, the hero fell in this battle, inflicting death himself on the two attackers. He failed to hold off the Prussian vanguard. It passed over his dead body, which the German soldiers plundered to the ground, leaving not even letters or photographs.

"Noble and brave Bosak! It would have been better to lose an entire battalion than such a brigade commander,"

- Dormoy writes of this. Bosak's body was not found until two days later, when the fallen and wounded soldiers were dealt with after the deadly wrestling in the fields of Fontaine and Chaumont. It was transported to Dijon and then to Switzerland, where the fallen man's wife and children were staying. His comrades-in-arms erected a memorial to him near Dijon, as mentioned at the beginning.