artillery pieces. After Manteuffel's army left Compiègne, the French lost track of it until 24 November, when a large French force made up mostly of members of the Garde Mobile defeated a detachment forming Manteuffel's advance guard in a sharp skirmish in the Santerre region in the eastern Somme. The same day, French forces reported Prussian scouts in the vicinity of Amiens. The skirmish and the arrival of Prussian scouts made it clear to Farre that Manteuffel was advancing on Amiens. Farre's Army of the North was still forming and by late November consisted of only the 22nd Corps, which in turn was made up of only three brigades — a total of only between 17,000 and 17,500 regular troops — and an additional 8,000 Garde Mobile troops and 12 guns from the Amiens garrison under the command of General Antoine Paulze d`Ivoy de la Poype and charged with the defense of the city. In additional to its numerical advantage, the Prussian 1st Army also had better equipment and better-trained and more experienced troops than the Army of the North. Nonetheless, to prevent the Prussians from occupying Amiens without a fight, Farre did not hesitate to place his army in front of the advancing Prussians. Entrenchments existed just outside Amiens, but Farre deemed them too weak and too close to the city. He chose to make his stand east, southeast, and south of Amiens along a line about in length. It ran south from the left bank of the Somme at Corbie and Villers-Bretonneux — about east of Amiens — and the Hangard Wood, a good defense position facing southeast in which Farre deployed a strong force. The French line then ran southwest to Boves (southeast of Amiens), and from there west to Hébécourt (south of Amiens) and then to Pont-de-Metz (southwest of Amiens). Along this line, the Army of the North constructed strong earthworks and artillery emplacements. On the evening of 26 November 1870, Farre completed the concentration of his troops along the line. On the French left wing, Colonel Joseph Arthur Dufaure du Bessol's 3rd Brigade held the bulk of its forces at Villers-Bretonneux (commanding the road southeast to Tergnier), with detachments at Gentelles and Cachy. In the center, Colonel Joseph Derroja's 2nd Brigade held a line extending from the Montdidier road to Saint-Fuscien, passing through and centered on Boves (which commanded the road south to Paris). Farre