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Updated: May 27, 2025
In June, troubles having again arisen, General Berthezene conducted some troops of the regular army to Medeah, to which was added the second battalion of Zouaves, under its gallant captain, Duvivier. On his return, the troops were attacked with fury on the hill of Mouzaia, the spot where the Zouaves had in February of the same year received their baptism of fire.
Scarcely six weeks had elapsed since their formation, when the Zouaves took the field under Marshal Clausel, marching against Medeah, an important station in the heart of Western Algeria. On the hill of Mouzaia they fought their first battle, in which they were completely successful. They remained two months as a garrison in Medeah.
It was known, too, that at the Mouzaia Pass, when the whole army was wearing a cap covered with black oilcloth, he alone insisted on wearing a bright red one, which marked him out to all the men as their commanding officer, but which also exposed himself, and those near him as well, to the enemy's bullets.
Hard at work during the winter of 1840-41, General Bugeaud found these indefatigable soldiers in perfect condition to take the field again, when he landed in April. There had been sharp fighting during the past year at Mouzaia, in which the Zouaves always led the van, and were, as in every engagement they ever fought, covered with honor.
Shouting their war-cry, they rushed on the Kabyles, supported by the Volunteers of the Chart, or French Zouaves, thundering forth the Marseillaise; turning the pursuers into pursued, they covered the retreat of their associates to the farm of Mouzaia, where the army rallied and proceeded without further loss to Algiers.
Lamoriciere continued in command. In 1836 the Zouaves again took the hill of Mouzaia. This time they razed its fortifications even with the ground, and returned to Algiers, where they remained during General Clausel's first and unfortunate expedition into Constantine, the eastern province of French Africa. In 1837 the second expedition was made, and in this the Zouaves took part.
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