THE DEAD ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 244, 20 October 1870, Page 2

THE DEAD ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE.

A special.correspondent visited the field of battle at Forbach immediately after the battle was over, and thus describes what he saw : Proceeding up the hill I found the Prussians lying thick, while every here and there the gray co.-it and red grousers of the Twentyfourth French Infantry', "appeared. On the top of the" first ridge there were little heaps of French and Prussians mixed, while on the second ridge the'"• French uniform lay" thickest. Upon reaching the brow of the hill a heartrending: sigljt met my eyes. It had evidently i been, : thp-last stand of the Twenty-fourth, for their uniforms, mingled with the Prussians, lay to the number of seventy-five iv a verysiSybSfllf-spaee^, :E.apifig the road, with a smile on his face, lay the major of the French regiment. In one hand ; he'clasped a sergant's, and in the other a lock of hair wrapped in a bit of paper. Both the i sergeant find he must have been shot at the same time. The woods on the leftside, as I anticipate/I, were filled .wit|i wo^ndad,. .whose piteous cries it was heartrending to hear. On the crest .of the hill-tlie Prussian uniforms lay very thick.'^ I counted more than 150 to about thirty of the French. This was the hard fougTit" ibr"point, ana wiiere ati^tile" slaughter .took place —L. say f ,advisedly slaughter, Jor *i& was ldss,^ j Thfe unfortunate men were slill being carriea into Snarbrucken at pt ojci^ck^-da/. I leave you to imagine tile suffering^ all that night long without a drop of^'Watfir,'' All branches of the s^eryidei seemed ri tyj\tifr£\ |iSfiTerqd/|foi?' I 'picked up a laiicßti and! sc(mßv sui^gic'alvWstrui ments close to the bofiv of a doctor who had evidently been shot" while 'attending to a /Wounded mau., I saw.a Fronoh- -sqldiei; -of the ■'' line,'. h'isjf: faee'"sfiU'' bearing'^a'stefrfi determiiiedidtili 'up'dn' 'it;!eveii' in 'cJeath', while close-by- his ' sidii .lay i the ■ protector' of;'his: Fatherland, with-his face! id the^ienemytad his holmebin'his'haiid; a zli c! bf) ci ,): l ,'l J.-M