THE WAR IN EUROPE.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 750, 8 November 1870, Page 4

THE WAR IN EUROPE.

NOTES AND INCIDENTS. Three members of the British Parliament—Sir C. W. Dilke, Arthur Hubert, and Henry Winterbotham— are serving in the hospital at Nancy. We take the following from a San Francisco paper: — "A despatch to the New York World this morning stated that a Prussian frigate, the Horihat, had been | captured in East ludian waters. If the report be true that a frigate has been captured off Point de Galle, her proper name is the Hertha, a vessel of 2000 tons burden, and carrying 28 guns of the largest calibre, and a full complement of men. She has been cruising in Chinese waters since, if we recollect rightly, May, 1869," The Empress, who escaped from Paris attended only by two companions, fled through the long gallery of the Louvre ; but suddenly her course was stopped short by a locked door. The little party could distinctly hear the shouts of the crowds who were invading the private gardens of the Tuileries. M. de Lesseps, to gain time, proposed that he should go out on the terrace and get the soldiers on guard to hold back the people for a few minutes, while in addition he would delay the crowds by addressing them. The resort to this expedient was not necessary. Madame le Breton found the key, opened the door that had obstructed their progress, and gave egress to her Majesty— who, accompanied only by her tried friend, issued into the street at the bottom of the Louvre. There they hurriedly entered a common fiacre, not without a risk of detection on the spot ;• for a diminutive gamin de Paris, not more than twelve years old, shouted " Voila l'lmperatrice !" Luckily, no one about heard or heeded him ; and the cab got safely away with the two ladies. The Prussian newspapers are very an^ry with the Times for having proposed a mediation between the French and the Germans. The Magdeburg Gazette declares that the idea is so impertinent and extraordinary that it is difficult for any honest German to understand it. " The Times has the audacity to assert, in the same article, while admitting that the French, if victorious, would have rejected any intervention, that we should be satisfied with a compensation for our war expenses. Nay, it even says that what should now be done is to propose conditions of peace to the belligerents, and as far as possible to enforce them. On the same day Gladstone said that care must be taken lest the victor should become too strong. People in England evidently have not an accurate notion 'of the extent of our military power. At this moment, although we have sent to France an army which is twice as strong as any that the French can bring against us, including their reserves, we have at home 122 battalions, that is to say, at least 150,000 excellent troops of infantry, cavalry, and artillery ; and these are ready, in conjunction with the even more powerful landwehr, to oppose any one who should attempt to ' enforce ' conditions of peace upon us. Does the Times believe that the British fleet and the 20,000 men whom England is preparing for war would suffice to dictate to such a powerful nation as ours ? . . . Any one that should dare to interfere with us in the work of thoroughly humiliating France, who, after our sons and brothers have perished by thousands, should be mad enough to ask U9 to settle the matter with a money compensation, may easily be involved in the destiny of Louis Napoleon." On the 24th of August the real bombardment of Strasburg commenced, As evening came on the besiegers, who till this fired but occasionally, opened from all their batteriea 'an incessant fire of shell and heavy cannon upon the defences of the city, which was answered for the first part of the night with considerable vigor, but which slackened after midnight. But what made the scene one never to pass from memory was the terrible conflagration which burst out in Strasburg about nine o'clock, and raged on throughout the night. At the commencement th^ fire was apparently within the citadel alo'se, but soon we could see that it raged on various point?, and we counted distinctly from eight to ten different fires burning' luridly in the black night, and Strasburg stood out before us a city of devastation and raging misery. But. even this scene of destruction became intensified. It was just close on a quarter to three as I stood watching with breathless interest the rapid succession of shells flying into the doomed city, when like the flash of a Bengal illumination in a theatre, there shot up a bright glowing flame," wonderfully clear and perplexingly smokeless, that shed a white light through the murky night, and of a sudden lit up the minster with a vividness that instinctively brought a hushed exchunatian, " Good God ! the

cathedral is on fire. But the next moment revealed the glorious old minster on which waves tlie whito flag untouched. The conflagration, so startling and tremendous, was elsewhere. Whore it might be was indeed matter for speculation, though now we know it was the arsenal which was destroyed. For hours and hours it burned on, the same glow of clear lambent fire shedding over minster and over the dark outlinu of the city, against a horizon dotted with lines of lurid five, an indescribably pallid and ghastly illumination. I left my station as the day dawned, and still the fire was raging ; and as I quitted Appemveiaer, on my way back here, there still came forth on the horizon volumes of smoke-clouds to toll the tale ot continued devastation. General Werder seemed anxious to accomplish his work ai gently as possibly, and, if he can do so consistently with his duty, spare the cathedral, in proof of which the Staats Amcigci, of Tuesday, says that General Werder has asked Colonel Ducasse, commandant of Strasburg, not to use the cathedral spire as a look-out station, as [ otherwise he might bo obliged to destroy it. The request was refuse!. Amongst the minor tragedies enacted in the present war was the execution of a Prussian spy iv Paris. Lieutenant Harth, a Pruasian infantry officer, was shot in a great square of the Ecole Militaire. The Paris correspondent of the Daily News says that General Trochu thought of publicly announcing the hour fixed for the execution, but, on consideration, it was deemed better not to attract a crowd to the spectacle. At five o'clock in the morning Lieutenant Harth was informed by M. Ruth, a Protestant clergyman of Lille, that his last hour had come. A few minutes afterwards the prisoner was placed in a cellular carriage, and, guarded by twelve gendarmes, was taken to the Ecole Militaire. A considerable body of troop 3of all arms— gendarme?, lancer 3, guides, and cuirassiers — was drawn up on the parade-ground. The colonel-com-mandant and a major and captain of the staff were present. When Harth got out of the cellular carriage he noticed the troops, and bowed to them several times. A delay of a quarter of an hour occurred, as the prisoner arrived on the ground at 5.45, and the execution was ordered at six o'clock precisely. He was placed with his back to a wall in a sort of recess in the barrack-yard used for shoeing horses. The firing party consisted of two sergeants, two corporals, and six soldiers of the 42nd Regiment. The non-com-missioned officers with loaded rifles were stationed behind the pelotori as a reserve in case of need. Harth begged at first that his hands might not be tied, and that his eyes might not be bandaged ; but he ultimately consented. He also asked that, as a soldier, he might be allowed to give the word of command to fire. The registrar of the court-martial read the sentence of death, and during a momentary pause, the prisoner, in a firm voice, cried, "Present, fire?" But this was not the signal which the firing party had been told to wait for. The last syllable of the judgment had scarcely been read when the officer commanding the peloton drew his sword. Then the soldiers put their rifles to their shoulders (jove is the French word for present), and took deliberate aim. The officer lowered his sword, and in an instant Harth fell, several bullets striking him almost in the same place, and making ah enormous hole in the region of the heart. Nevertheless, although the prisoner was quite dead, one of the sergeants in waiting came up to the corpse and lodged a bullet in his head. The body, with the clothes on just as the man fell, was placed in a coffin and taken to the Mont Parnasse cemetery for interment. Of the action in the Baltic between the French and Prussian fleets off Rugen, the Stettiner Zcitung publishes the following account : — " On the morning of the 17th inst. H.M. dispatch boat Grille loft Rugen in order to look out for the French fleet, of which rumors had come to hand for the last day or two. From the height of Moen there was nothing to be seen or heard of the enemy ; bui at length the Grille discerned the masts of a fleet consisting of seven French ironclads and two gunboats. The Grille sailed to within about 3000 paces of the enemy's fleet, which at onco opened upon this single boat a hot broadside, fire, and simultaneously gave chase. This was exactly what the Grille desired ; and by alternately giving way and then coming to— all the while replying with her two 12----pounders to the heavy fire of the French ironclads— the Grille drew the enemy into the neighborhood of the Wittower Posthaus, where our gunboats Draulie, Blitz and Salamander were lying, which, the moment they heard the report of the cannon firing at sea, gave the signal 'weigh anchor,' rejoined the Grille,and immediately opened fire. The commodore of the flotilla, Captain Graf WaldersGe, gavo the signal from his flag-ship, { Let every commander attack the enemy to the utmost of his power ;' and bravely did the little flotilla steam up to the overpowering fleet of the foe. For two hours the fight went on, until it was broken off by the withdrawal of our gunboats, which, as unarmored, wooden boats, could make no offensive, attack on the heavy armor-clad ships of the enemy. Although, as a rule, the French seemed to take good aim, their shots were invariably either too high or fell short. Moreover, it was not easy to hit our little boats, which were hardly visible above the waves. More of our shots took effect; and one shell fired from the Salamander must be especially noted, which could be clearly seen to burst upon the enemy's deck and produce a clear space among the men who were serving the gun. Our vessels were very fortunate, and made the harbor again without either killed or wounded ; but we must freely confess that had one of the French 9-inch shells struck any of our ships, the damage would have been very, serious. The craft that were engaged in the fight shipped supplies of ammunition to-day at Strahlsund, and then returned at once to the outer slaf.on." We now learn from official documents that the intended Amazon Corps, under the leaderphip of Miss Minna Hansel, of Berlin, was more than a joke. That spirited lady had actually already gathered fifty-three young heroines under her banners, all ready and eager for the fray, and defying those critical remarks which, Miss Hansel say 3, " were of course to be expected in these frivolous days of ours." Yet before proceeding further it was considered wise to inquire at head-quarters in what portion of the arniy these female volunteers would be considered most desirable. A letter was therefore addressed to General Governor Von Falchen- i

stein, whose answer, somewhat delared, arrived a few daj'S a;j;o. He declines with many thanks the patriotic offer of their guarding the coast— one of the proposals — " since he had in the course of a journey of inspection convinced himself personally of their sufficient protection, but he would suggest to them to enrol themselves among the land troops." Miss Hansel, however, "considering the rapid and victorious progress of the war," thinks lhat the delay in the General's answer has frustrated her plans, and has accordingly disbanded her corps. Dr Russell, of the Times, in a letter dated Donchery, 3rd September, announces the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher P. Pemberton, late of the Scots Fusilier Guards, who was shot at the battle of Sedan :-"AsI am writing this there comes news which I hope is not true It is of the loss of a friend, of one who eagerly pressed to be employed in your service, and who has in that service lost his life in the field. I can scarcely proceed. Perhaps, before these lines reach yon, the telegraph will have broken the intelligence to those to whom tlie blow will ba terrible. My last words to him were to warn him. that he was not to seek danger, and that in the capacity in which he was then engaged it was his bounden duty not to run risks. It is now five o'clock, and Colonel Walker, in reply to an inquiry, caused by a rumor I had heard, baa written to say that the Crown Prince of Saxony informed him the Times' correspondent, Lieutenant-Colonel Pembarton, was killed by his side during the battle by a bullet. lam so shocked and grieved, as will also be as many friends as a young man ever had when they hear it, by this news, that only a sense of duty impels me to continue my narrative. Had he fallen for his country in battle it would have been some consolation to those he has left to mourn his fate. Cheerful, witty, full of life, spirit, and talent, he has met the death he, above all deaths, would have desired— a soldier's. ' Kit Pemberton dead V I fancy how these words will fly through many an English home. I have written to the Crown Prince of Saxony, and will try to have his resting-place properly marked, or obtain some clue to its locality. But headquarters move on to-morrow, and the place, now deserted by the army, where he fell, is many miles away." The first official lists of losses in the field have been made public at Berlin, The Prussian correspondent of the Times, analysing them, says : — A Prussian regiment on a war footing has 3006 men with 69 officers. Of these 69 officers the 74th Regiment (Hanoverians) lost no less than 30 in killed and wounded at Weissemburg. The 77th (also Hanoverians) on the same occasion lost 25 officers ; the 39th (RhineJanders), 26; the 82nd (Hessians), 14 ; the 53rd (Westphaliahs), 11 ; the 88th (Nassauers), 9 ; the 80th (Hessians), 8, &c. Still worse was it at Woerth. There the 58th Regiment (Poseners) had 32 dead and wounded officers ; the 59th (Poseners), 32 ; the 7th (King's Grenadiers — Lower Silesians and German Poseners), 35 ; the 47th (Lower Silesians), 29 ; the 46th (Lower Silesians), 63 ; the 57th (Lower Silesians), 30; the 6th (Westphalians), 28; the 37th (Westphalians), 25, &c. But the most frightful carnage of all in the earlier part of the campaign was at Spicheren, where, according to private intelligence, the total losses were 2297, of whom 811 are dead and 1480 wounded, Accordingly, every twelth man was killed or wounded. Some companies left nearly one-half their men on the spot. Of the tremendours three days' battle near Metz, we have but private intelligence, and this only referring to individual detachments ; yet we know already enough to imagine the rest. On the 14th, in the action named after Pange or Conrcelles, the 4Bth (Rhinelanders) lost 32 officers and 891 rank and file ; in other words, about one third its complement. A rifle battalion in the same locality was by the enemy's fire deprived of nine of its officers and 270 rank and file — i.e., of a third of the officers and a fourth of the men. On the 14th as well as on the 16th — the Latter being the battle of Mars-la-Tour orThionville — the losses of the Prussians were comparatively greater than those of the French, the former being on both occasions greatly outnumbered. At Mars-la-Tour, within a few moments, by the unexpected unmasking of a mitrailleuse battery, Count Westarp, Count Wesdelen, Baron Kleist, Henry VII., Prince of Reuss, Baron Grimm, Baron Witzleben, and many other noblemen of high rank and position were killed. At the grand finale at Rezonvillo or Gravelotte, on the 18th, the Prussians are said to have suffered a loss of 18,000 combatants. Nor did the French suffer less. In the three actions they had nearly 15,000 dead, and 50,000 dead, wounded, and prisoners together.