FURTHER DETAILS OF THE WAR IN EUROPE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 842, 15 October 1870, Page 2

FURTHER DETAILS OF THE WAR IN EUROPE.

The First Battle, With the bombardment of Saarbrack, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Tuesday, August 2, the French campaign fairly commenced. Ten days before, the French, who were already on their frontier at Forbach and Sarreguemines, at about six and twelve miles respectively from Saarbruck, might easily have gained posses* sion of the place without firing a shot. Saarbruck is an open town, commanded by a range of bills west and south, and its defence entered so little into the plans of Prussian strategists that it had at first hardly any garrison at all; and even when a few companies were sent there and some earthworks hastily thrown up, the place possessed neither a commanding ofiicer of high rank nor a single piece of artillery. Saarbruck lies on the left bank of the Saar, and communicates with its suburb or twin town of St. Johann by two bridges about 500 German feet in length. The Saar railway and its station is on the right bank. The town is situated in the centre of a manufacturing district, with a population of 6,628 inhabitants, or, including St. Johann, of 11,121. For several days the French from Forbach and from Sarreguemines, under Generals Frossard and De Failly, had been occupying the surrounding hills, unhindered by the Prussians, and rearing their batteries under cover of the woods, on the Plateau at Spicheren, on the right of the road from Foijbach, and advancing with heavy columns upon St. Arnual on the right and Gersweiler on the left of the central plateau. From this height the range of the French cannon had been tried at I,BOQ metres' distance with perfect success. Everything being thus ready, the JEJmperor and his son rode over from Metz, and witnessed what appears to have been a fearful cannonade. The result was that the Prussians were dislodged, first from their parade ground outside the town, then from the town itself, which was soon " in flames " . According to the French account,, the heights in the environs of the place had to be carried by hard fighting, and formidable mitrailleurs played a principal part of the conflict, demolishing one after another two Prussian detachments at 1,600 metres' distance, with such terrible effect that one-half of the men lay writhing on the ground and the other half were dispersed. All this execution was accomplished by one French division under General Frossard, which was alone en-* gaged against three Prussian divisions. The German statement is that they had only one battalion in the place, and that it was under orders to retreat fighting, The attack, according to their despatches, was made by three French divisions, with twenty-three pieces of artillery. At this battle the Prince Imperial received his " baptism of fire," and discharged one of the machines called mitrailleuses with his own hand, He and his Imperial father were with the troops safely positioned on the top of one of the precipitous hills to which we have already referred, and from which their fire upon the Prussian troops below swept away whole masses of helpless men. The Prince picked up a spent bullet, inscribed it with his name, and presented it to one of his playfellows, who was also engaged in the affair. The soldiers wept at the magnanimity of the young Prinqe. His father and mother expressed themselves delighted. When the French troops occupied the heights of Saarbruck, a battery of mitrailleuses was placed in position in the presence of the the Emperor and of the Prince Imperial. Shortly afterwards a Prussian detachment marched over the railway bank, at a distance of 1,600 metres. The mitrailleuses £red upon them, audi in a moment the detachment was dispersed, leaving half of their numbers on the ground, A second detachment crossed the same line and suffered the same fate. The French, artillery oncers are enthusiastic at the ejects 6f the mitrailleuses. At this time the French were not aware that their enemies possessed the same deadly weapon. Its effect was described as murderous. As will be seen by-and-by, the French were afforded ample proof of this fact from another point ot view. The immediate effect of its first use was to drive the Prussians out of Saarbruck, and on the. evening of the &ud instant, taut. tQ^

was stated to be "in ruins." The Prussian official account of the battle of Saarbruck reads as follows : —" Notwithstanding a heavy artillery fire, our outposts remained at their station until the movement of the enemy had been fully developed. Having formed into three divisions, the French troops advanced, and the weak Prussian advanced guard evacuated the town, and took up another post of observation without disorder. The loss on our side in this outpost skirmish was only two officers and seventy men, notwithstanding the chassepots, mitrailleuses, and numerous pieces of artillery. The enemy appeared to have suffered considerably. On the same day, the 2nd of August, the enemy proceeded to Reinheim, to the east of Sarreguemines, crossing the frontier with a strong force and opened a heavy skirmishing fire of whole companies upon the smallest of the patrols on this side. Only one horse was grazed. The enemy retired before nightfall. Ja all these small engagements our troops have behaved admirably." Notwithstanding this the effect of the fight upon the French was one of the most exhilarating character, and congratulation was the order of the day. Wednesday, the 3rd of August, was passed over without anything decisive being effected by either side, but the next day, Thursday, brought a change in the tide of affairs. On that day was fought The Battle of Weissenburg.

The army under the Crown Prince of Prussia, the husband of the Princess Royal of England, put to rout the French forces, and secured a most important position on -French territory. The French official repoft of the affair was as follows: — " Three regiments of Gen. Abel Douay's division and one brigade of Light Cavalry were attacked at Weissenburg by very considerable forces which had been massed in the woods bordering on the Lauter. The French troops resisted the assaults of the enemy for several hours, and then" fell back upon the ridge of the Pigeounier, which commands the line to Birsche. General Douay (Abel) was killed, and one of our guns, of which the carriage was smashed and the horses killed, fell into the hands of the

After Saarbruck had been destroyed, the French had one array on their left, at §aarlouis aud Treves, under the command of Prince Frederick Charles; another army in front of them, in the rear of Saarbruck, at Neuenkirchen, all along the two railway lines from the Rhine; from Bingen, up the valley of the Nahe to Kreulznach, Birkenfeldt, and St'. Wendel, and from Mannheim, or Ludwigshafen, to Neustadt, Kaiserlantern, Landstuhl, and Honshurg. A third army was on their right, along the line of the Laute*, at Landau, and Germersheim, opposite to their own lines at Weissenburg and Jjauterburg receiving at every moment fresh forces from the Southern States, while detachments of these same Southern forces showed themselves in the denies of the Black Forest, as if threatening to force their way across the Rhine, at some point between Strasburg and Huningue. The attack came probably from the quarter from which it was least anticipated. On Thursday the Crown Prince of Prussia, with a large Prussian and Bavarian force, which soon rose to 100,000 men, broke through the French line of the Lauter at Weissenburg, and advanced from there on the following day without meeting any resistance. He proceeded atong the railway line to Soultz, hence turned on his right ;to Woerth, and between that place and Jlaguenau was confronted with Marshall M'Mahou with his own corps, and part of those with Marshall Canrobert and General Failiy. A battle was fought on Saturday which lasted all day, and at the close of which M'Mahon was completely defeated, and fell back upon Bitsche. The first check suffered by the French arms, at Weissenburg, on Thursday, probably impressed on the Emperor the peril of his advanced position, and he began a general retrograde movement by abandoning the ground he had taken up a few days before on the hills to the west of Saarbruck. Previous to their withdrawal the French inflicted a very cruel bombardment upon the defenceless town, firing, if the report is true, explosive ghells at its few remaining edifices. This was done on the Friday morning, but early in the afternoon, several divisions of the .Central German army, under General Von Stei»mel£, advanced from Neuu-

kirahen, and on the following day stormed the plateau before Spicheren, where General Frossard had been posted sinee Tuesday, and determined the retreat of the French, The first encounter at Wtissenburg on Thursday was far more important than the German bulletins had at first led people to suppose ; but it might be considered a skirmish in comparison with the engagements that followed. At Weissenburg the Germans were obviously aided by surprise and by vast numerical superiority; but at Woerth M'Mahon had assembled" his forces for a great effort, and he accepted a battle which he might have declined by at once falling back upon Bitsche. At Spicheren, too, Frossard had the advantage of a formidable position, which his army corps ought to have made good against all comers. There was a fair fight at all points, and the ground was nobly contested. The losses were extremely severe on both sides, but ultimately the French were worsted all along the line. Twentyfive thousand men are said to have been killed, the Prussians taking over 4,000 prisoners, together with two eagles, six mitrailleurs, and about thirty cannons. A French correspondent, writing from a village near the scene of the battle, thus narrates some of its iucidents: —" Let me tell you at once that our soldiers were crushed beneath the weight of numbers. Eight or ten thousand men of our army contended for six hours against perhaps 100,000 enemies. The 78th and 50th Regiments of the Line, the 16th Battalion of Foot Chasseurs, a regiment of Turcos, and one regiment of Horse Chasseurs, were encamped last night in the neighborhood of Weissenburg. Patrols sent to reconnoitre the frontier had not found any trace of the enemy, and no one expected an early engagement. Yesterday morning at daybreak a brisk cannonade was heard, and a huge German army — infantry, cavalry, and artillery—appeared on the heights above Schweigen, the first Bavarian village on the frontier, and all around it. The first shell fell into Weissenburg, and soon set the barracks and other buildings in a blaze. The 50th Hegiment were cooking their morning meal when the enemy's bullets began to rain into their camp. General Douay, who commanded the division, ordered an immediate advance. The soldiers immediately moved forward, leaving behind them their knapsacks, and all their impedimenta. The French troops had only three guns. The enemy's artillery was formidable, and poured a perfect shower of shot and shell into our ranks; our soldiers took shelter behind the farmhouses near Weissenburg, but the enemy's artillery soon dislodged them, They were crushed beneath the number of the Germans, which hourly went on increasing, and amounted to tiO,ooo or 100,000 men. The Turcos fought like very lions —they charged with the bayonet, but were decimated by grape shot. The two regiments of the line also did wonders both officers and soldiers suffered heavy losses. A terrible piece of news also affected our soldiers—General Douay was killed by a shell, and General Montmarie wounded. The German artillery fired on our troops, on houses, farms, and everything before them. In the midst of the battle, a detachment arrived by rail, iguorant of what was going on. The train stopped at Humpsbach ; our soldiers jumped out, seized their muskets, and threw themselves into the nielee. This struggle of ten to one lasted until two o'clock. The French retreated through the woods and vineyards, the enemy sending their grape after them. The Turcos had taken eight guns, which were recaptured after a murderous fight, in which they suffered greatly, and half destroyed a regiment of Prussian Hussars. There was no time to gather up tents or weapons—most of the wounded remained on the field of battle. I arrived at Hagenau at eight in the evening. The streets were thronged with people talking over the sad eyent of the day. Then a mournful sight —long trains of carts drawn by horses, filled with furniture and bedding, and men, women, and children, in tears. They were the inhabitants of Beidseltz, Schcenenburg, and neighbouring villages Hying before the enemy. They installed themselves in the streets under the trees. A crowd surrounded them ; they wept, and imagined that their villages were burnt down. Then pouring through the Weissenburg gate came the soldiers who had been that day engaged in this unequal struggle.

They arrived wearied, dead beat, having tasted no food for 24 hours, mourning a commander, a comrade. I questioned 40 or 50 of them. They all tell the same tale—that it was impossible to keep up the fight; had they only been 20,000 they would have driven the enemy back. Their feeble columns had more than once held him in cheek. A few wounded came up, leaning on their muskets; one Turco shows his arm run through with a bayonet; another carries the sword of his captain killed by his side, and kisses the weapon of his unfortunate commander. All this is very sad, and produces an extraordinary effect at dead of night. At 11 two carts arrive filled with wounded ; they are taken to the ambulanees. At midnight the Sisters of Charity are running about the town in reach of assistance. At 1 a.m. the drums beat in the streets of Hagenau. The fireinen are mustered, and sent along the road to pick up the wounded and help to bury the dead. One more fact to the credit of our regiments -~- none of them lost their colours"