AFTER THE BATTLE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 260, 5 November 1870, Page 4

AFTER THE BATTLE.

It was a work of days to bury the dead who fell in that week of battles, from the 14th to 21st September. The Prussians admit that their own losses "were commensurate with the greatness of their achievements." It is a moderate estimate which puts down the number of killed, wounded, or disabled, at a total, including French aud Prussians, of 100,000 men. The wounded were so numerous that many lay on the ground for three days before surgeons, or nurses could attend to them ; some were dragged out from under dead bodies with a still lingering consciousness. It is one of the great horrors of this awful war that so large are the numbers engaged, so swift is the succession of battles, so deadly are the weapons employed, that no resourses can be provided sufficient for the relief of the wounded. It would require a convoy as large as another army to transport all the necessary aids. The mitrailleuse has proved abundantly its terrible powers, and the chassepot is allowed to be more than a match for the needle gun, at long range, so that it has seemed something more like a massacre than a war. But never has Christian charity gone forth more bravely. Every effort is made to mitigate these dreadful pains. Prussia herself has behaved nobly, treating to the extent of her capacity French and Prussian wounded alike, aud providing generously for her! prisoners. Brothers and Sisters of Mercy, bearing a red cross on a field of white, Lave followed the armies into every battle. The German Convention has its friends at work in every quarter. All neutral Europe is exerting itself. The Americans in Paris have sent out one field hospital; from Holland the Dutch have sent another. Our own National Society, for aid to the sick and wounded, is collecting very large subscriptions, aud while public bodies are sending in their help, hundreds of private persons, doctors, aud nurses, aud others have hurried to render personal service. One gentleman writes that the mournful scenes winch he witnessed at the railway elation in France

and Germauy " surpassed all that his imagination had pictured. A countless number of wounded lay in all direction, oue agonising mass of suffering ; one long train after another was being filled with them, and still there seemed no diminution in their numbers. Hundreds, nay thousands, of wounded were still pouring in aud the amount of distress was literally awful." There has been some fear of an outbreak of cholera, hut the cooler weather has come in timely aid, and ss yet the health of the troops nppear to be good.