NOTES OF THE WAR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 87, 14 April 1871, Page 2

NOTES OF THE WAR.

CContinued from Wednesday.) The following extracts are from the letters of The Times special correspondent : — It is quite a curious study to talk to these prisoners. Very rarely is one to be found who tells you he volunteered for the war. Generally, he- produces a- voluble supply of reasons to convince you why ho would have been a^fool had he done so ; and he bitterly inveighs against the Government which dragged him from the bosbhi of his, family, who are even now wondering what has become of him, and weeping over his probable fate. "Ah ! vous etes heureux," he says, " vous avez votre Moltke, rnais nous autres nous sommes trahis." He evidently thinks that for a soldier to have his Moltke is the acme of military enjoyment ; and he* entertains the t most profound distru_fc^of every French officer, from the genJHQ at the head of his <army to the comn. at the head of his company. he abounds in complaints of^tne hardships to which he is exposed, and of the misnianagement of which he is the victim, and it never seems to occur to him that some blame may possibly rest with the man who, like myself, can openly repudiate the notion of volunteering'to fight for his country, and who, when he is forced to do so, takes the first opportunity of deserting the cause which, in spite o£ the sufferings it involves, should be deemed sacred, and seeking a refuge in the camp of the enemies ; of his country. What side of the French character is i this that we have got hold of? Whether one talks. to the able-bodied peasant who stands at hisj. cottage door with his knuckles in his eyes, blubberhig oyer ihe loss of . Jhis cow^ [ or with :the Mobile, who consoles himself for his misfortunes by cursing his general, or with the bourgeois^ whbconfiheshis curses to Napoleon, there is always the .jsame helplessness on the. part of the , individual,., and .the,. same r4isposi_io_i to ilay-itheiwhole) blame-: of the misfortunes of himself and. his country on some one* 'elsel' l ' " '"* ' * ' l " "" Ypja>-w ( ifi.spe .thafcifi'Bari,surrenders--tor, I should rather say when it surrenders, for it can he but a question of time—

Trochu will be denounced as a traitor by the party which has already most unfairly attacked him, (specially in the columns of the Siecle, and which makes it a rule to accuse everbody of treachery who is not successful, even when success is simply impossible. It has from the first been evident that Pat is must fall if the provinces could do noi lung to relieve it. Full justice has been done to G-ambetta's untiring energy, but there is no denying that as yet it has led to little besides the .-laughter of an immense number of men. His Generals are farther from Paris than they were when he first took the direction ofthe War Department. But when it became manifest that to raise the siege by an attack on the besieging force was, if not impossible, at least so difficult an operation that the place would fall before it could be carried out, the idea was put forward of cutting off the Germans from communication with their own country and source of supplies. Hence Bburbaki's present movement, which it was thought would induce Prince Frederick Charles greatly to weaken the army in front of Chanzy by sending forces eastwards ; but it seems the Prince has not thought that necessary ; aud, so far as we knowf^eneral Werder, reinforced by a few detachments from different garrisons, 'is deemed sufficiently strong to give an account of the large French army now advancing in the direction of Belfort. So hope is frustrated, which, was >:-doiroi^ss. entertained, that the Germans would be drawn off to the East, and that Chanzy would .be able to fight his way to Chartres, and soon menace Versailles. Instead of that, the Prussians steadily await him between Orleans and Ve.ndome, or in that neighbourhood ; and although they may be numerically inferior, there can be no doubt of the superior quality of their troops and artillery.

Other troops, of which I will not now speak, are also in their places, aud the only fear now is lest General Chanzy should retire too quickly and carry out the words found in the letter of a soldier lately — '• The Prussians won't get another Sedan, for, at any rate, our legs won't fail us." A sensible remark, but showing a spirit not quite such as a General would like to see in his men — certainly very different from the spirit which animates the German armies, or at least the one which I begin to know, the army of Prince Frederick Charles. From the highest officers of the Staff (which seems to be like a united family) to the private soldiers who trudge along the roads, sometimes twenty-five miles a day, and even to the drivers of the train wagons, the whole army seems filled with a high courage and discipline such as can only be drawn from a strong seutiment of duty, and above all, thorough confidence in their commanders. The officers of the Staff rejoice in the possession of a commander, who is, as they say, full of energy and elasticity, who treats them not as servants but as friends ; and it was with no set order, but from the heart that the men cheered the healthy, kindly face, burnt by sun and frost, when the Staff drew near to Vendome to-day. Theie is little talk about children and so forth ; but the men believe in the chief who leach them to victory, and in the man whose life is simple, and who cares for his soldiers. I came here expecting to see an army looking overworked and officers somewhat spoilt by too much success. I find troops of large stature, well fed, bright, and it may almost be said, rosy ; the finest cavalry horses I have ever seen, and in such condition that they might all have been turned out of an English, gentleman's hunting stud, aud the tone of the Staff officers, which sets the fashion for the rest ofthe army, is curiously, I had almost said studiously, modest. For instance, when I mentioned to-night the extraordinary efficiency of the train and the discipline of the drivers, the answer — a very true one — was, " Yes, but hitherto the fortune of war has always enabled us to advance. The time of trial will come if we are obliged to retreat." In the construction of their batteries the Germans proceeded with their usual diligence and caution. To give an example, their redoubt in the park of St. Cloud is only 300 races from the French earthworks at Sevres. Being situate where the groundwork slopes' flown to the Seine, there were only a few trees to prevent the work and the workmen engaged on it being seen by the enemy. The soldiers detailed for. this dangerous task had to lie down on their faces, and in this position burrow a hole in the ground, removing the earth iv shovelfuls. This accomplished, every stone, every piece of timber had to be brought up stealthily by the men, creeping on all; fours and rolling it before them. The greater part of the labor was done at night, especially while the bellowing roar of Valerien drowned the slight noise occasioned by these human moles. Still, when the battery was ready, it answered all the requirements of the case, aud with its straight traverses and bomb-proof casemate, was* quite an elegant specimen of engineering. Only the nighfc before open-

Jug fire, the Ireos in front, which had all been sawn through closo to the ground, fell as y magic at one siroke. The next morning (he six 12-poanders ranged along the semicircular front of the work began to give tongue, and in two clays the viaduct had fallen a prey lo their missiles. Wherever French residents remained in their habitations near the siege batteries they were removed either before the construction of the works, or at any rate before the firing began. Thus for instance, the few _ardeners and servants remaining at Meudon were collected in a barn on the morning of the 4th, the guvs being only For remainder oj nevjs see fourth page.

t • - placed after every possibility of a stranger's eye espying their position had been provided against. When the last cannon was put in position the poor people were invited to take up their residence at Versailles, or some other place near at hand. While this was going on, Mont Valerien was firing at random as usual. According to an official computation, not more than one German has been wounded by every 300 rounds from this fortress. Iv other words, £3,000 has been spent by General Trochu to compass the despatch of one man to the hospital. The patriotic fire, and chivalrous feeling of honor which have led the Due de Luynes and so many other gallant French gentlemen to their death in unequal strife do not, unfortunately, equally enflame all classes of the population. That the French, after nearly the whole of their regular army had been destroyed or led away into captivity, shou Id have defended themselves as they have done, is indeed, most creditable, and will be recorded by history as a title of honor for the nation ; but it is only a portion of them that are really resigned to self-sacri-fice and resolved to fight to the death. Numbers of others seek the first opportunity to escape the duties and perils of a soldier's life in war time. These are to be met making for the rear, sometimes in bodies of several hundreds, defiant of discipline and of their officers, and bent only upon escaping from hardships they find intolerable and from tbe terrible Prussian shells. Probably these very men, had they been properly trained as soldiers, with good officers and a better organisation, would be steady and intrepid. But what, in reality, are these troops ? Baiaillons de marche, depdt companies, recruits, fugitives from the earlier disasters of the war, a motley mass without esprit de corps, commanded by officers they do not know, and a very large number of whom were lately themselves serving in the ranks as sergeants or corporals, but, owing to the great dearth of officers, were suddenly elevated to posts of authority for which they had few qualifications. Promotion is rapid in M. Gambetta's armies. The Gazette daily brings in long lists of advancement. Sergeants are made lieutenants, and then speedily advanced to captains. The army, at any rate, is getting democratic enough. In the very last official bulletin 19 sergeants and a corporal are promoted to ensigncies. Of course, the Minister of War can but use such materials as he has. The dearth in officers is very great. I was told the other day that a subaltern in a foreign service had been admitted into a French Army Corps with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. As to the Free Corps, they seem to be a great failure. A few of them have done their duty manfully, but with the majority enrolment in those corps seems to have been a mere pretext to avoid real service.

Since I have been campaigning with the German armies I have not seen any more conclusive evidence of the utter incapacity of the French levies for partizan -warfare, or, indeed, any other kind of warfare, than this scene presented ; that an inferior force should have driven them out of the woods as if they had been sheep, and should not be able to advance with impunity aloug the narrow lanes ■which afford the only means of traversing the difficult country, has struck their enemies -with astonishment. There can be no doubfc that had these, forests been filled with Red Indians or New Zealanders the German loss would have been much heavier. It is painful to write thus of a people whose bravery has become a proverb in Europe, and who have made the pursuit of military glory their successful occupation, but there can be no advantage to either of them, or to those whose fortunes are in any way connected with them, to perpetuate a delusion which has already been so fruitful in disaster. Whatever may be said of the Imperial armies, or those first Republican troops who at the outset inspired many with hope, these two days' fighting have made it plain to us that the last raw levies are utterly contemptible from a military point of view, and are far inferior to anything professing to be an organised army with which the Germans have yet come into collision. It was painful to see them lying thickly scattered over the fields and open spaces like slaughtered sheep., Under the hedge-row of one small two-acre field I counted no less than 18 dead Frenchmen and only one German. There thty lay, coiled up in ditches, stark in the midst of snow wreaths, or -half concealed by the thick brushwood, but all of one nationality. Evidently they had been taken at this point unexpectedly, either in flank or rear. Destitute of any officers of experience it is easy for. the. Germans to outmanoeuvre them, to steal round through the thick wood without firing a shot or replying to the volleys .which their enemies pour into the woods at random, and then from an unlooked-for direction to rain upon their victims a well-directed fire* at close quarters, and before they have recovered their surprise,; to rush at them; .with that demoralising cheer which; Beepas , to strike toner into the breasi of the poor Mobile*

It does not seem as if there -was yet any official statement of the demands with which France must comply in the case of eventual defeat. The fall of Paris is considered so near now that those who believe that event will end. or ought to end, the war, are enquiring what terms Germany will exact as the conditions of Peace; France has, as far as can be understood, not retracted one jot of her pretensions to hold all the territory assigned to her in 1815, with whatever she amy have since acquired, \ " Not an inch of our territory nor a single-. stone of our fortresses" is her battle-cry. !§ut, on the other hand, there have been several ..expressions of assent to a large money payment, to a cession, even, of some of her ships, and to a complete reimbursement of all the costs of the war. If Germany would be content with her victories and payment of the cost of them, with a handsome pecuniary bonustto gild her glories, she could conclude an armistice to-morrow, and have the basis of Peace laid, holding material guarantees for the fulfilment of the cou ditions of the Treaty which secured it. But Germauy may ask for the equivalent of the many thousands of her gallant sons who have fallen in battle, for her agony and suffering in the contest which was forced upon her, for the price of the lives of the legions she has lost. " Alsace and Lorraine !" That is the extra premium, Now, there is not the least use in saying to the Germans that they are impolitic, inconsistent, unmagnanimous, extortionate, uu-German, and so forth. They begin with " Alsace and Lorraine"— they end with many fanciful things, and make substantial additions to the claim for conquered territory; but whatever may be given and whatever may be refused else, they stand to "do or die" on " Akace and Lorraine." And the Frenchman still says, " Anything you like except an inch of French soil or anything that is on it. " It is worth while looking at fhe extent and nature of the territorial penalty which will surely be inflicted on France for the presumptuous challenge of her Emperor to the German people, unless she succeeds in reversing the decisions which have so far been pronou/nced upon her in the field. If we take one of the maps in the outer sheet of .the Times and a pencil we can trace the lines with more or less precision of the frontier desired for Fatherland. The most ambitious scheme I have heard propounded commences with a proposal to annex the stiip of France which lies between the Meuse and Belguim on the north, making the German frontier begin at a line drawn from Charlemont to Givet, and taking in Mezieres and Sedan. But the less sanguine would be content with a frontier on a line drawn between Longwy and Montroedy (included"), Sapd following the bank ofthe Meuse to Metz, and including that strong place ; then' running south and east by Pont-a-Moussen to the line of the Seille, taking in Marsal and the coal and iron fields of the district, and Phalsbourg, &c. Here there is a divergence of opinion. Some would take the line of the Saar, and strike down to St. Die, Marle-aux-Menes, and so by '1 harm and Mulhou_e to Belfort (included). Others would demand the Meurthe up to Luneville and Nancy, which might or might not be left to France, as matters turned out ( I have heard something said about Toul), and then come south on the Moselle at Re mi remont, and from it draw a line to Belfort. From Belfort there is no doubt that Moutbeliard inside a line drawn southwards, and thence a strip between the Doubs and the Swiss frontier, would be sought, so as to include the railway from Paris to Neufchatel at Pontarjier. This would give Germany a safe frontier against her aggressive neighbour, and place a broad, thick veil between the longing eyes of France and her Rhine boundary. She might go sing for it, as Germans have sung in times gone by. A little study with a Gazetteer will enable us to estimate the value of the. sacrifice France will have to offer on the altar of her Imperial ambition.