AN INCIDENT OF THE PRUSSODANISH WAR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 131, 3 June 1878, Page 2

AN INCIDENT OF THE PRUSSODANISH WAR.

(Translated from the Danish for the Evbnixg Mail by " Th. Bl.") [ " From the Border," is the name of a book written in Danish by Mr HolgerDrachman, and published last year in Copenhagen. In this work the author describes a trip he lately made to Alsen and Dybbol, where he visited all those places where battles had been fought between the Prussians and the Danes. Alsen is au island divided from the mainland by a narrow Souud, and just on the other side of the Sound is a hill called Dybbol. On the crest of this the Danes had ten redoubts, and these they held against the Prussians for over two months Mr Drachman walked all over this ground, so dear to all Danes, and here he met, or pretends to have met a chimney sweep, with whom he entered into conversation, and who, having fought at Dybhol in 1864, told, him what he could remember of the 14th of April, the day Dybbol was takeu by the Prussians. Having myself been in the same battle, I can vouch far the truth of this little sketch, or, at least, if I may so say, for the spirit of it. "From the Border" has already reached a second edition, which, in itself, i3 a testimony to its worth, — Tu. Bl.] Our division was stationed in oue of the redoubts on the morning of the 17th April, 1864. The whole of that day, and the night too, we passed the time after our old fashbn, falling down on all fours and standing up again, at least if we were not hit. If I must speak the truth, I think we were longing for the relief party to come up, but at the same time we were getting that dull that we hardly cared for anything. We looked as though we had been lying in the mud, and so we had, and we were quite black in the face, as lots of the artillery had been killed, and we infantry had to load and fire the big pets. In the night we heard the Prussians rooting and digging the ground, only a few hundred feet outside the redoubt. They had taken our rifle pits the day before, and we had not been able to drive them back. We had them consequently almost on top of us, and we knew it, but we knew also that now it would soon come to an end. That would be the best too, as avg could not endi're it much longer. We sat down, lay down, or trudged about, as dirty as scavengers. No ono would have taken us for Danish soldiers. Hardly anything was left worth calling a redoubt, and we had only one gun left. You can understand yourself that this would soon come to an end; and it came. What, through all, kept our spirits up was the knowledge that the crisis soon would be reached. In the night we fired some shots, with our Jast shells, down the rifiepits, where we supposed the Prussiaus were. They howled like fiends and we got our answer almost immediately. We thought now they would come, and I remember how my fingers were itching. But they came not yet, they ouly showered shells over us till day began to break, and that was the hardest turn we had had yet. I could not at all explain it to you, and you would not understand it, and I could hardly now believe my own words were I to relate it to you. We crouched down, aud would have liked to bury ourselves in the ground like foxes. Every now and then there came a shock, and then the earthworks came sliding down over us, and we peeped at one another to see if we were whole. ' A flesh wound counted as nothing, we only looked to see if a leg or arm was missing or a body torn in two. It was horrible! I lay by the side of a Swedish sergeaut who had joined our division His nose was red as fire, and he himself big and stout, a jolly companion, and \ a daring fellow. At daybreak the Prussians ceased their firing a little, and we could hear them busy down in the riflepits. " Take care," I said to the Swede, " now they are coming." He rose up and whispered- to our Lieutenant, aud our Lieutenant whispered to the Lieutenant of the Artillery in the redoubt, and then we looked to see if we had any powder left, Yes, there was powder, but neither shells nor balls. " Perhaps I may be permuted to take this one," said the Swede, and then he tcoka bag of sand and put it down the gun, which an artilleryuiau had just charged with powder. Then some of ,

us gave a hand and we filled the gun right to the muzzle with stones, gravel, and mud, and then we sung the old song "A Swedish Constable from Sweden." "Well done, boys," said our Lieutenant " keep up your spirits, but that gun will explode." "Let it," said the Sergeant, " but some of those Prus3iaus will follow suit." We all laughed, and then wo waited with our rifles iu our hands for their coming. But yet they came not. They only showered shells on us for about an hour, and all who could have seen us must have pitied us, for we were full up with dying and dead. The Swedish sergeant stood watching the gun, as if he feared they would steal it from him. He did not care a bit for the shells, and I do not understand yet why he was not killed. Then all at once the firing ceased. It was quite funny when it became so quiet. We looked at one another, and took hold of our rifles. I remember the Swede standing by the gun ready to fire. "If they get this dose they will suceze red," said he, and then we heard a signal and a yell, and every man of us jumped up on the parapet — for now they came. They crowded up in long lines in front of us, and, as quick as they came up, bont forward, and ran towards us, the foremost with levelled guns, the others with them acros9 their breasts. The Swede fired the gun, jumped aside, and caught up a rifle. The smoke went straight out towards them, but the gun did not explode. They yelled, divided, but rallied again just below us. We fired our rifles right in their faces, and then we had them up among us. We beat them back, and they came up again. They bore down on us, and there was such a fearful lot of them. I know I looked them straight in the face, and still I do not remember a single one of them. They ground their teeth and yelled, and I sjppose we did the same, but what we were not, I will take an oiilh that; many of them were, jinloxieated. Now lean hardly tell you any more. We fought on the parapet, and we fought in the redoubt. As loug as we had our rifles we used them as soldiers. I kept mine, but I saw others close to me fighting with their fists, and biting with their teeth. One big Prussian jumped upon the chest of one of our men, and with hU boots crushed his face in. I pierced him with my bayonet, and he fel on me, and I had to free myself of him with a kick of my boot. That was one kick for another, but I hardly care to think of it. All I know now 13, that land some others, among us the big Swede, were driven out through the gate. Tho majority remained inside, and, by what lam told, no quarter was given. I was running, with my rifle in my left hand. All at once I felt as if some one had given me a good blow across my left arm. I lost my rifle, but picked it up with my right haud and kept On funning. I came across some otlxr division. Nobody asked me where I came from, so I joined them. We went into skirmishing order and kept on retiring towards the redoubts at the pierhead. When inside there I fell down. My arm felt heavy and cold, and the blood oozed down my fingers. Now it was my turn to feel intoxicated. They fired round about me, the bugle sounded, but I was used to that, and it did uot wake me. I was like in a swoon. Then one of my mates gave me a thump, and that smarted. I got cross, but he only looked at me and asked me if I would remain here. Now I saw that all were marching towards the pontoon. bridge, and he went after the rest. I then dragged myself in that direction I did not care much at that time if I had been made a prisoner or not. I think I was the very last man who crossed the bridge. We hud two pontoon bridges there, and the engineers were just about swinging one of them out in the Sound. The Prussians had already got guns placed on the highest poiuta. They shelled the engineers, but they continued quietly at their work, and a good job they did Had the Prussians got across the water at that time the whole play would have been over.