WAR NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 14, 29 April 1871, Page 15

WAR NOTES.

General Trochu was a man of plans, and never could alter the details of these plans to suit a change of circumstances. A correspondent says :—“ What his grand plan was, by which Paris was to be saved, no one now, I presume, ever will know. The plans of his sorties were always elaborately drawn up ; each divisional commander was told in the minutest details what he was to do. Unfortunately, General Vloltke usually interfered with the proper development of these details—a proceeding which always surprised poor Trochu —and in the account the next day of his operations, he would dwell upon that fact as a reason for his want of success. That batteries should be opened upon his troops, and that reinforcements should be brought up against them, were trifles probable as they might seem to most persons—which filled him with an indignant astonishment.” Trochu’s cautious strategy, it appears, was unpopular, despite the wholesale slaughter that the last sortie entailed. Pushing bravely into the German positions before Valerien, the French lost thousands in the vain attempt to force back the besiegers. It is almost certain that 5000 French were put hors de comhat, and nearly 500 were captured. The German loss was 600. The “ Echo du Parlement” published the following paragraph, headed “Attempt upon the Life of Gen. Trochu —We read in the Paris “ Moniteur” that a sad accident occurred while Gen. Trochu was bringing back battalions from the last sortie. We shall confine ourselves to saying that this incident cost the life of one of General Trochu’s orderly officers. General Vinoy, the last commander-in-chief, is a hale old soldier about 70 years old. He has risen from the ranks, and in the Crimea was a very intimate friend of Lord Clyde. When the latter came, a few years before his death, to Paris, the English Ambassador had prepared a grand breakfast for him, and had gone to the station to meet him. On

the platform was also old Vinoy, who also had prepared breakfast for his old comrade in arms, and this breakfast, very much to the disgust of the diplomatist, Lord Clyde accepted. Among those who were killed in the great and last sortie from Paris on Jan. 19, was M, Regnault, the painter who obtained, at the last salon, the gold medal for his picture of “ Salome.” He went into action with a card on his breast, on which he had written his name and the address of the young lady to whom he was engaged to be married. When the brancardiere picked him up he had just strength enough to point to this address. They carried him there, but he died in a few hours. The most painful scene during the battle, belore Paris on Jan. 19 was the sight of a French soldier who fell by French balls. He was a private of the 119th Battalion, and refused to advance. His commander remonstrated. A private shot him. General Bellemare, who was near, ordered the man to be killed at once.. A file was drawn up and fired on him ; he fell, and was supposed to be dead. Some brancardiers soon afterwards passing by and thinking that he had been wounded in the battle, placed him on a stretcher. It was then discovered that he was still alive. A seldier went up to him to finish him off, but his gun missed fire. He was then handed another, when he blew out the wretched man’s brains.

“ I wish to mention,” says a correspondent with Chanzy’s army, “ that there is no doubt that the Prussians used explosive bullets. I saw one strike the leg of the horse next to mine at Le Mans, and burst. Admiral Jaurreguiberry saw another strike the stump of a tree within five yards of him; and the Comte de Noue, who commanded the artillery of the 16th Corps, told me that he saw one or two burst during the battle of Le Mans. Whilst I w 7 as at Havre an officer of the Irish Ambulance showed me four explosive - bullets that had been taken out of the pouch of a dead Prussian by him.” The “ Courrier,” a weekly paper published at Rennes, tells us on January 24 that we should not forget in these times of humiliation, of mourning, < and of expiation, is just 77 years ago that one of the most virtuoiis and wise kings '■> who have honored the throne of France —a worthy son of St Louis—perished on the scaffold, the victim of those men whose tyranny covered their country with blood and ruins before they themselves bent down servilely under the yoke of Napoleon the First. It goes on to ask why, after such a lesson, Frenchman have, for the last half-cen-tury, been carried away by every revolutionery wind that has blown. The reason it gives is, that France had ignored its Christian mission. Seduced by false men of learning, by immoral and infidel literary men, like Rousseau and Voltaire, she has ever since been trying to build up a social edifice the basis of which wrs not respect to God and the Decalogue. The word! of the Gospel had come to pass; the house which God had not built had crumbled into the sand, notwithstanding all the vain efforts of man. The cattle.plague has broken out at Montmedy, and the Belgians are trying hard to isolate those few of their villages which are affected. A correspondent, writing on January 28, says :—‘-I and my driver and the horse-rug were shut up in a dark box barely big enough for one of us, and fumigated, in coming from one commune to another; but the local wiseacres left our horses alone. I, not knowing, asked what the fumigation was for, and was told pour les betes, which made me reflect on the other * betes which might be on the horse-rug or on the driver, and which might imagine that the fumigation was the driver’s act, and to be avoided only by taking refuge on me. So I was glad to escape. As I came out the operator asked if it was * strong enough,’ to which I answered £ No,’ being humanely anxious that the next traveller should suffer at least as much as I had done.” Another attack was made by the Germans upon bodies of French troops on February 1, near Chateau de Joux, south of Pontarlier. On February 1, 40C0 Prussians entered the town of Dieppe, billeted themselves on the inhabitants, and ordered a French corvette to leave the port. The Prussians appear to have chosen

Ueeppe as their sea communication. "They would have preferred Havre, but trjytft. would have cost some fighting, 'sjltilsfc Dieppe answers their purposes. Abbeville was occupied by the Gertroops on February 6.