BATTLE OF THIONVILLE, August 16.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 734, 8 November 1870, Page 2

BATTLE OF THIONVILLE, August 16.

The following account is by the correspondent of the " Constitutionnel," who was present at the battle:—" I was not very wrong in telling you that the battle of Thionville was a great victory. It was a victory in reality, the Prussians have been obliged this morning to quit their positions ; but this is not the decisive blow, for, alas ! our enemies have not been completely crushed. The signal of the great battle was given by a surprise. On our way to reach Eezonvillo the Cuirassiers of the Guard, sent to reconnoitre, passed alongside of us like a thunderbolt. Thoy wore

only a few, for the enemy's fire had decimated them. The Prussians—hidden in the woods, as usual—had fired upon the luckless horsemen without showing themselves. The Prussian army massed in the woods, wishing to attempt a great stroke on the 16th August, had scarcely even shown its scouts, so that, contrary to ail experience since the opening of the war, no Uhlan had been brought to camp for two days. At a quarter before ten the first Prussian line of battle, which had fired grapeshot upon our dragoons, fell unforeseen on our foremost encampments. The soldiers in shirt sleeves were busy making their soup; the artillery had not its horses saddled; the confusion was complete. The 93rd, the 4th, and the 10th of the line, belonging to the second division of Canrobert's corps and the division of Frossard, were riddled with bullets and grapeshot. In a few minutes the whole army was under arms, and the line of battle was formed with a marvellous unity. One would have said, seeing these masses move with such precision and regularity that all the soldiers composing them were soldered together. Canrobert's corps held the right wing, Frossard's the left. During these first movements the Zouaves, the Grenadiers, and the Voltigeurs of the G-uard, encamped in front of Gravelotte, passed through the village at the double, singing and shouting. ' At last,' said they all, ' at last we are going to see them.' They were wrong. The Prussians did not show themselves ; for if they had they would have been most rapidly finished off. The whole Guard, in two portions, excepting the artillery, which held by the left wing all the day, rapidly massed itsolf behind the lines of battle, disposed one behind the other in echelon. A warm fire immediately broke forth along the whole front, extending over a length of about two leagues. You have never seen a place more marvellously arranged by nature for an immense and horrible battle. It is traversed in the centre by the Paris road, fringed on each side by great poplars. It is only one series of ravines, of enormous hills covered on the further side, towards the Prussian position,by woods, where they could easily shelter themselves. To the left and right thero were also woods, one especially at the extreme left, which was regarded with apprehension during part of the day. The French army, after having massed itself well in front from the commencement of the day, established its batteries on the heights. . Unfortunately, Prussian batteries placed upon hills situated 1500 to ISOO metres off, immediately in front of our guns, commenced a well-sustained fire, which killed many of our gunners. Horrible charges of cavalry afterwards dash upon the batteries, and try to carry off the guns. During an hour the carnage was terrible. Large forces make a lodgment in front of the woods to the left. The reserve masses itself in the hollows immediately below and to the rear of our line of battle. Every moment the conflict increases in intensity. The roar of the artillery ceases for a few minutes, only to be resumed with increased strength. Little by little the battle shifts towards the centre immediately to the left of the route from Gravelotte to Thionville. Throughout the whole day the carnage at that point on both sides is horrible. The artillery of the guard,and the whole guard itself attack; tbey avoid the wood; they skirt it without trouble, and the line extends on the left wing, while the fire almost ceases on the right. As one regiment is obliged to fall back, others replace it. Our soldiers perform prodigies of valor, and become all the more furious because the enemy shows himself as seldom as he can. At one moment the fifth battery of the Bth Division is charged by two great bodies of dragoons and Uhlans. There are no men to serve the guns, but an artilleryman, lying down near his piece, has time to fire twice running. The horsemen become confused and fall back ; but soon they return with increased fury. Now there is only a chef d'escadron in the battery. Ho receives the enemy erect, with a revolver in each hand, and twenty Chasseurs-a-pied, commanded by Sub-Lieutenant Grandjean, send such a well sustained fire against the dragoons and the Uhlans, that they make them recoil, and succeed in < saving the guns. Some batteries are taken twice, and twice retaken. Others are saved by the energy of their drivers. The Prussian horsemen sought nothiug more eagerly than to cut off their left arm with sabre strokes, to make them drop their reins. The Grenadiers of the Guard were vigorously attacked. Among the regiments which have terribly suffered are the Btb, 2Gth, 66th, and G7th. In the 93rd forty officers have been killed. In one company of the 9th Chasseurs-a-pied ouly forty men came back. Everywhere the officers were aimed at by the Prussians, and everywhere they were cut down. Among the dead, I am told, aro the colonel of the GOth, and many others. General Bataille almost at the first received a ball in the groin. Another superior officer, they tell mo, lost an eye by a ball. During the whole day there has been one long stream of wounded men to the field ambulances, on foot, in litters, or on stretchers. The Prussian wounded were numerous also in our ambulances, and, strango to say, almost all wounded in the back. Towards half-past six the front of the battle changed. Marshall Lebcouf, with a , wholo corps, has gono to surprise the

eDemy in flank of the route from G-ravelotte to Verdum. About that moment the battle seemed to divide itself in two, and the losses of the Prussians were still more increased. Only night put an end to the firing. To sum up, we have the victory, for the next morning the enemy abandoned his positions, to fall back, it is said, to the frontier."