THE MITRAILLEUSE.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 749, 13 December 1870, Page 2

THE MITRAILLEUSE.

A Mr Talbot writing from Carlsbad, addressed the following to " The Times ":

It may be interesting to some of your readers to be informed, upon reliable authority, what is the true version of the story of the destruction of a Prussian regiment of Cuirassiers, narrated to the French Chamber by Count Palikao as having occurred in the battle of the ISth August. I received a letter, dated Berlin, August 22, from the wife of an officer belonging to' one of .the regiments, for there were two, which suffered so severely, enclosing a quotation from a letter to herself from her husband. Her words are:—

" The Ist Regiment of Dragoon Guards went first into fire, and were so slaughtered that only 120 men were left; the 2nd Dragoons were taken to make up the number of the Ist, and were in their turn cut down. The very flower of the Prussian nobility has perished. Our friends and familiar faces, that we have met every year in society are all dead, and there is the saddest desolation." It appears, from an account in a Vienna paper, that this great loss was caused by the French infantry, which had masked a line of mitrailleuses and concealed them from the advancing Prussian cavalry, opening out when charged and leaving it exposed to s the fire of those machines.

On my journey to this. place I passed through Cologne and Mayence ; those places were filled with wounded and prisoners, together with a large number of clergy and Sisters of Mercy, who were proceeding to the seat of war. During a 2i hours' stay at Cologne 70 trains, each of 80 carriages of the capacity of 38 men, passed through the station with refreshments for the Prussian army from Berlin. An equal number was expected hourly at Mayence from Leipsic, Dresden, &c. Notwithstanding, the passenger service was conducted with little interruption, beyond an occasioual stoppage, and the reduction of the number of trains to two daily. On each of the carriages which T saw the words " Express nach Paris citissime" were chalked.

I regret to say that I found much dissatisfaction prevailing among Prussians, both military and civilian, at what they called the merchant-like conduct of England, in the matter of munitions.