The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-08-27 00:00:00

NO MAKING WAY AGAINsT THEM.

I shall conclude by mentioning the result of a conversation
which I had with A captain of cuirassiers—the 6th—bet
might !writes the Daay Nen, Corregpomieuti lie
ti”.• •he he.•le W.,44 , es,ll s• ho

times, and always through is storm of shot and shell. lie
described it as a very • grille," and told me that as he rode
onward he heard the bullets whistling past his ears like •
storm. AU, however, was in vain. The Prussians would
keep to the woods, and the best and bravest of his officers
and all the foremost of his men went down like grass before
the scythe. There was no making way against these con-
cealed. enemies. If they had but come Into the open
"Pout" the gallant cuirassiers would have made small bones
of them, but possessed of the advantage of ground, and Con-
. coaled by trees which ought never to have grown for such a
purpose, they had it all their own way. fie was firmly per.
mated that without cover the Prussians were of no use at
all : and to convince me of this fact assured me that two men
of Ms troop, carried away lay tl,ir horses, charged a battery
of artillery, and that the gunners immediately fled for shelter
to the adjoining woods, line of his men was shot, but the
other returned in triumph, having carried—though he could
not retain—a whole battery of Pro,- Lot artillery. His de-
scription of the French mitrailleuses wins unique, and cannot
be rendered in ally ordinary words. According to his account
they have but to tire and which—a r—r—r—r." You must
here imagine him to wove his arms all round the compsas.
Whole companies of ['Nest:lns are laid low. Upon my asking
him if the Prussians had not got mitraillenees &leo, Ile replied
that they had e• mething of the sort, but that they produced
no effect whatever. The woods, always the woods, that, ac-
cording to all the Frenchmen I have root, is the secret of the
success of the German army ; and all that they ask is that
these enemies should descend into the plains, where they
seem to have no doubt that they can entirely vanquish and
rout them.

A tvAlt SCENE AT STRAsBERG.
A letter in the Vienna Pre.e relates that in the battle o
Woerth nearly 10,001 French were wounded, end that of these
4,000 were brought to Strasburg by the retreating army.
These were refused admission within the town, and they were
hurriedly scattered In the surrounding hamlets. Day and
night the pennant carts stood in the streets and roads; the
people would not take in their bloody burdens. Along the
streets the wounded ,oldlers were laid down in rows before
the houses, and Hot in hundreds. Meanwhile, crowds of '
fugitives and drunken marauders throated past, restrained
by no dischline Many soldiers, ecutially Zouive.,
behaved like madmen They tore It their unit. Tins, vowieg,
with curEes on their Generals, that they would not be led
into action again. For these days this atrocious burly.burly
lasted. The garrison, chiefly artillery, with but few soldiers
of the bee, had to exert all their force to put the place in
defensive condition. The screams of the wounded were
drowned in the crash of buildings blown into the ale; a num-
ber of new houses and workshops on the south and north
sides were cleared away. At one moment the report spread
that the garrison would bombard Kehl, mid the well-t,•-do
Inhabitants peeked up their goods to fly to Switzerland, but
no waggons were to be had, the commandant having notated
to the peasants that he would shoot any whose conveyances
were used for any other than military purposee Had a part
of the South German army, crossing over by Mnlhausen aid
Colmar, attacked the distracted and despaiiing city, the
fortress would probably have been captured.