The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-20 00:00:00

THE WAR IN DENMARK.

(From the limes Special Correspondent with the Allied
armies.)

BROACKER, April 15.

The Prussian Generals seem determined to convert
the Danish earthworks into masses of metal before
adventuring the lives of their men in an assault.
Yesterday was another day of heavy fire. I went
down to Gravenstein in the afternoon to post my
letters, and thither the masses of smoke from the
batteries had preceded me, borne from Duppel by an
easterly wind; there was other smoke, also, from a
farm in Alsen, yesterday set on fire by one of the
batteries on the left. It was one of those great
farms not uncommon in Schleswig, with a spacious
residence and extensive outbuildings, the abode of
ease and comfort—sometimes of almost wealth and
luxury. But some Danes were in it, and had to be
dislodged. So thought an offin,q. in command of a
battery on the left, and accordingly he threw in a
shell and burnt the place. It was a great confla-
gration, and surely a heavy loss to some one of
those Schleswig- ers whom the Allies have come to
help to their rights. Meanwhile and all day the
batteries blazed away at the forts, which replied
not. On the left, however, two batteries found an
answer. Up to about noon the Danes replied to
them vigorously, and in one of them, No. 25,
nearly opposite to Sandberg, two guns were dis-
mounted and damaged, two men killed, and one
wounded. You were told before that the Danes had
established strong batteries along that Alsen strand,
as far north as Ronhoff, and it was two of those
that yesterday fired. On the right of the Prussian
line of attack, in a battery of the second parallel, a
visitor who bad been up there yesterday told me
that he saw a gun lying dismounted. It is re-
ported to have been done in the night by some small
Danish gunboats that ventured in, but how these es-
caped at the hands of the heavy batteries established
with a view to such contingencies I am unable
to state. It is difficult to get precise information
on such matters. Every man may know what
passes in his own battery, but he generally knows
little more—at least of what occurs at night, and
numerous tales obtain currency for which there is
little or no foundation. I understand that Sonder-
borg was again bombarded yesterday, although
perhaps to no great extent. lam wholly at a lose
to explain the object of these repeated bombard-
ments. The nearest of the two bridges which con-
nect Alsen and Snndewitt is perfectly well seen from
the Observatory at Schelde, and is, of course, an
object of attention to the artillery. A watch is
kept for troops and stores passing over it, with a
view to fire upon them. But as the bridge is diffi-
cult to hit, although seemingly constructed of very
large pontoons, the fire, an artillery officer informed
me, is generally directed at the approaches to it, on
the side of the mainland, as I understood, but if the
same were done on the side of the town it could
hardly fail to occasion damage to houses. The
Prussians seem unable to explain the repeated
shelling of Sonderborg, and still more at a loss to
justify it, or, at least, to justify the doing it
without notice to the inhabitants. Some say it was
an oversight; some that for special reasons warning
could not be given ; others that the inhabitants
ought to have abandoned it on the hint of the half
dozen shells thrown in three weeks ago ; while
others again declare their belief that it had been so
abandoned that it in fact was no longer anything
but a great barrack which they had a perfect right
to bombard at any hour. 1 perceive signs of great
annoyance in certain quarters at the severe manner
in which the proceeding has been judged in Eng-
land. I should be glad if Berlin could give satis-
factory explanations in reply to the inquiries under-
stood to have been addressed to it, but I fear that
will prove tether difficult.
The Schelde Observatory, above referred to, has
not, I think, as yet been described to you. It is
situated on the west coast of Broackorland, to the
south of Gammelemark. At the upper edge
of the beach, where it rises into a field, and
with one corner propped against a mighty tree,
stands a little hut the rude framework of which
consists of a few poles and spars, and the walls and
roof of which are seaweed and straw. In it there
is a very fair telescope; and intelligent non-commis-
sioned officers are continually on the look-out. From
it one looks right up Alsen Sand and has an excel-
lent view of the town. I was up there last in the
afernoon of the 13th, and had another careful exa-
mination of Sonderhorg. The traces of the fire
are very slight, but one can discover houses the win-
dows of which are gone and the apertures black-
ened, and which, doubtless, have been gutted by
the flames. There was a good deal of shipping up
in Horup Hoff, including some large steamers, and
their appearance, although no unusual occurrence,
came opportunely to give increased probability to
the rumours of Danish evacuation current on that
day, bat which may now, it seems, be considered
to have been unfounded. From that Observatory,
on the days of the bombardment of Sonderborg,
many of the Prussian shells were seen to fall in the
water. Although it is unimportant as affecting the
conduct of the Prussians, it may be well to note,
as a gauge of Danish veracity and accuracy, that
400 shells were the very largest number that were
thrown during the whole of what is upon the other
side called the 48 hours' bombardment. Forty-two
fire-shells were filet thrown, but did not set the
place on fire; this was done by the ordinary shells
that followed. The shells were all fired from one
battery, and not, as I was led to believe, from two.
My information as to the number fired is derived
from a gentleman who must know, who is incapable
of an untruth, and who in this case has not the
slightest interest to tell one.

The prisoners taken the night before last, and
whose numbers are variously stated at from 120
to 160, are nearly all Jatlenders. Judging from
the way in which some of them were yesterday
chatting and laughing at Gravenstein, they are not
much cast down at their captivity : but, on the
contrary, rather glad to be taken. This has seemed
to be the case with most of the prisoners I have
seen since the very beginning of the war. Many
of them, it is true, were Sehleswigars, end de fix/0
deserters, but I do not believe that the Jutlanders
are a bit more anxious to fight. There is small
reason why they should. The longer and the better
they defend Dappel and Alsen the worse is it for
their native province, which is being ruined by the
enormous exactions of the Allies, who there appa-
rently act upon the Napoleonic principle of making
war support war. Even here in Schleswig, where
that is not the case, the people in general will be
delighted to get rid of this army, well behaved
though they freely admit its soidiers are. Since I
have:been living in Broacker and its neighbourhood,
with most parts of which I am by this time tolerably
familiar, I have been struck by two things, which,
although small, are sure signs that the soldiers who
occupy every village and hamlet and farmhouse and
peasant's cot in the country are orderly and re-
specters of property. The gardens are not ravaged
and the henroosts are not robbed. In the little
nooks of garden which, as in England, are to be