The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-18 00:00:00

THE WAR IN DENMARK,

(.B.ont the, Vines ,Special Correspondent with the Allied

Armies.)

HAMBURG, May 13.

I have passed the last week in wandering over the
old familiar ground, the scene of German successes
seal Danish disasters, noting changes, looking in
upon a few old acquaintances, meeting many others
by the roadside. When I speak of old acquaintances
I am reminded that, with scanty exceptions, all
those I now know in Jutland and the Dachies have
been made since I first crossed the Eider on the Ist
of February last. But acquaintanceship ripens fast
amid the shifts and vicissitudes of a campaign, just
as a short span of time full of incident and variety
appears to one, at a retrospective glance, like a much
longer period. I can hardly realise to myself that it
is little more than three months since the passage of
the Eider, the attack on Missunde, the evacuation
of the Dannewerk, the stubborn rearguard fight at
Oversee, and my own first arrival at Flensburg,
which I left last night, after repeatedly revisiting
it, perhaps never to return hither. Notwithstand-
ing the asperity of its climate, the keenness of its
winds, the roughness of its pavements, and the bad-
ness of its inns, Flensburg, beautifully situated
among woods at the extremity of its fiord, is de-
cidedly the most endurable place I have seen in
Schleswig; and when one ran down to it from fur-
ther north, and especially from small overcrowded
villages like Gravenstein and Schleswig, where
everything has been eaten up as by a passage of lo-
custs, and soiled and degraded by the throng of sol-
diery, it seemed quite a luxurious city. Within six
hours' rail of Hamburg it ought to be able to draw
abundant supplies hence ; but, nevertheless, it has
more than once been difficult to purchase the com-
monest necessaries of life in its exhausted shops.
In Sundewitt and Broackerland things are still
worse, and there seems a general wish among the
military to get away from a country which they
have so completely drained, and where there is so
little probability of further fighting. I have met
with many officers already going south on leave of
absence, and doubtless there will be many urgent
private affairs to settle during the armistice. Cer-
tainly nothing can be more wearisome than inaction
in such resourceless, uncomfortable lands as Schles-
wig and Jutland. The Crown Prince of Prussia,
who, although holding no command, has been con-
stantly at the headquarters of the army since the
commencement of the campaign, has taken advan-
tage of the suspension of hostilities to come down to
Hamburg and meet Princess Victoria, who arrived
here at half-past 5 this morning, and took up the
quarters previously prepared for her at the Hotel de
l'Europe,the Clarendon of Hamburg, and one of the
very best of continental inns. Her Royal Highness
is attended by the Countess Portales, Count Furs.
tenstein, and Dr. Wegner. Prince Frederick
William came a few hours later, with the young
Prince of Hohenzollern and two aides-de-camp. It
was thought the Crown Prince and Princess would
go on to Flensburg and visit the battle fields of
Schleswig, bat I believe the idea has been nearly if
not quite abandoned. And, indeed, at the present
time the discomforts of such an excursion must out-
weigh tee gratification , at least for a lady. Very little
remains to be seen there where the most notable
actions of the campaigns occurred. Not aatisfied with
conquest and capture, the allies have been zealous in
the works of destruction. Of the fortifications and
defensive works they have taken from the Dines, the
site, of course, remains, but of the superstructure
little vestige in most instances. The Prussians seem
possessed by the very demon of levelling, with his
auxiliary imps, pick and powder. It was a good
many weeks since I had passed the Dannewerk by
daylight, until the other day, and, but for previous
knowledge, I should have had difficulty in discover-
ing where the great bulwark, the mountain which
proved so rnouselike when the critical moment
arrived, had reared its much vaunted defences. As
for Duppel heights, so recently crowned by ten forts
and a formidable line of fortifications, they bid fair
soon to took as peaceful as Brighton Downs. I had
not thought to revisit them, but was induced to
drive over from. Flensburg on Wednesday, partly
to ascertain what foundation there was for the ru-
mours which reached me at Hadersleben of fighting
on the shores of Alsen Sund. I soon asceftained
that there were scarcely any grounds for the reports
in question. There hed been no heavy cannonade
at Sandberg or anywhere else; since the 18th of
April only a few occasional shots, The Prussians,
1 was informed, had threatened to destroy Sonder-
berg if the Danes fired ; and it must be owned that,
under all the circumstances, such fire would have
been a most unprofitable waste of ammunition, if
not of human life. I walked through part of the
foremost parallel and down to the stump of Duppel
mill, across Fort 4, of which few vestiges remain.
Tnere are some slight remains of the ditch, but the
extent to which the earthworks have been demo-
lished may he judged of by the fact that the
masonry of the magazine, which was deep down
in the redoubts, now rises above the level of the
ground, and is the most prominent object on the
patch of earth where Fort 4 stood. The other forts
had undergone the same fate, or were in process
of doing so. Nos. 9 and 10 were said to be still
tolerably entire, but the sound of mines exploding
in that direction indicated that they were un-
likely long to remain so. The armistice will have
put a stop to this destruction, and will have de-
prived the very considerable number of troops still
stationed in Sundewitt of the means of pass-
ing their time in wholesome, if not in very pro-
fitable labour. I saw several email clusters of
tents ; at Azbull, where the park of siege artillery
used to be, and where a large quantity of shot and
shell and other war material is still collected, are
some large wooden huts; but the quartering of
troops still weighs heavily on the inhabitants.
It would be far better for the army, and only
fair to the Sctilestvigers, now that winter has
at last disappeared, to camp the men, instead of
cramming them into close houses and cottages.
Possibly it is intended to do so. At the present
moment, as I found by inquiry of the inhabitants,
the pressure on the population is as great as it ever
has been during the war, and at Gravenstein the
poor people are almost turned out of their houses.
A little more, and they would have to bivouac in
the streets in order that their military lodgers might
be accommodated. On all sides and by all classes
in Schleswig I heard the hardship of the billeting
system bitterly complained of. To persons having
means, and who will not submit to the nuisance of
soldiers quartered in their houses, it is equivalent
to a very large tax in money, since they have to pay
heavily for lodgings for the men elsewhere. To the
poorer classes it is a still greater hardship, for their
small dwellings are turned upside down, their beds
are appropriated, their wives are expected to cock
for the officers quartered on them, their houses, in
short, are converted into barracks, and they are
fortunate if a single room be left to their undivided
occupation. The requisitions for horses and car-
riages are likewise very severe, so much so that not
a few private gentlemen have Bold their horses to
escape them. It is not pleasant to receive a message
that your carriage, which you perhaps needed for
your own use the next day, or your horses, which
may only just have come off hard work, are to at-
tend at such a place at midnight or daybreak to
convey a party of officers, or a prince or a general,
to a town 20 miles distant. Cases of this kind are
of daily occurrence, and if the demand is not com-
plied with the penalties are extremely heavy. The
military powers make their demands on the local
authorities, and as these latter are by this time all
German, i end n many eases red hot
Slaseehicusrwe
th
llolsteiners, ey of course find a pleasure
gn
throwing the chief burden of the requisitions on
persons known or supposed to be friendly to
the
Danish Government. No compensation whatever
is given to the proprietors of the vehicles
thus pressed into the service. Persons who have
carriages end horses by which they set store, hire
others when they can, but this is often impossible.
It would be difficult to compensate such persons for
the damage frequently done to their cattle and car-
riages. As for the carts of various kinds which
have been pressed for the transport of stores and
rations, and which remain permanently away from
their homes, the system is to provide stabling and
corn for the hoists and a soldier's rations for the
driver, but the latter gets no (Weer wage nor the