The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-08 00:00:00

THE WAR IN DENMARK

(From the Times Special Correspondent at the Danish
Head-quarters,)
DANISH HEADQUARTERS, SONDERBORG,
April 2.
_ _

This is the first day in which we have seen such
serious work as may betoken the beginning of the
end. • We are still all stunned with the din of real
war, and it is not without great difficulty that I
collect my thoughts and compose my mind so as to
give a tolerably distinct and intelligible narrative
of passing events.
I had set out for a pleasure ride on horseback
with a friend a few minutes after 3 o'clock in the
afternoon. The morning had been rainy; but a
strong north-westerly wind had driven the clouds
from the heavens, and the weather was sharply cold
though bright. The usual slack and unmeaning
cannonade had gone on the whole morning; but we
had learnt to 'despise it, and had not even turned
out to inquire what its purpose or its results might
be. The artillery, however, on Dybbol-hill soon
quickened its fire to a pitch not only unprecedented
during the previous phases of this war, but hardly
to be matched by anything we had read or heard of
in any war. The cannonade was appalling. It was
the battle of the angels and demons, as imagined by
Milton. We flattered ourselves for a moment that
all this brisk discharge proceeded from the Danish
bastions. We knew that Prussian batteries had lately
been descried on the summit of the Avnbierg, on
sea oral points about Dybbol village, and on other
positions along the line, and fancied that the Danes,
bent on the destruction of the enemy's works,
wished to show the sluggish Germans with what
activity and to what purpose cannon should be
handled. We made our way on foot to the Windmill
battery by the south-eastern shore; then again
shifted our place of observation, and went to the top
of a hill, in the centre of a windmill which crowns
Sonderborg on the north, where an arbour in the
corner of the garden commands the most exten-
sive view of the Dybbol heights across the Sound.
From the vantage ground we thus successively
occupied we had it in our power to see the flash of
every gun, and to follow the path of every shell.
The Danes, it soon became apparent, had not taken
the initiative in the Action ; it was the Prussians
who, after all that mere farce of a three weeks'
cannonade, opened their fire with a will, and went
to work es if they really meant mischief. Possibly,
they had hitherto merely kept up their play at
cannon balls to give themselves time to complete
their works in front of the Danish lines ; possibly,
also, their Government had, at last, given up all
hopes or fears of a Conference, and had telegraphed
to their commanders that the time for shilly-shally-
ing was past, ant that it behoved them to show
that forbearance did not on their part arise from
weakness. They had hitherto limited their activity
to the throwing a few hundred shells daily from
their batteries at Broagerland. Once only they had
tried the range of a few field pieces from the top of
Avnbjerg; but to-day they unmasked their batteries
both from that summit and from Dybbol village,
and their 24 pounders thundered all along the lino
from extreme left to extreme right. The fire was
so well maintained that it was difficult for a spec-
tator to follow the reports as they crowded upon
one another, and often two and more at one time.
Some of us counted as many as 25 shots in tho
minute, and an Englishman assured us that 2,500
shell- had flown through the air in the lapse of an
hour. All this furious attack was mainly directed
against the Dybbol bastions, where the Danes
showed the best countenance, and for a long time
gave the enemy as good as he sent. The batteries
from Broagerland, besides aiding in the work im-
mediately before them, found leisure to bestow some
of their attention upon Sonderborg, and about 100
of their shells were aimed at the castle, at the tete
de pont, and at as many of the lower buildings of the
town as were more immediately within their reach.
I have not as yet been able to ascertain what amount
of damage all this shower of projectiles may have
done to the Danish line. Some of the officers who
have just returned from outposts assure these 'who
are willing to believe them that the mischief is but
trifling, and that the bastions are none the worse
for the tremendous noise which has been for more
than six hours incessantly kept up against them.
The evidence of our own eyes, however, would
rather induce us to make some abatement in these
flattering assertions: The fire of the Prussians was
returned by the Danes with less spirit as the day
declined, and it is difficult to share the assurance
entertained at head-quarters here, that the Prus-
sians, after all the havoc of the day, will be as far
from having it in their power to venture on en
assault to-morrow as they were in their previous
attempts of the 17th and 28th of last month. That
none of the batteries on this side have been silenced,
we have been able to ascertain. The drawbridge at
No. 6 has been burnt, however, and at No. 10 a
musketry fire has been heard, a circumstance which
might induce a belief that the Prussians have
shown themselves at an inconvenient proximity.
Whatever the material consequences of to-day's
action may be to either of the belligerents, the mere
distant sight of it was appalling to us neutrals.
The very farm houses that were burning to the
ground on many quarters of the landscape--a 1
never-failing accessory to these scenes of destruc-

tion—glowed in the dietance with hardly any per•
ceptible flame or smoke, so utterly was every vapour
swept from the ground by the too violent blast. As
the sun set and darkness settled on the face of the
earth the wooden barracks in the vicinity of the
bastions also caught fire in four or five distinct
places, and their glare gleamed dingy red, like the
lava of a volcano, as if the embers smouldered and
crackled smothered by the overpowering force of the
very element that generally feeds fire. A crowd of
soldiers, mixed with a few of the townspeople,
had thronged around us as we stood on our hill-
top, and dumb amazement, vague terror, and a
sort of wild joy were depicted on every counte-
nance. There was sublimity enough in the scene
before us to strike a deep sensation into the com-
monest nature.

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