The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-16 00:00:00

THE WAR IN DENMARK.

(From the times Special Correspondent with the 'Wad

,d r m ie s . )

BROACKER, April 11.

It was a very onesided fight yesterday, for the
Danes stately fired at ail in reply to the incessant
cannonade, occasionally slackening fora few minutes,
bat only to revive more briskly than before, which
the Prussians kept up till nearly dark with unabated
assuidity. After I had sent off my yesterday's letter
by man and Norse to Gravenstein—for there is no
regular post from this poor Broacher, and every-
body sends in his letters as he can—the weather
cleared a good deal, blue sky overhung us, and a
bright sun shone out. Still, to the front, over that
triangular promontory on which the fight was going
on, dense masses of smoke lay low, and would not
pass away, renew ad as they were by the constant
fire of the Prussian batteries, to which the Danes
had then completely ceased replying. Still, it was
clearer than it had been in the morning, and when
I walked out of Broacher, soon after 3 o'clock, and
swept the horizon with my glass as I paused by the
churchyard wall, Icould disecrn, although somewhat
dimly, the famiiiar outline of the high ground on
which stand the Duppel forts; but a change seemed
to have come over it—something was wanting to
which the eye was accustomed; it was Duppel mill,
which had stood so long, a prominent landmark,
braving the storm of projectiles that descended in
its vicinity, but which at last had met its dom.
It was a very bad sort of grist that had been going
to that mill of late, and at last the Prussian shells
had furled its sails for ever. The stump of the tall
edifice alone remained—a low dark object, with white
smoke around its base, proceeding apparently from
scattered straw, or from the smouldering ruins of its
upper portion. We have so long been accustomed
to watch the mill, and to use it as a point of depar-
ture in our estimates of the distance and relative
positions of the forts, that its downfall becomes quite
an event, especially
when one considers the nume-
rous escapes it has had, and which seemed almost to
betoken a charmed life. If the Danes aro super-
stitious they will look upon the fall of the mill as
an evil omen, and indeed it is not unlikely to prove
to be the beginning of the end—and of an end very
near at hand. Striking across the fields, now again
tolerably dry, and passing just in rear of the 24-
pounder battery at the head of the Yenning Bund,
which was diligently pounding No. 2 Fort, I entered
the Boffel Koppel at the foot of its most sloping por-
tion. The sun shone warm on the banks under its
fringe of trees, and in their shelter the first wild
flowers I this year have seen were timidly opening
their petals, primroses and daisies, and a small white
anemone. There was coming, too, a tint ofgreen over
the earth, still chilled by the winter's frosts, and
brown with last autumn's fallen leaves. The sunny
calm of that woodland nook was in striking contrast
with the deafening roar of war a little to my right.
Passing further into the Beffel Koppel, I came
upon a semi-bivouac of the Prussian Guards. 'lwo
long wooden huts served them as sleeping quarters
at night, but their life by day
was ed fresco. Fires
were burning, straw was scattered to lie upon, the
soldiers sprawled in picturesque groups around the
former or stood in small parties leaning against the
thickly planted trees. I paused by a fire at which
a slender beardless youth, who did not seem 18
years of age, was officiating as cook,
while eight or
ten of his comrades stood by, watching the culinary
process. In a tall oval tin, black from exposure,
were water and slices of bread, to which the young
military Soyer was adding pieces of lean bacon,
partly cut, partly torn elf with a dull hack knife,
and fingers that certainly were not so clean as those
of a cook are supposed generally to be. I cannot
say that the mess promised to be a very savoury
one, still less would it be adapted to refined palates,
but the air of the Boffel Koppel was likely to pre■
pare those young anpetites to do its faults. Pro-
ceeding along the road to Sonderborg, I struck off
into the trenches, which had been made more pass-
able since my last visit by spreading branches in
the dirtiest places, with straw laid above them. The
first battery I entered was No. 11, close to the road,
for 12 pounders,
which were then firing chiefly at
No. 6 fat. It had received no fire from the Danes
yesterday, but close by it were the traces of several
shells which had been directed against it on Friday.
In a field on its right, rather further forward, was a
shell hole, evidently recently made, and one of the
largest I ever saw. A full grown man might be
buried in it. From a staff friend whom I met, and
also from the officers in the batteries, I learnt that
the Danes had entirely ceased firing—in fact had
hardly fired at all even in the morning, when the
bombardment had only just commenced, but had
quietly given their whole attention to protecting
themselves and their guns from the deadly precision
of the Prussian fire. Owing to the smoke, which,
soon after my arrival in the trenches began to be
reinforced by a damp vapour arising from some
neighbouring marshy grounds, it was not easy to
investigate what passed in the Danish forts, even
when one got to a very short distance from
them, but I was informed by officers who had
:eri there all de.y tnat the D..ues had Witt drawn

most of their guns. Two had been knocked to pieces
by the fire of the batteries on the left of the road.
There was not a sign of life about any of the forts
that my observation reached. Nos. 6 and 4 were
much dilapidated; No. 2 was said to be at least as
much so, but I could not discern it, owing to the
fog and distance. Profiting by the cessation of the
Danish fire to prolong my ramble in the trenches,
and proceeding along the second parallel, which the
Prussian engineers call the half parallel—why I can-
not say, unless it be because it is nearer than usual
—I again, after a time, came out upon the high
road, which I had been assured I could safely follow
as far as the Prussian advanced sentries, The ground
was low here and the fog thick. I walked on, ex-
pecting every minute to come upon the sentries, but
found none, when I heard shouts from a high field
on my right, and saw two Prussian soldiers scam-
pering down towards me. Whither was I going ?
The Danish sentries were only about 80 yards off,
although still invisible, owing to the mist and to a
slight rise in the road. I know not whether the idea
of the Prussians was that I was going over to the
Danes to share their falling fortunes, and to correct
some of the mistakes they make as to things and
numbers upon this side of the lines, but they were
easily satisfied that this was not the case, and upon
the whole I felt grateful to Lieut. von Richthofen,
who commanded the outpost, for having, by his
vigilance, prevented my walking up to the enemy's
sentries, whom I should have supposed to be
the Prussian advance, and my reply to whose
challenge would probably have obtained the re-
joinder of a couple of Minie bullets. I came home
both surprised and puzzled by what I had seen and
heard in the trenches. The conduct of the Danes is
difficult to explain. Although they may be de-
ficient in rifled guns, we know that they have some,
and also that they have a large number of heavy
ship guns. Why do they not avail themselves of
these, now that the distance between the hostile
batteries is diminished to a few hundred yards?
9ne can only suppose that they have become so con•
vineed, by recent experience, of the superiority of
the Prussian fire, as regards correctness of aim
especially, that they despair of opposing it with
success, and think it best to save themselves and
their guns for some better opportunity. The Prus-
sians say that they saw many wounded carried
away yesterday, but this has more than once befure
been said on occasions when the Danes deny that
they sustained much loss. So I would not attach
much importance to that, the less so as the Danes,
since they did not fire, had no occasion to expose
themselves, and may fairly be supposed to have kept
snug under cover from the bombs and shells that
yesterday rained upon them. But is it their inten-
tion to continue giving way before their enemy
without offering any serious resistance, or making
any determined attempt to damage him? They have
allowed him to open two parallels with scarcely
any loss. To be sure, I see a telegram from Copen-
hagen, headed, "Engagement before Duppel," but
the said engagement (in the night of the sth) was
so trifling that it was scarcely ever spoken of here,
and was in fact a mere skirmish, attended with
hardly any loss to either side. It is not by such petty
affairs that the Danes will prevent their opponents
from going ahead to their final object. They neither
seriously resist the Prussians when they seek to
extend their works, nor attempt to molest them
when they are busy with their construction and
completion. This strange forbearance and apathy
strengthen the belief which has lately grown up
that they will not await an assault in their intrench-
mcnts, but when they see that one is imminent
will retire from them into Alsen, or at most offer
but a slight resistance. Such a course would be far
less intelligible than the evacuation of the much-
vaunted Dannewerk, on which such large sums
were spent by a Government that coula not hope
ever to have an army capable of defending so ex-
tensive a position against the only foe who was
likely to assail it. The Duppel heights are a corn
pact fortress, behind the formidable redoubts of
which every man ought to be worth three. It is
true that if they resolved obstinately to defend it
they might lose more men than their small army
could well afford, but they ought to be able to in-
flict double the damage on their opponents. Per-
haps this may still be the course they intend to pur-
sue, but at the present moment the other looks at
' least as probable.
If the forts were so deserted as the Prussians in
the trenches yesterday afternoon believed them to
be, it is a question whether, had a strong body of
infantry btca brought forward, under cover of the
fog and smoke, fire suddenly suspended at 4 or 5
o'clock, and a dash then made, the position might
not have been eariied. That the Danes would show
themselves so inert could not have been anticipated,
avd the contingency therefore was not prepared for;
moreover, it is more prudent, in the case of such
very strong works, and without knowing what may
be behind them, to carry out the siege in the regu-
lar manner, and complete the approaches and bring
the batteries nearer before venturing an assault.
Against such defences the numerical superiority of
the besiegers' infantry goes for little.

I observe that the Prussian official account of
the Pfitir of the 28th of March is so worded as to
be likely to convey an impression that only three
battalions of the 8:h and 18th Regiments were en-
gaged, and it is true that they had the most to do;
but the whole six battalions of those regiments, pro-
bably 4,000 to 4,500 men, took part in the conflict,
and were more or less under fire. According to what
offiaere of the 18th have told me, the Rolfe Krake
took them completely by surprise. She steamed into
the Yenning band at about half-past 4, at which
hour at that date only the first faintest gray of
dawn began to dapple the darkness, and the gloom
was quite deep enough for her to pass the Gammels-
mark batteries unperceived by the sentries,who then
alone occupied them. At the first shot she threw
an officer of the regiment exclaimed, "That comes
from the water j" others doubted ; but all doubt was
soon dispelled by the succeeding discharges. The
Rolfe Krake is stated to have remained about an
hour in the Venning bund. If she comes in again
sho will find plenty of guns ready to welcome her,
and probably she knows that, and will confine her,
incursions to less perilous nooks of the coast. It
appears she did steam up tovearde the Nubel Noer
early yesterday morning, and exchanged a few shots
with the batteries at Alnoer, and that was probably
the cause of the turning out of the trot;;'s here;
Very early yesterday morning, too, some smai.
Danish vessels (hosts, they seem to have been) ap-
proached the shore a little south of the Gammels-
mark batteries, with the intention, it is supposed,
of a coup de main—probably intending to spike the
guns. They were described by a soldier, who com-
municated with a non-commissioned officer, and the
latter quickly got together a few men and opened
fire with rifles upon the boats, which, finding them■
selves discovered, thereupon made off.

There was firing during the past night and early
this morning, and I have just been told that, at an
hour not yet exactly ascertained, the Prussians ad-
vanced and drove back the Danish outposts, esta-
blishing their own in the places from which they
ejected them. Thereupon, it is further related, the
Danes sallied forth in some force, but were re-
pulsed, the Prussians retaining the ground they had
conquered, Up to the present time this news has
for me only the value of a report, since 1 have not
yet been able to seek its confirmation or contradic-
tion. The only way to get accurate information in
cases of this kind, now that I am at a distance from
both head-quarters, is to see persons who were en-
gaged in the affair, or at least eyewitnesses of it;
and as they bavo of ten to be sought for in the front,
it involves considerable loss of time. Tue bom-
bardment has been resumed to-day with vigour.
No. 6,2, and 1 were getting it very hotly about
half an hour ago. The Danes fired some shells in
reply. Two of them did not seem to come from the
forts, but from batteries established in their rear.

THE LATE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.—The largest
block of granite ever cut in Cornwall, weighing more than
40 tons, was drawn 1)y 50 horses to the Pcnrghn railway
station on Wednesday, and is intended for conveyance to
Strathfield.mye, where it will form portion of a monument
to be crected to the memory of the late Duke of Wellington
by the present Duke,

Persons in debt may obtain instant protection against
imprisonment or seizure of their goods, and an entire release
from all debts and liaLilities without publicity, by application
to Messrs. Marshall, Bolin tors of the Court of Bankruptcy.
Charges under £5 payable by easy instalments. Offices—
(established 1830), 1 Hatton-4trden. City branch-6. Alovr-
gate-btreet, 13:Wk.—ADVT.