The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-06 00:00:00

THE WAR IN DENMARK.

(From the Special Correspondent of the limes.)

SONDERBURG, July 1.
As after the capture of Duppel, the Prussians,
now in occupation of this dilapidated town, 8.3011
quite surprised at the facility of their last triumph,
which has placed in their hands the island of Alsen,
and so completed the conquest of Schleswig. They
are all eagerness to go to Funen, which they confi-
dently assert would quickly be taken, and, although
it is probable that the chief Danish force is now es-
sembled on that island, one can hardly call their
confidence presumption when one sees how poorly
the Danes defended themselves here. No one who
stands on the Sundewitt shore at Satrap or Sand-
berg can help feeling surprise that an enemy should
have been allowed to cross that broad channel in
any loss. The fact shows
sucho p n
ub on
vigilance on the part
boats with
of
of a foe who certainly cannot be accused of
cowardice, that one does not wonder at hearing
that, the crossing effected, the expulsion of the
Danes from the island was little more than a hunt,
with the exception of a stand they made at a place
called Kjar, north of Sonderberg, on the road from
Rovhof to Ulkebull, where they seem to have de-
fended themselves obstinately,
and where the Prus-
sians say the bayonet was used. When I say the
expulsion from the island I hardly know whether I
should make an exception oh account of Kekenis,
where the Danes still are at this time of writing,
and where their ships are to be seen engaged in re-
moving troops and stores. Kekenis, a patch of land
lying due south of the island, used to be connected
with it by an isthnius so narrow that the geogra-
phers in depicting it scarcely found room to indicate
the road that passed over it. That isthmus has
lately been cut through, so that Kekenis is now an
island. The rumours of to-day relate to an alleged
projected attack upon it, but there seems an under-
standing that the Danes should be allowed quietly
to go away unmolested, although if they depart
with their characteristic slowness the Prussian
batteries may be tempted to open upon them.
With respect to the passage from Sundewitt and the
incidents that ensued upon it, I perceive that the
Hamburg papers have, as usual, in their eagerness
to give information which they do not possess, been
drawing upon their imaginations and deluding the
public—so far, at least, as it puts faith in their pro-
verbially unreliable accounts, Thus their informa-
tion concerning the passage have been effected over
a pontoon bridge,and followed by a prolonged stout
fight at Sonderburg, where the principle loss was
sustained, and the valiant defence made by the
Danes of one position after another, proves for the
meet part erroneous. There was no bridge at all,
but the Passage was made in small boats, of which
nearly 200 (mere to have been employed, carrying
each from 16 to 25 men. If you trace upon the map
the west shore of Alsen Sound, beginning ae its
northern extremi"l::, you soon come to a wooded
promontory. This is Satrup Wood, whence the
principal attack was made. Boats also went across
at Schnabeck and at two other points in that neigh-
bourhood. The crossing commem:ed as nearly as
possible at 2 o'clock a.m., and officers es:ho were in
the boats have told me that they had xessel`led the
middle of the Sound before the Danes began to f re,
and that then the fire was so misdirected (appa-
rently too high) that it had ecarcely any effect.
Accte:diog to some accounts only two men were
killed am; six or eight wounded during the crossing,
but it is diffien;* to ascertain the exact numbers, a,
those hit in the boats would be mixed up with others
who fell immediately on ;...'ncling. At the principal
point of:pessage the Ist hattalie: of the 601 h Rsgi-
runt (which forms with the 35th thel' well-known
C insteiu brigade) were rirawn up on the teThedwitt
shore, and covered the boats by the quick fire of
their needle guns—a most serviceable weapon in
such circumstances. This battalion, by the by, was
first under fire in this war at Missunde on Feb. 2,
and the 60th, the 35th, and 61th are probably the
regiments that have done the most work since then.
The force that crossed Alsrn Send on Wednesday
morning was 17 battalions. In Sundewitt there
were two divisions, each of two brigades, each bri-
gade of two regiments, and of each regiment two
battalions crossed, Besides the 16 thus obtained, the
3d Jager battalion, old friends and acquaintances at
Broacker, were forward in the attack, and suffered
more than their proportion of the very moderate loss
inflicted on the assailants by the discomfited Danes.
Their commanding officer, the gallant Major von
Witzteben, fell at their head, severely wounded in
the side. The troops left their helmets and lanais•
sacks on the Sundewitt shore. As soon as the Danes
(whose attention had previously been distracted as
much as possible by lights and noise at Ballegaard
and elsewhere) detected the commencement of the
crossing their beacons flamed up as a signal to their
ships. The Rolf Krake lay in Augustenburg Bay,
but seemingly het fires were banked, as on the day
of the storming of Duppel, for a considerable time
elapsed before she emerged upon the scene of action,
and then she was received with such a concentrated
fire from the Prussian batteries that she was sick of
it, and again sought shelter behind the friendly
promontory. She opened with grape at too great a
distance, and seems to have done no harm to the
troops on shore, but she sank a couple of boats, one
of them containing about 25 men, who were nearly
all drowned. The boats were protected from the
Danish infantry fire by mattresses. A great num-
ber of these had been got together to be used in the
assault on Duppel, where, however, they had been
found of little use, and for the most part had been
thrown aside by the Storming party before it
reached the forts. The mattresses were fixed in the
bow of the boats as a buckler, and are said to have
The
stopped many shots. Danes used their artil-
lery very little. The east coast of the Sound
has long bristled with batteries, but very few
guns were found in them--at least, long that north-
ern frontier which extends from Ahrenkiel Ore
southwards to a small bay nearly opposite Ravens.
Koppel—that is to say, about halfway from the point
opposite Schnabeck to Sonderburg. As soon as the
first batch of troops, say about 3,000 men, were
across, the chief difficulty of the undertaking waa
drew
surmounted. The Danes back to a wood called
Holaforat, opposite to SatruP- wood, but at some dis-
tance from the shore, and soon, as the Prussians be-
came more numerous, they were everywhere in full
Jon-
retreat. At Kjar, which is a straggling village
and a good position, they fought stoutly, and also
in a wood a little to the north, Where a great many
fell on both sides. It was in`Portant they should
make a stand somewhere, in order to allow time for
retreat to troops more in the interior of the island.
They did not, however, hold out long enough to
prevent the capture of a large number of prisoners.
Not less than 2,500, perhaps 3,000, were taken by the
Prussians. You were informed of the departure of
700 yesterday from Flensburg, Where in churches
and other buildings, a great many more were there
confined. On the road up to this place I met 525
men, marching southwards, Under escort of a few
Lancers, They belonged to the 10th Regiment, and
were chiefly stout fellows of from 25 to 30 years of
age, with a few old nonscculluiseioned officers. No
officers were with them, although a great many
have been taken. I stopped my carriage at the
roadside to see them pass, end exchanged a few
words with several of them, who all answered me
in German. They assured me that the whole party
consisted of Sehleswigera but that is a quality
which Danish prisoners when they speak Getman,
are sometimes glad to assume, in the hope
that it may procure them better treatment
and even release. Some other prisoners with whom
I have conversed at greater leisurejand who were
Jatlanders and Island-Danes, expressed themselves
with indignation at the manner in which their ships
had behaved. It seemed as if they bad reckoned
upon the Rolf Krake and other vessels to secure
Alsen from invasion, and perhaps this over-confi-
dence in their naval resources was the cause that