The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-19 00:00:00

'EBRUARY 19, 1864.

least exaggeration, on the hardships and difficulties
the Danish army had to contend with in its retreat,
because I think, on the whole, that this retreat was
effected in as admirable order as could be expected I
under the circumstances, and these brave troops
evinced throughout a hardy spirit and a manly en- ,
durance above any high praise that my poor pen
could bestow upon it. 'We had not gone half a
mile from Schleswig before we found a very heavy
piece of siege artillery forsaken on the road. The
eight horses which dragged it had become, owing
to the state of the roads, as powerless as so many
new littered kittens, and all the efforts of the
men to share the work with them had proved
unavailing. In the same manner, as we advanced
on our dismal march, we, who were in the
rear, came up with broken carriages, dismounted
caissons, and horses fallen never to rise. Tae ob
structioi to our progress was indescribable. We
moved inch by into ; it was one step, two steps,
and a halt, and especially at night, as we approached
some krog, or public-house, the throng ot• convey-
ances, especially of sutlers and other camp followers
of every description, who insisted upon stoppingon
the highway to feed their cattle, could not be
broken through either by entreaty or menace, by
love or force. Human selfishness, improvidence,
cowardice, could not fail to exhibit their most
hideous features on tnis occasion as in other great
calamitous occurrences. I passed wretches on the
road, on the second night, who lay on the tomes by
the wayside, regardless of the snow that was cover-
ing them like a pall. I roused some of them, trying
to awaken them to their danger, but in vain, and
went my way, shrugging my shoulders, speculat-
ing on the awakening which might or might not
await them in the morning. How many may have
perished by the cold, how many of the horses and
how much of the materiel were left behind, I have
no means to tell, but lam sure all was done that
Littman valour and determination could achieve. Not
a little co'fusion indeed reigned during the night,
but order came in the morning. The battalions of
infantry marched steadily and comps ctiy in their
ranks ; the men, who in the midst of their suffer-
ings had no reason to complain of hunger, toiled on
resolutely ; the houses, hospitably open to them on
the road, did not lure them to unreasonably long
delays. Whenever any delay or obstruction on the
road occurred of any inconvenient length, the eight
of an officer—the clear, sharp, ringing voice of my
friend the artillery captain, for instance, who
showed throughout an energy and strength of will
perfectly indomitable—had on the few laggards all
the effects of a trumpet. Up they started, ready
and willing, more instantly amenable to duty
and subordination than any other troops I ever
marched with. I have now seen regiment after regi-
ment coming in, not much the worse for their 48
hours' dreadful tear and wear. Most of the field
pieces, also, have been safely conveyed to their new
positions, though the same may not be said of some
of the heaviest ammunition waggons. Gen. Wileter,
who commanded at Frederickstadt, has been able to
bring all his garrison to Sonderbarg without the
loss either of on© man or horse, or even of any part
of his heavy siege train.
In the midst of all this magic drama of the retreat
from the Dannewerk occasional flashes of comic in-
cident were not wanting. The oddity of the head
gear, the variety of skull caps, hoods, wrappers, and
blankets, with which every man strove to shelter
himself from the wintry blast, according as his fancy
suggested or his means afforded, gave the whole
train a quaint, ludicrous appearance. The few men
who lay exhausted in the waggons, swathed and
muffled, were covered with the thick falling flakes
till they looked like statues or snow-men, and alto-
gether there was something so ghastly and unreal
in the whole mass of men and things that the state
of my imagination, disturbed by long unrest,
jumbled together the present with a distant past,
and made me at times fancy I was moving along a
train of masquerading carriages on an Italian torso,
4tich a one for instance as I saw last year at Turin
just a twelvemonth ago, only the procession was
silent and not gay, so that it was rather the ghost
of a mummery than the thing itself. I saw burly
officers of a fine dragoon regiment, men who are
ilgM as birds when in the saddle, but who have
to more legs than the Qeeen of Spai❑ is supposed
•.o have—l saw them, I say, blundering and
stumbling along the road the whole way, puf-
bug end panting, tumbling also occasionally (I
had myself two rather heavy falls on the villainous
hard ice)—and swearing rather savagely at the
unwonted, and to them unendureble mode of loco-
motion; but here they were at dinner last evening
safe and whole, all of them laughing at the sore trial
they had to submit to in their 48 hours' stroll, and
not a little vain, in their heart of iaeatte, at the teat
which they had, willy hilly, been able toaccomplish.
The Austrians, we were told, only entered Schles-
wig at 4 o'clock in the morning of Saturday ; but it
was not long before they gave chase, and we had
them in our rear before we were ten miles on our
way. They met, however, with not a few of the
difficulties we had to contend with, and although we
hear of frequent skirmishes on the whole of the long
and wide line of retreat, still I have not been able
to obtain certai❑ information of any serious engage-
ment except at a place called Bilschan Krug, at
about four miles from Flensburg, on the very road
we had followed from Schleswig, where two regi-
ments of infantry, the Ist and 11th, with two field
• pieces, under Colonel Beck, commanding the tat
Regiment of Foot, came into collision with a widely
• superior force cf Austrians—who had, we are told,
16 cannon with them—and made good their ground
for some time, twice attacking the enemy with the
bayonet, but falling back at last, after suffering
severe losses, especially in officers. Ali the staff of
• one of the companies of the Ist Regiment was left
• on the well contested field.

The mai❑ part of the Danish army is now concen-
trated here, relying on the natural strength of this
sea-girt little island, and on the outworks at
Duppel which guard the only approaches to the
narrow Sound on the mainland. The enemy is
close on their track, and at the moment I am writ-
ing I hear the hurrahing of the various detach-
ments, which are marching to the outposts in the
expectation of a brush with the Austrians. It is
rather cdd that so little should ever be heard of the
Prussians. With the exception of their first not
very successful attack on Missuntue on Tuesday last,
the troops of that nation have hardly been seen or
heard of any where at the front, and all the toil and
honour of the campaign seems to have been left
to the Austrians, in whom the Danes recognise
worthy adversaries, while they speak of their Pftl3-
slam foes with contempt.

Altogether, I do not believe any army in the
world could have behaved more honourably under
so great a variety of untoward circumstances than
the D Anes have done in this tnfortunate retreat.
Should any chance be offered them of retrieving
their losses by any trial at all mounting to fair
fight, I have no doubt they will acquit themselves
to the fullest credit, and if the Austrians or Prus-
sians choose to employ all their overwhelming
strength against this position of Alsen, where their
vast superiority of numbers will avail them less,
they may find out that the Danes are not as easily
dislodged as it seemed good to their leaders that
they should be at the Dannewerk.
The whole population along the road, and even
at Flensburg, gave proof the utmost sympathy with
the toiling and suffering troops. Every door was
open ; food and assistance of every description were
everywhere at hand, a proof either that the Danes
are not so implacably hated by their Schleswig sub-
jects as their German friends:describe them, or that
the kindliest feelings of humanity had got the better
of political animosity.

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