The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-22 00:00:00

which forms three sides of a equare,and where Prince
Frederick Charles now has his quarters. The village
itself is mean and miserable, and at the pre t time
is in a frightful state of filth, crowded w. soldiers
in every house, the streets streaming wi mud, the
courts and gardens horribly defiled, the inns the
worst I have seen in Schleswig (which r- not saying
a little), and the Schloss to be reached, at. least on
on foot, only by treading a plank laid across a quag-
mire. To find even the humblest accommodation
in the shape of a bed is at the present moment com-
pletely out of the question, and after passing two
nights on straw in a cupboard I resolved to come
up here, the more so as Gravenstein, in the present
state of affairs, now that operations against Duppel
seem to be seriously commencing, is too far from the
front. It is fully six miles thence to the outposts
which I yesterday visited, and about four and a-half
to Broacker by the shortest road, an extremely bad
one, across the bridge of boats at Alnoer (over the
Eskernsund). My references to the geography of
this part of Schleswig will be unintelligible to those
of your readers who do not feel sufficient interest
in the subject to take a map to assist them in fol-
lowing it. Of those that I have some are very in-
correct ; among the better ones may be cited Peter-
man's Special Map of North Schleswig, lately pub-
lished at Gotha ; a plan of the Dappel position, just
brought out by Schropp, in Berlin (oa a large scale,
but meagre and too circumscribed) ; and a special
map of Alsen and Sundewitt, published in 1849 by
Hoffman and Campe at Hamburg—since which date,
however, the Duppel fortifications have been ex-
tended. Broacker, as will be seen from any one of
these maps, is the most desirable point for observa-
tion of the operations now in progress, especially
now that the Prussian batteries are established at
half an hour's ride from it, while about the same
time takes one round to the outposts on the high-
road from Gravenstein to Sonderburg. Prince
Frederick Charles is probably also of that opi-
nion, if it be true, as was reported this evening,
that he is about to move his quarters from the
swampy hole where they are now established to this
breezy little place—rather too breezy to be pleasant
when the wind blows high, but clean and bearing
some slight resemblance to an English village of the
some class. Marshal Wrangel's headquarters are
also expected to come down south from holding,
but perhaps they will be fixed at Flensburg—cer-
tainly a more desirable place than Gravenstein.
According to the account given by staff officers at
the latter place, the Danes are at this time very
numerous in Duppel and its vicinity—mere so, it is
said, than the Prussians outside. If this be the case,
I apprehend that nearly the whole Danish army
must be in Duppel and Alsen, which may be the
case, although it is unlikely that Fredericia would
be lett without a strong garrison at the present
time, and it is also reported that a great deal of the
Danish cavalry is still in ;utland—far north, we
must suppose, if there at all—retreating before the
advancing Austrian columns.
The Prussians troops of this division look, as one
meets them moving about the country, active and
service-like. On a parade, or massed in large bodies,
I have not yet had opportunity of observing them.
They have a fair amount of work to do at the pre-
sent time in the way of establishing batteries, mak-
ing fascines, &c., in which latter occupation they
may daily be seen busily engaged in a field by the
road from Gravenstein hither—in working jackets,
their arms piled and their helmets hung upon the
points of their bayonets. I should think that the
inappropriateness of these Prussian helmets for
campaigning—however well they may be consi-
dered to look in quarters—must by this time have
been discovered ; also the inconvenience of allow.
ing the men no bayonet-sheaths, in consequence of
which they are obliged to carry their bayonets
constantly fixed, certainly an undesirable necessity,
increasing the soldier's labour in getting rid of rust
from his arms, and in other respects objectionable.
You pass carts in these narrow roads, containing
sick or wearied men or soldiers, escorting provi-
sions, with the muskets laid in the carts, or sloped
on the shoulder, and bayonets sticking out in all
directions, like a chevaux-de frise, and in riding
along the roads where many troops with convoys
are moving about it requires constant attention to
avoid accident. As regards the sanitary state of
the army, I have no positive., statistics, but I learn,
on good medical authority, that the percentage of
sick is considerably higher than it was said to be a
short time ago. This was to be expected. Expo •
sure, bad and crowded quarters, lack cf opportuni.
tics of attending to personal cleanliness, might be
borne without much ill Effict for a short time, but
must tell in the long ran,