The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-13 00:00:00

THE WAR IN DENMARK,

(From the Special Correspondent of the limes.)
AUSTRIAN HEADQUARTERS, KOLDING,
JUTLAND, July 8.
I passed the greater part of yesterday at Voile,
17 miles northward from this place, where I had not
been since the second day of the action between the
Danes and Austrians early in the month of March.
Gen. Hegermann Lindenkrone, who commanded the
Danish troops on that occasion, got considerable
discredit among his countrymen for what they con-
sidered slackness or tardiness, and some persons
here seem to think it possible that, in order to re-
trieve his reputation, he might be disposed now to
risk an action on or near the Liim Fiord. The most
conflicting reports continue to prevail as to the
troops the Danes have in North Jutland, and I sus-
pect the German Generals are puzzled to decide on
a plan of operations. Very large forces have gone up
north, as well as many boats and pontoons, but the
principal commanders of the allied army still remain
south, Prince Frederick Charles at Apenrade, and
Gen. Gablenz here. A part cf the Austrian comman-
der's staff yesterday went up to Veile, and were to
pass the night there, which looks as if there were a
chance of these headquarters moving north wards.
That the Danes can gain any important advantage
by risking an engagement at the Liim Fiord is not
believed. It is assumed that the whole Danish army
does not now amount to 30,000 men, and that esti-
mate, indeed, was made before they lost 3,000 or
more on Alsen. As they cannot leave Funen un•
guarded, 15,000 men is the largest number it is sup-
posed they could assemble in North J utland. These
would be assailed by greatly superior forces, and
even if they were so fortunate as to repulse a first
attack the reserves close at hand would render it
hopeless for them long to hold their ground. The
probability appears to be that they have withdrawn
most of their troops to Funen. A Danish officer
who was taken in the skirmish on the 3d inst. at
Lindenburg told persons here and at Veile that the
forces north of the Liim Fiord were very small. Ap-
parently the Allies find a difficulty in getting trust-
worthy spies to serve them in North Jutland. I
have some reason for believing, however, that a des
cision is on the point of being arrived at, and that,
within a day or two, a further move will have been
made towards the north, or else the chief efforts of
the Allies will be directed against Funen. The
decision rests with Prince Frederick Charles, and
his orders are awaited with impatience.
Meanwhile the pressure of requisitions, and the
inconvenience suffered by the inhabitants in consee
quence of certain purely military measures that are
being taken with a view to probable operations
against Funen, have produced a strong effect in this
southern corner of Jutland. From Snoghoi and
other villages in the neighbourhood deputations have
waited on the highest military authorities, asking
leave to send, by a flag of truce to Funen, petitions
to the King, to which it is affirmed that thousands
of signatures can speedily be obtained, imploring
him to take measures to put an end to the war and
to the terrible evils it entails upon the country. This
is in a contrary sense to certain addresses sent from
places in Jutland during the armistice, and contain-
ing, besides professions of loyalty, protestations of
the willingness of the people to bear their burdens,
and the assurance that they did not wish to see
the war terminated on unfavourable conditions for
' the sake of relieving them. Those addresses, the
promoters of the present ones now say, were got up
by handfuls of agitators, by parsons who had
little to lose, and who hoped to gain by a dis-
play of simulated zeal. Doubtless they en-
couraged Copenhagen in its obstinacy and
gave occasion to the war journals of that capital
to make light of the misery the contest was i nflict-
ing on Jutland. This may have passed muster with
those who desired to believe in it, or who sought
only to pander to the purposes of a fanatical party.
But one needs not go very far into Jutland to con-
template the reverse of the medal, and to see how
terribly the province suffers, and how sorely
it is oppressed and drained by the military occupa-
tion. Hers and at Veile the requisitions press with
almost unendurable rigour upon the inhabitants.
There is no exemption. What is demanded must
be delivered, and if the people have not got it they
must buy it. The army lives upon the country, and
some persons here assert (with what truth I know
not) that it even exacts more than it requires and
sends the surplus into Schleswig. Here and at Veile
I have heard bitter complaints of the harshness
and exactions of the Prussians, who are said to
treat the country en pays conquis in the fullest
sense of the term, and to show no mercy if their
most exorbitant demands be not instantly complied
with. 1 myself have seen scarcely any Prussians
since I came into Jutland, but I tell you what the
Jutlanders say. The feeling towards them in this
country seems as bad as it can be ; it is such as,
were the people hot blooded Italians or Spaniards,
instead of phlegmatic peaceable Danes, could hardly
fail to produce the bands of exterminating guerillas
and even individual assassinations.

I.lnbargo on goods seized for war contribution
still continues. Various merchants and shopkeepers
here have portions of their goods sealed up. At
Veile I was told of five of the principal shops being
closed in like manner ever since May 11. The mer-
chandise is there, and as yet untouched, but mean-
while the owners are being ruined. The con-
dition of the remainder of Jutland, as regards re-
quisitions, sequestrations, and general pressure, is
in no degree better than here, and if Copenhagen
persist in carrying on the war even for a short time
longer nothing less is to be anticipated than the
total exhaustion and ruin of the province. The
flourishing crops that now cover the ground will be
gathered in for German benefit, and winter will find
the peasant's garner empty and his means of sub-
sistence gone. The cows, which of evenings one
now sees the women busily relieving of their milky
stores, and then driving home for shelter from the
keen air of a Jutland July night, will pass in detail
into German stomachs—fortunately, perhaps, for
them, since death by the knife will save them from
the pangs of hunger when frost no longer allows
them to seek nourishment afield. The hay that is
now being made will before then have been consumed
by the chargers of Prussian Cuirassiers and Hun-
garian Hussars. The Allies have a large force of
cavalry in Denmark, and, besides that, the innu.
merable horses which assist in transporting rations
and other stores must be kept in good working con-
dition. On the road yesterday I passed nearly two
miles of carts, conveying bread, hay, sacks of corn,
great casks of wine branded " Vi enna " (Jutland
supplies no such generous liquor), and innumerable
other requisites for the legions now in front. At
Via, a village nearly half way between Kolding
and Veile, there is an open air depot, similar to the
one at Atzbull, between Gravenstein and Duppel,
where artillery, ammunition, fascines, gabions, &c.,
are collected. Close to it is a cross-road leading
down eastwards, in the direction of Snoghoi.
The Danish officials employed in Jutland in the
collection of taxes and in the general administration
are to be continued in office so long as they are
tractable and obedient and do their duty to the new
. Government ; but any who prove insubordinate, or
give trouble, will be at once sent over to their coun-
trymen in the islands, and will be replaced by Hol-
steiners or Schleswigers speaking Danish as well as
German, and well-affected to the powers that be.
If the war lasts long enough, this may be made a
means of German propagandism in Jutland.
A large German merchantman was attacked by a
Danish gunboat the evening before last off the coast

of Funen. Not having brought to when summoned,
she was fired at, and it is said two shots struak her.
She was taken into Beg ease.
Persons who were at Fredericia yesterday say
that they there saw the Danes busily engaged in
armies their batteries near Middlefahrt. Informa-
tion from a very reliable source has reached me to
the effect that the whole eff:ctive force of Danish
infantry does not exceed 22,000 man. There may
be more on paper, but considerable deduc►tions must
be made for the hospitals. To the above number
we must add cavalry, artillery, engineers, &c., but
the total would still be considerably under 30,000
men. With these Fallen must be garrisoned—and
the whole of them would rot be too many to resist
an attack on the scale on which the allies would
make it—and some provision must be made for
Copenhagen, where it is believed, at least by the
Germane, that the Government cannot safely dis.
penso with the presence of a respectable armed force.
It is difficult to suppose that any large body can
have been left in North Jutland, exposed to the al-
most certainty of fresh disaster and diminution.
I see that the Danish papers talk of some extra-
ordinarily long bridges, put together in a creek on
the Sundewitt side of Alsen Sund, and which, after
the first Prussians had been landed from boats on
the morning of the 29th ult., were suddenly shot, so
to speak, across the Sound, propelled, it would seem,
by a couple of locomotives (of what nature is not
stated), and that so the channel was in a moment
bridged, and thousands of Prussians poured over,
rendering resistance utterly hopeless on the part of
the outnumbered Danes. Out of the Arabian Nights
anything so marvellous was never heard of. Consi-
dering that the narrowest:part of the Sound is seve-
ral hundred yards broad(except in the neighbourhood
of Sonderborg, where it is not pretended that the
crossing took place) it must have been a most strik-
ing spectacle to see this bridge, a quarter of a mile
or more in length, suddenly thrusting its nose, like
the snout of some giant alligator, out of an opening
in the bank, darting straight across and stopping
only when run to ground against the Alsen shore.
The myth appeals pleasingly to the imagination,
and I regret to dissipate it by assuring you again
that the passage was effected entirely by boats pro-
pelled by oars, No supernatural means are requi-
site to effect the surprise of such drowsy watchers
as the Danes, on that and other occasions, suffi-
ciently showed themselves to be.