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

'EBR'C'ARY 19, 1864.

least exaggeration, on the hardships aoci 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 es could be expected
under the circumstances, and these brave troops
evinced throughout a hardy spirit and a manly en-
durance above auy 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 m arch, we, who were in the
rear, came up with broken carriages, dismounted
caissons, and horses fallen never to rise. Tae oh
emotion to our progress was indescribable. We
moved inch by inch ; it was one step, two steps,
and a halt, and especially at night, as we approached
some krog, or public house, the throng of convey.
anted, especiaily 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 se,fishness, 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 stones by
the wayside, regardless of the snow that was cover-
ing them like a pall. I roused acme 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
to means to tell, but lam sure all was done that
human valour and determination could achieve. Not
a little coefusion indeed reigned during the night,
but order came in the morning. The battalions et
infantry marched steadily and compactly 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
ly indomitable—had on the few laggards all
the effec►s of a trumpet. Up they Warted, ready
and wiling, 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. Wilster,
who commanded at Frederickstadt, has been able to
bring all his garrison to Sonderburg without the
oss either of one man or horse, or even of any part

of nis heavy siege train.
In the midst of all this magic drama of the retrea
from the Dannewerk occasional fleshes of comic in
cideat 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 frwm the wintry blast, .ccerding as his fancy
suggested or his means afforded, gave the whole
train a quaint, ludicrous appearance. The few awe
who lay exhausted in the waggons, swathed and
muffled, were covered with the thick tailing 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,
such 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
tight as birds when in the saddle, but who have
no more legs than the Queen of Spain is supposed
to have—l saw them, I say, blundering and
stumbling along the road the wrio.e way, put-
flog and panting, tumbeiog also occasionally (I
aed myself two rattier heavy falls on. the villainous
hard ice)—and swearing rather savagely at the
unwonted, and to them unendurable mode of loco-
motion ; but here they were at dinner last evening
safe and whole, all of them laughing at the sore trial
t hey had to submit to in tteeir 48 hours' stroll, and
not a little vain, in their heart of hearts, at the feat
which they had, r illy, 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 certain informetion of any serious engage-
ment except at a place called Bilschau 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 Ist
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 groune
for some time, twice attacking the enemy with the
bayonet, but falling back at last, after suffering
severe losses, especially in officers. All the staff of
one of the companies of the Ist Regiment was left
on the well contested field.
The main part of the Danish army is now concen-
trated here, relying on tne natural strength of tnis
see-girt little island, and on toe on, works at
Duppel wnich 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
veil', successful attack on Missunde on Tuesday last,
the troops of that nation have hardly been seen or
heard of anywhere 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 Pres-
Sian 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 ,nes have done in this unfortunate retreat.
Should any chance be effered them of retrieving
their losses by any trial at all amounting to fair
fight, I nave 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 the. the Danes are not as easily
dislodged as it seemed good to their leaders that
they should be at the Dennewerk.
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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