The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-04 00:00:00

THE PRUSSIAN ARMY,

(From the, limes Special Correspondent at the Hearl-
guar ters of the Allied Armies.)
HAMBURG, May 1.
The Prussian triumph at Duppel, although much
facilitated by Danish exhaustion and unwarioess,will
still be admitted by all impartial and competent
judges to be a creditable feat of arms, on a scale and
with results sufficiently important to eclipse the
earlier actions of the campaign. If it be true, as
there are some grounds for believing, that the Aus-
trians, sensible of this, were desirous in their turn
to distinguish themselves by the assault of Frede-
ricia, the evacuation of that place, which yesterday
surprised every one here, will to them have been a
disappointment. Probably, many of their friends
will nevertheless consider it a piece of good fortune
for the two great German powers that they have
thus been prevented from displaying their force
against a foe so enfeebled and crippled as poor Den.
mark. Alsen will doubtless now be occupied without
opposition, and the war must be iookel upon as at
an end. Probably we shall soon hear of an armistice,
to which it seems as if there could now be no grounds
for objection on the part of any of the belligerent
powers. All neutrals will rejoice at the termination
of the unequal struggle, and that they are spared
the spectacle of another monster bombardment, the
guns for which were already on their way to Jut-
land. The 24 brass pieces you were told of as lately
lying at the Flensburg railway station, left that
place by road on the 27th, and should have arrived
in the vicinity of Fredericia yesterday or today, if
their progress was not arrested by news of the
fortress they were to demolish having been aban-
doned. You will perhaps have been surprised to
read in some of my latest letters from Schleswig
that the siege of Fredericia could not be commenced
immediately, because artillery which was coming
from Prussia had to be waited for. It might natu-
rally be supposed that the formidable and nume-
rous park which so successfully battered Duppel
and burnt Sonderborg would be more than suffi•
cient to perform a similar operation at Fredericia.
The fact appears to be that the fresh guns brought
up came not as an addition, but to replace others no
longer serviceable. These so-called new guns were
merely old ones rifled and converted into breech-
loaders. In the Italian campaign, a great many,
if not all, of the French rifled guns were made from
the old smooth=bores. Probably most of the Prus-
sian artillery used is this war had never before
been fired against an enemy. Besides the date
of their conversion, which on those I saw was
1863 or 1864, many also bore that of their original
casting, in most cases between 1830 and 1840. The
Prussian artillery officers inform ma that in their
new Corm they are equal but to a very moderate
aenount of work. 'Thom at Gammelsmark have
been shelved, after firing on an average 800
rounds each. Opinions differ as to the facility
of repairing the damage so as to render them
again serviceable, but some of the officers who
have been using them, and who must be considered
highly competent judges, seem disposed to condemn
them altogether, and to recommend the manufac•
ture of new iron guns on the same principle. It
appears that the converted brass guns not merely
became leaded, as some supposed, but that their
breech-loading apparatus got worn and deranged.
The principle on which they are constructed is
nevertheless maintained to be excellent by all who
have had opportonies of practically judging of it,
and you have been repeatedly told that the accuracy
of the Prussian fire before Duppel and at Fredericia
was such as to excite the unfeigned admiration of
all foreigners who witnessed it.
Apropos of foreigners, the Russian lieutenant who
was the Czar's sole representative with the allied
armies, received, early in the present week, orders
to return home, and was about to depart when I
left Flensburg. Tho reason he alleged was, as I
understand, that the interest of the campaign, and,
indeed, the campaign itself, was to be considered at
an end. So it has since proved, but it is not the
less true that he had made all his preparations to join
the Prussian headquarters at Veile when he re-
ived the orders to move in another direction.
Although Russia lies under the suspicion of having
worked to bring about this Danish war, she mani-
festly has of late viewed it with much dissatisfac-
tion—probably because it has not taken the course
or led to the complications she had anticipated,
and in :prevision of which she herself has made
such extensive warlike preparations, and increased
her rifled artillery by enormous orders given
to Prussian manufactories. There can be little
doubt that Prussia, also, had reckoned on things
going in some respects d fferently from what they
have done, and that her preparations were made
for the great war which might have sprung from
the unequal contest in Schleswig and Jut-
land—preparations on a large scale, and which
date from the latter part of last year. The
Prussian Government was then already resolved
on war, in great measure for domestic reasons, and
on taking the risk of a great conflict arising from its
onslaught upon a patty Power. It is the opinion of
some who, more than most people, have had oppor-
tunities of studying what passed behind the scenes
that no concessions Denmark could possibly have
made would have seated her from attack, and that,
had she evacuated both Duchies, a pretext would
have been found for attacking her in Jutland.
You will hardly understand in England that a
costly conflict, possibly entailing one of far greater
magnitude and much less promising result, should
be entered into for the sake of maintaining an
unpopular system and strengthening a Government
whose home policy had left it almost without sup-
' porters in the nation it ruled. Such, nevertheless,
has been the case in the present instance, and if the
reports that reach me from Berlin be correct, the
plan has been to a considerable extent successful,
and the Prussian Liberals, delighted at the lustre
cast upon their army by its recent success—per-
haps, too, anticipating some solid advantage as
fruit of the triumph—have abated their feeling of
hostility to the present Ministry. This is
the rumour that has come to me; but in Schles-
wig I rarely saw the Prussian papers, and it
will only be on my return to Berlin that I shall
ascertain with anything like certainty the real state
of public feeling there.
Before leaving Flensburg I visited the Bellevue
Hospital there, one of those got up by the Johan-
niter, or Knights of St. John. This Order, its own
resources having been aided by contributions from
private persons, has had several establishments
of the kind open for some time past. Besides the
Bellevue, beautifully situated in a garden on the
height immediately behind Flensburg, not far from
the picturesque cemetery where stood the Lion
of Idetedt, lately cvertbrawn, the Order has
another hospital in what is called the King's
Garden, just outside one of the old-fashioned
gates, above which are displayed the arms of
Flensburg, a quaint specimen of blazon, intended
apparently to represent two cats jumping out of a
dairy window. Then there is a branch establish-
ment near to what was a fortnight ago the Prussian
front, at the village of Nubel. This was intended
for those patients whose hurts were too severe to
allow of their being transported far. I believe there
is also a Johanniter hospital at Schleswig, but it
must have been opened since my last visit to that
town. This week the number of patients in the
Flensburg and Nubel establishments was between
60 and 70, four-fifths of them at the first-named
place, and most of them recovering or not severely
wounded. In the Bellevue on Wednesday were
three or four bad cases. The Danish Coloeel
Schow had died, and Count. Stolberg himself, as I
was informed, took his body to the Prussian ad-
vanced posts to deliver it over to the Danes. At the
King's Garden hospital was Nlajor Nostitz, one of
Marshal Wrangel's aides de-comp, and son of the
well•known General, still living, who was on
Blucher's Staff in the Waterloo campaign. Major
Nostitz lately laid his leg broken by his horse fall-
ing with him. Sisters of Ch irity were in attendance
at Bellevue when I visited it. In an outer room
was a bar, or dresser, covered with plates containing
meat sandwiches, quarters of oranges, and other food
and comforts for the wounded. They were all officers
and non-commissioned officers who lay in that hos-
pital.l had gone before the hour at which visits
are allowed, but I nevertheless was permitted
to -ee two of the roams, in one of which I found
a young engineer officer of my acquaintance, who

had been one of the foremost in the attack on
Doppel forts, leading the pioneers appointed to re-
move obstacles, and. who was hit slightly in the
knee almost as soon as he jumped out of the
parallel, but who, nevertheless, managed to remain
with his men until late in the day. Nothing
could be more comfortable, and, indeed, luxurious,
than all the arrangements of the establishment,—
the most spotless cleanliness, the purest air, every
comfort, in short, that the most ingenious humanity
and thoughtfulness could devise. Some of the in-
mates were in bed, others merely reclining, others
sitting at a table and writing letters. The Prussian
army is great at letter-writing. As soon as a❑ action
or skirmish was over one used to see the soldiers off
duty all in their quarters scribbling as for a wager ;
20,000 letters, it was written to me from Berlin,
passed daily through the post between that city and
the army.

It is reported here to-i:ay and generally credited,
that the evacuation of Fredericia was the conse-
quence of a military mutiny. This is by no means
improbable, considering the dissatisfaction known to
prevail in the Danish army at being compelled by
a Copenhagen faction to persevere in so un-
equal a struggle. It is difficult to explain other-
' wise than in the above manner the abandonment by
the Danes of 180 pieces of artillery found by the
Austrians in the fortruss. There are also reports here
of disturbauces at Copenhagen, but nothing certain is
known and you will probably have heard of them by
this time direct from that capital if there be any
foundation for the rumour. General Liliencrone is
now said to be in the island of Mors, instead of
having crossed the Lumfjorden, and should that
prove to be the case his situation must be perilous.
It seems more likely that he will have gone north
to embark than have remained on Mors, to be taken
as in a trap—unless, indeed, he embarks at Nyk•
jobing or some other port in the island ; but his
vessels would have to pass through Odde Sound
and other narrow passages, and if the allies were
on the alert their field batteries might suffice to in-
flict considerable damage on the retreating force.