The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-14 00:00:00

a WAR IN DENMARK.

i; From the Times Special Correspondent.)
:DANSIH HEAD QUARTERS, SONDERBURG,
March 3.
If 17 ; e may rely on the information that reaches
ns frr ‘m Germany, the grand day appointed by the
erns sins for a mighty effort against Dybbol is the
litb . inst. They are now, agreeably to the same
nut' aorities, working hard at their own trenches
an, I erecting their batteries, making ready for a
Ca nnonade which is to silence the fire of the Danish
bi .ations. Eight days is a long time to wait, how-
er, for people who have been for nearly a month
is daily expectation of an attack, and who have not
fargotten that first the 20th, then the 26th of Feb-
raary had been with the same confidence named by
those same German papers as the days that were
to usher in the beginning of 'the end, and that both
these days and others passed without one ounce of
gunpowder being burnt, except in some of those
outpost sldrmishes, in the wanton shooting of
sentries be hind the bush, which may, perhaps, be
among the inevitable evils of war, but which cer-
tainly do not further its objects or hasten its termi-
nation:
With a view to avoid these deplorable encounters
the Danes have drawn in their outpost considerably
Within the woods of Stenterup and Boffel, and, espe-
cially on the south, have fallen back close almost
to their line of fortification on the skirts of Dybbol-
hill. Towards the north, however, they still hold
Dybbol-village, stretching up as far as Ragebol,
Yesterday a large column of infantry, with two
field-pieces, marched from the latter place upon the
little wood which bears the name of Ragebol Skov,
drove the Prussians from its cover, and established
itself in the wood, with the determination to cut
it down, an operation which has by this time been
accomplished. The attack on the wood cost the
Danes four men wounded and an officer. After
levelling the wood with the ground the Danes will
probably again fall back on the almost adjoining
villages of Ragebol and Dybbol, having thus a clear
ground before them all round their outposts.
For people who are sent out to fight and who are
debarred from fighting, nothing is more natural
than to speculate upon the why and wherefore there
should be no fighting. There are some of the Danish
officers whom I see daily who have all this time
been very sceptical as to their own royal Government
on the one side, and those of Austria and Prussia
on the other, ever being really in earnest about this
outbreak of hostilities, to which the force of circum-
stances and the impatience of their subjects brought
them. " There was a power in Germany and a
power in Denmark," they think, " far greater than
that of the rulers who sat at the helm of the public
business. The Schleswig-Holstein question was a
point of honour to be settled by a mortal duel be-
tween the two nationalities. The Germans looked
upon the duchies as a rallying point for all their
aspirations after unity, liberty, and aggrandise-
ment ; they sought in the vindication of claims
grounded upon musty charters and pedantic
quibbles a means of self-assertion and an op-
portunity for joint action. The Danes clung,
if not to Holstein, at least to Schleswig, with the
tenacity of despair, and thought that their very
existence was wound up with the possession of the
Eider frontier. The animosity of the dispute was
not to be allayed by the moral authority or by the
material strength of the respective Governments.
The two nations were rushing to war with or with-
out the consent of their rulers. To avoid being
dragged, these latter took, or pretended to take, the
lead in the warlike movement. By placing them-
selves in the van of the German armies, Austria and
Prussia snubbed the Bund, dumbfounded the
national unions, and floored their Augustenburg
idol. Denmark, on her own side, humoured the
proud feelings of her brave people, assumed a lofty
tone, and made a great show of her determination
to nail her flag to the bastions of the Dannewerk;
all this was mere make-believe. The Dannewerk
was given up after three days' skirmishing, a luck-
less General was made the scapegoat, and now a
new feint is made of a desperat3 defence of the
ramparts of Dybbol and Fredericia. The Prus-
sians came up to those ramparts breathing fire and
vengeance; yet a month goes by and the contend-
ing parties stand face to face, as if spell- bound,
without exchanging one blow. It is a position of
affairs that no one clearly understands ; upon which,
therefore, every one deems himself authorized to put
the very worst conclusion. It seems evident that
there exists somewhere a disinclination to fight—
nay, a determination not to fight. Such is by no
means the disposition of the troops on either side ;
for the Danes, for their own part, are burning to
blot out any blemish which may cling to their
fair escutcheon in consequence of their loss of
the Dannewerk, and the Prussians are smarting
under the bitter consciousness that the fight at the
Dannewerk reflected no credit on their arms, and
that they have their honour to retrieve. What stays
the hands of the combatants in their own despite
is the deliberate act of Berlin, Vienna, and Copen-
hagen, where wily statesmen, flattering themselves
that their own turn has come, that they have re-
gained their ascendancy over those stormy factions
which had almost shaken the reins from their hands,
are now planning some compromise, patching up
some arrangement, in which it may be possible for
themselves, fur their people, and for the European
Powers to acquiesce, and in the meanwhile have
made up their minds that the mischief of war should
go no further, and that the armistice which they
dare not proclaim in words should, de facto, be
observed on either side.
I deemed it my duty to submit to you the gloomy
and somewhat uncharitable surmises to which this
prolonged suspension of hostilities gives rise, and
which, truly, might engender a belief that the
Schleswig-Holstein war was a sham from beginning
to end. For my own part, as I think the key to the
mystery is to be sought rather in the Cabinets of
the interested parties than at the head-quarters of
the belligerents, I shall express no opinion of my
own on the subject, and shall limit my observations
to the fact that if the strong lines at Dybbol are at
at any time to become the ground for a decisive
struggle, that struggle will be all the bloodier and
more desperate the longer it is put off. I rode
yesterday along the whole line of the ten bastions,
spreading out like a fan on that triangular piece of
ground of which the Sonderborg bridges are the
apex. I had with me an English officer of high
rank who has made the science of military engi-
neering the pursuits of a whole life and who came
to inspect the works as an amateur, and the con-
clusion he came to after a careful survey was that
the Dybbol line is one of immense strength; so
strong, indeed, as he expressed himself, that "the
Danes have only to shut the door and take the key
along with them, sure that their bastions would
take care of themselves by the sheer advantage of
the ground." The activity of the Danes in adding
strength to their stronghold exceeds all belief.
Besides forts and bastions they have during these
last few days erected a sufficient number of wooden
barracks to enable two or more regiments to encamp
outside the town, and right in the centre of the
position at Dybbol Mill, and so to be ready on any
emergency to support the regiments doing duty at
the outposts. The same unwearied alacrity is
shown by the Danes in the rearing of batteries
along the Sound. There are no less than 11 already
in a fair condition of defence, from those at Sunder-1
bong Church and Slot, or castle, to those at the ex-
treme point at Arnkielsore. I visited most of them
to-day with the English officer above mentioned,
and we were for a long time especially inspecting
which are going on at Ronhave and
the works _
Skovfogedhus, or Forester's-house, the two spots
where it
is most likely the Germans may be induced
to try to throw a bridge across from the opposite
shore at Sandbjerg and Storeskov. The probabi-
lities of their making such an attempt, and, what is
of greater moment, of their carrying it to a success-
ful termination, seemed to my intelligent military
English friend very slight. The width of the Sound
at the above-named narrowest points is no less than
800 alen, or about 1,60111 English feet, and the depth
of water in mid-channel, where the current is very
strong, is 72 feet, Before the Prussians could dream
of throwing the bridge, they would have to silence
all the batteries on the Danish side, and besides, all
such gunboats as would not fail to attack them from
the Northern entrance to the Sound at Arnkielsore.

Unless they can by sheer superiority of their cannon
obtain at least 12 hours' uninterrupted quiet, the
work of throwing the bridge would be a very ar-
duous achievement. The shores on either side of
the Sound, at this end, are very flat, and the bat-
teries of the Prussians would have t) be laid on low
ground, offering no material advantage over those of
their adversaries. Up to this time, I have been
assured, nothing is heard or seen that may in any
manner induce a belief that the Prussians are pre-
paring for an attack on this quarter. Their patrols
are indeed to be seen daily in the woods of Sannbjerg
and Storeskov, from the safe shelter of which they
amuse themselves by constantly firing at the
Danish pickets, and at the workmen busy in the
construction of batteries. Their rifle balls have
done no injury to the Danish soldiers as yet, and
the latter have been instructed by their officers
to take no heed of all that useless popping, and
on no account to answer the enemy's fire. The
cold blood and forbearance with which these good
Danes submit to these orders, standing to be shot
at without wincing, is truly admirable.

March 4.

General Gerlach, the newly appointedComman•
der-fa-Chief, has to-day put forth his first order of
the day, or proclamation, to the Danish army. Like
the King's own act in the same style, published on
the Bth of February, it seems carefully to avoid all
allusion to the chance of any immediately approach.
ing conflict. The general tells his soldiers that
" his Majesty the King has trusted him with the
command of the active army." He informs them
that " having been in the midst of them for 50 years,
he knows how far he can rely upon them, how sure
he is that they will bravely follaw their leader. In
the war of 1848-50 it never happened that any man
under his command disgraced his banner or fell
short of his duty ; he would now, as their old
general, make himself fully answerable for them.
They will be sure to show themselves true and
brave Danes worthy of the confidence that King
and nation place upon them. He will make their
well-being the first object of all his cares. In return
he demands their unbounded confidence. They will,
with God's help, brave together all dangers for the
sake of their King and Fatherland."
The longer I live among these Danes the more
strongly I feel inclined to award them the palm as
the people, of all people on earth, among whom the
simplicity of patriarchal morals is to be found
associated with the most thorough refinement of
civili3ed manners. We dined yesterday with a
large party of officers, a score of them, at a large
farm out of town, where most of them are quar-
tered. The farmer is the father of 12 daughters
and three sons. Most of the girls (I may well say
young ladies, of an age varying between nineteen
and four) waited upon the company at table. At
the head of the long and large board sat the farmer
himself, his second wife, looking like a sister to
her eldest step-daughters, and the said daughters'
governess. The whole bevy of the maidens and
women wore strict yet elegant mourning, in honour
of the deceased King, and with utter disregard of
the order of the present King, declaring the mourn-
ing period to be at an end. The neatness and taste
of those sable garments, the dressing of the hair,
all the gestures and movements of the fair Hebes,
bore the marks of good taste and good breeding.
The style was faultless. Some of the girls were tall,
slender beauties; most of them had dark hair and
light gray eyes ; they moved about with an elegance
of deportment which kept the eyes of their military
guests admiringly yet respectfully rivetted on them.
Those girls, their mother and governess, are used to
the solitude of their farm life ; they are not very
ready with their tongue, and a deep scarlet mantles
their cheeks whenever any of the company addresses
them. Yet they go through their domestic and
hospitable task with unerring tact and inborn grace.
Were time allowed to break the ice, and to still the
flutter of their maidenly emotions, they would prove
themselves equal to sensible conversation on many
topics. The books on their drawing room tables, the
fine prints on ;he walls, the piano in the corner,
and the exotics trained with care in the window.
sill tell you that. Your French or English, in which
they will not venture to answer you, are by no
means unfamiliar to them. Their governess comes
out of a first-rate Copenhagen Normal School, and
is an accomplished linguist.
Oue of my letters informed you that fears were
entertained that the Austro-Prussians would dese-
crate the abode of the dead at Flensburg by remov-
ing the bronze lion which had been erected as a
memorial on the grave of the Danish soldiers killed
in the war of 1848-50, and buried in the cemetery
of that town. The Danes here, stubbornly and to
the very last, refuse to believe that their enemies
could be capable of so mean and wanton an act
of mere vandalism. The outrage has, however,
been actually committed, and with the utmost
aggravation of the offence by the manner of
its perpetration. Some of the good citizens
of Flensburg, aware of the evil intention
of the Germans, sent a deputation to the civil com.
missioner Zedlitz, hinting that, if the monument was
an eyesore in the eyes of the Prussians, it would
immediately be removed by themselves and placed
somewhere out of sight. Their prayer, however,
was not listened to; the unfortunate lion was hurled
from its pedestal, it was dragged in the mud, broken
up, and mutilated. Its head and tail were paraded
triumphantly, as we are here assured, about the
streets of Altona and Homburg. Surely all Europe
may wish the Germans joy of their glorious trophies!
The country is in a great measure free from snow,
but the air is still raw, and we have not seen the
sun for 10 days. The larks in the clouds, however,
give us hope of forthcoming spring,
DANISH HEADQUARTERS, SONDERBORG,
March 4.

Two Austrian regiments, a force of about 4,000
men, have been added to the 42,000 Prussians, who
have been for the last four weeks confronting the little
Danish army at Dybbol. The newly arrived troops
have taken up their quarters at Sandbjerg. The
Danes here are quite sure that their Prussian foes,
mustering ae they did a force twice as large as
their own, would never have had the pluck to face
the heavy cannon of the Dybbol bastion unless their
Austrian allies came to inspire them with a little of
that dash and that spirit which distinguished them
at Bustrup. The coming up of the Austrians, there-
fore, has been hailed here as the harbinger of that
long-expected and long-protracted attack for
which the Danes are praying so fervently ;
and from some rumours of a great stir in
the enemy's camp, which have been spread at
headquarters this evening, the great event of the
campaign may even be looked for to-morrow. We
have, however, so often gone to bed with similar
anticipations, and have so constantly awakened to
disappointment in the morning, that I think we may
sleep with an easy mind for this and for many a
night to come. An attack upon the lines at Dybbol,
if we consider the cares that have been taken to add
to their naturally formidable strength, and the
enormous forces which are now arrayed against
them, would be so tremendous and so really epic an
affair, as to deserve a prominent place in military
annals. But I really question whether such a
slaughter as it could not fail to occasion will be
allowed to come to pass in our age. Already the
best opportunities for action have been suffered to
go by. The nights have been for the last week or
two unusually dark, and the weather is gloomy and
muggy enough even by day to allow a storming party
to creep unobserved almost up to the cannon's
mouth. The war, ever since we came here from
the Dannewerk, has been a mere make-believe ; and
it is impossible to resist the conviction that, while
the belligerent parties affect to reject all proposals
of an armistice, and wink at the useless effusion of
blood at the outposts, the work of diplomacy is
going on behind the scenes, and protocols are
already preparing for signature.
Bloodshed in driblets we have almost daily. The
operation of relieving the pickets from duty hardly
ever takes place without an exchange of rifle shots
by way of mutual good-by. In some instances,
however, the innate good humour of these Teutonic
people gets the better of the fell intent with which
they watch each other's movements,
and I am happy
to nave it to record that yesterday Danes and Prus-
sians, instead of popping with their rifles, were ac-
tually pelting; each other with snow balls, with the
high glee of schoolboys released from their task..

March 6.
Those who would wish to oee even a commonplace

example of what may be called the horrors of war
should ride, as I did yesterday for the 20th time,
through the solitude which was till a month ago the
village of Dybbol. Dybbol, to judge of it from the
appearance it bore even in deep winter, must have
been a kind of Danish "Sweet Auburn." Two or
three scores of thriving and substantial farm-houses,
scattered on little more than an English square
mile of the richest land, on the broad undulating
skirts of a hill about 120 feet high, with glimpses of
glittering sheets of water both on the Sound and on
the Nybbol Norside, constitute a landscape of rural
beauty not the less to be valued and cherished be-
cause it is the common boast of most of the localities
of the eastern coast of this happy Cimbrian penin-
sula. The style of building even of the meanest
peasant dwellings is a perfect marvel to the behol-
der. The people's love for a thatch, as the best
shelter in their opinion both for winter and sum-
mer, their preference for high slanting roofs, quaint
gables, vanes and chimney stacks, do not detract
from the solidity of the masonry, from the neatness
and elegance of the design of even the most unpre-
tending abode. There is no such thing as a hut or
hovel in the whole land, not an ill-fitting or shat-
tered door, not one broken pane of glass in the small,
low casements. Tidiness and comfort, most fasti-
dious cleanliness in barn, stable, and dairy, flower
pots behind the window, and bird-cages hanging
from the ceiling, all that can go towards making
a mere house a home, was contrived here. The
subduing influence of a severe climate seems to
have a softening effect on man and beast. There is
hardly a horse here but seems to be born thoroughly
broken; you can scarcely fall in with a snarling dog,
hardly with one that will bark even in fun. There
is a friendliness, a good nature, a thorough sterling
honesty which bind all living creatures, and reader
them fair and considerate towards each other, happy
and well pleased with each other. It is not a little
to be said in favour of Denmark, that war can be
waged here without marauders, camp followers, or
other bad characters; without the price of a single
article being enhanced by the sudden and exten-
sive demand. The closer I come into contact with
it, the more intimate I become with it, the stronger
grows my sympathy with this plain and unpre-
tending, but real and well grounded Danish civiliza-
tion: You meet hardly a man here but seems to be
contented, and deserving to be so, and desirous, as
far as in him lies, to contribute to yours and every-
body's contentment. Whatever may be said about
the force of climate, however much I may myself
feel inclined to ascribe to it, it is evident that much
of this universal well-being must be owing to the
discipline of wide-spread education, and good, pro-
vident, liberal government. No matter what Ham-
let may say of the Danes of his own time, it is a
fact that I never have, in seven weeks, seen a single
tipsy soldier in the Danish army. The public-
houses, or kros, in Alsen or Sundewitt, or fcr that
matter in all Schleswig, are all set down in the
map—a proof of the small extent to which they
are allowed to flourish. Such of them as I have
visited are a mere shelter for travellers, not a
lounging place for loafers. The Danish beer is
thin and wholesome, and their schnaps hardly fill
the tiniest thimble-like glasses. The Danish boor
is fond of home, and finds in the bosom of his read•
ing family sufficient resources against the weariness
of long winter evenings. The Lutheran religion,
free from wrangling dissent, sits easy o❑ this earnest
single-minded people ; each village forms but one
one'congregation, one community, The Church is
the bond of union ; the clergymen is the common
father, teacher, and friend. A Prestegaard, or
Priest's Court, is but a model farm ; the clergyman
is but one small degree removed above the common
hinds that constitute his flock. No doubt such in-
stitutions are the offspring of paternal despotism in
olden times; but such results are not the less bliss-
ful for the present, no less compatible with th 3
exigencies of modern freedom and the tendencies of
perpetual progress. And no trifling proof of the
real happiness of these Danes lies in their very un-
consciousness of its inestimable value, in their
readiness to take it for granted that they are no
better off than other people, their willingneses to be-
lieve that their quiet enjoyment of existence is the
common lot of all mortals,

But I perceive that while thus tempted to give
you an idyl about a living Danish village I was
losing sight of my object, which was to write an
elegy on a dead one. Dybbol was all I have been
describing up to the Bth of February; but Dybbol
is no more. The inhabitants have migrated en
»iasse, I know nut whither. The door of every
cottage is wide open ; the straw lies, a blackened
litter, upon every threshold. Many of the houses
are still standing, the thatch has in most instances
escaped the fire that has wilfully or accidentally
been set to it here and there. But the silence and
desolation are the more eloquent from that very
absence of dilapidation which tells of violent ruin or
natural decay. The Danish soldiers have neither
wantonly destroyed nor profaned the humbie dwt 1-
Hags ; the Prussians, who were only for a few
hours in possession of the place, have had no lei-
sure for much mischief ; but chill and squalor seem
immediately to set in in the home from which man,
its soul, has departed. A few minutes leisurely ride
through the lanes and alleys of the dead village
took me to the church, now, like mast ecclesias-
tical edifices in Alsen and Sandewitt, turned into
barracks, and I stepped into the churchyard, where
soldiers were busy digging rifle pits and rearing
small trenches out of the very mounds under which
the forefathers of the hamlet slept. Dybbol church
is a large, strong edifice, and its churchyard has
a commanding aspect; it answers the purposes of
an excellent outwork to the Dybbol-hill bastions.
It is sure to be a hotly contested spot, and the brave
men that were turning the sod were, perhaps, only
preparing the graves on which they might fall never
to rise. I had no sooner set my foot on the dese-
crated " God's-acre " than an angry voice warned
me that the Prussians were lurking about hardly
300 paces from the spot, and that no man could
stand erect on the sward without being made a tar-
get to their cursed rifle balls. The scene outside the
village is even sadder than in the thick of its habi-
tations. Not a tree is left standing; not a hedge,
not a garden, not a field, has escaped the trampling
hoofs, the deep cutting wheels, the wear and tear
of ruthless, remorseless war. A short month of
military occupation, even by friendly troops, has
turned Dybbol into a wilderness; it will take many
years of unbroken prosperity to restore it to its
former bloom. So much for those who make a cock-
pit their residence, who choose their home on a
battle-field !

Yesterday was election day for Denmark, and also
for all of Schleswig that still remains to Denmark—
i.e., for the island of Alsen. We have two electoral
districts, or "circles," here—one consisting of the
two boroughs of Nordborg and Sonderborg, having
its hustings and polling-place at the Mansion-house
i❑ the latter place; the other assembling all the
country voters at Augustenburg. Placed as they
are in all the throes of a war which is to decide their
fate, busy with the accommodation of an army out-
numbering their population, turned out of house
and home from anxiety for their own safety, the
Alseners took, it must be avowed, no very strong
interest in the choice of their representatives at the
Copenhagen Rigsraad. About 60 or 70 electors met,
al D. a.m., at the Sonderborg Town-hall. The Burgo•
master of the city was presented by one of the
citizens as a" fit and proper " gentleman to support
the interests of the borough. An avocat Some•
body was ushered in on the other side as a no less
" highly-qualified" candidate. The two competitors
belonged to the same political party and were ready
to vote for each other. Both of them addressed the
meeting—the office-holder in a few manly words,
the man of law at intolerable length. A show of
hands was then called, when all persons present,
with the exception of four, stood up in favour of
the Burgomaster. The advocate d'Jcared himself
satisfied, and the victorious candidate was declared
to be duly elected. At Augustenburg only one
gentleman selected the people's suffrages, and got
them without opposition.

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