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

THE PRUSSIAN ARMY.

(From the Times' Special Correspondent.)
FLENSBURG, July 3.
The Danes here are greatly disheartened by the
capture of Alsen, and the German part of the popu-
lation declare their conviction that the troops that
fight under the Dannebrog flag will never again
hold their ground against those of Prussia and
Austria, but will run or surrender almost as soon as
attacked. " They fired a few shots and then
bolted," a Prussian officer told me yesterday, and,
indeed, I suspect they will never do more. The
Danish officers may be all honourable men, and the
soldiers stout of heart, but they are decidedly defi-
cient in military qualities. Perhaps they are badly
commanded; the fault may lie with the Generals;
bat if only the colonels were good one would think
that something better might be done than such a tame
defence as that of A lsen, which may be summed up as
a skirmish and a scamper. They did not even run
fast enough to save themselves, but lost some 2,500
prisoners. Not so many Schleswigers were among
these as was at first supposed. Up to the evening
of the Ist inst., 445 of the prisoners had been re-
leased, having proved that they belonged to Schles-
wig. The way in which this is ascertained is by
baptismal certificates. Notice has been given that
Schleswig families having sons in the Danish army
should send to an officer at Flensburg extracts from
the registers of baptism. A prisoner wbo claims to
be a Sehleswiger is asked his age and name and the
names of his parents, and the register is referred to
in verification of his statement. Some concerning
whom particulars have not been received prove
that they belong to Schleswig by producing letters
from their families. One Schleswiger was retained
prisoner at his own request, under peculiar circum-
stances. He had entered the army as substitute
for a Dane, and was to receive a considerable sum
for so doing. If released he would not be paid, so
he preferred remaining captive.
On the expiration of the armistice the Prussians
busied themselves in erecting batteries along Alsen
Sund. Boats were also brought up from the Schlei
on carriages, and were concealed in Satrup Wood,
and pontoons were collected there and at Belle-
gaard. At least 60 rifled guns, 24's, 12's, and 6's,
were placed between Ballegaard and Sandborg.
The Danes seem to have removed their guns, or
else never to have armed the batteries they had on
the east shore of the Sund. At least the Prussian
accounts say that from the northernmost point on
the Danish side down td the little bay or inlet
near Kjar they found only seven guns and a few
of those mediaeval espingardas by which the Danes
set much store, but which never, so far as I can
learn, have done much harm to anybody,
except, perhaps, at Veile, where they are
said to have killed a few Austrians. You will do
well utterly to discredit the accounts you may
see in some German papers of the storm of shell and
grape and every other kind of projectile under
which the passage of the Sound was effected. he
operation was carefully planned, well managed, and
executed with ease and trifling loss. The Roll
Kraks is said to have fired, on her first sortie from
Augustenburg Bay, more than 50 shots, distributing
them among the batteries, the boats, and the troops
assembled on the shore waiting for shipment, but .1
cannot learn that she did any harm beyond sinking
two boats. She did not come to close quarters, but
fired at a long range. To have done any good she
must have risked her plates and timbers more than
she seems to have been disposed to do. One great
proof of the discouragement of the Danes seems to
me apparent in the ease with which the Prussians
drove them across the island. There never was
better ground for defence, if the defenders
had meant to fight. I drove a little about the
island yesterday, to Ulkeboll, Augustenburg,
and in that neighbourhood, and I am assured that
its whole surface is much of the same nature. If
so, it abounds in excellent positions. It is cut up
into small fields, with high banks and hedges,
affording abundant cover, from behind which good
infantry ought net to gave allowed themselves to be
dislodged until they had inflicted very heavy loss on
their assailants. The Prussians took very few guns
across with them. Where was the Danish field artils
lery It does not seem to have shown itself at all.
They had plenty of heavy guns in positions w..,ch
the Prussians took care not to attack. '
eneir idea
seems to have been that they wouP
of assailed from
the Dappel heights, and thee
Zonderburg would be
the point of attack. 11.
ege 61-pounders, two mortars,
and some rifled ;funs are still to be sect in the
Church Batt.ery, as it is called, on the Danish right
of Sonl'eerborg. They perfectly command the road
fr.:An Duppel Mill, and would have inflicted heavy
loss on a force coming from that side, and intending
a serious attack. A feint was made from that direc-
tion. Eight tilled guns were stationed on the Dappel
heights, and, simultaneously with the commence-
ment of the passage from Satrap, they opened a
heavy fire on .he Church Battery and the adjacent
works. At the same time a few companies embarked
in boats on the shore of the Venningbund, not far
from the spot where stood Duppel Fort No. 1, and
pulled towards Sonderberg. The Church Battery
blazed at them with all its might, whereupon they
presently returned, the sole object having been to
divert the attention of the Danes from the real
point of attack.

• Alsen, I must say, so far as I have seen it, is an
island worth fighting for, which is more than can
be said for many parts of Schleswig. It is just now
green as an emerald, rich in verdure and foliage
(there has been a great deal of rain here of late, and
we can hardly be said to have got nut of spring),
looking like a garden, with green lanes and pleasant
pastures. The thorn trees and laburnums are still
in bloom, and one drives along the road between
lofty hedges covered with roses and honeysuckles.
It is very like many parts of England, although not
so trim and highly cultivated. The villages and
houses are remarkably neat and clean, bright glass
and plentiful flowers in all the windows. There is
no appearance of recent occupation by large bodies
of troops ; nothing broken, or trodden down, or
defaced. Doubtless many of the Sonderborg people
had dispersed themselves among the villages of the
island when the barbarous storm of Prussian shell
made their town residence untenable, for yester-
day I met scores of carts going in froth Country
parts. They were filled with bettaehold furniture,
chairs and tables and mattresses, and feather beds,
and the owners for the most part sat on the top of
their chattels with a half-pleased, half.eorry look,
as if they were glad to return, but had not
yet got over their violent and cruel ejection. In
Sonderborg, too, one saw families wandering about,
seeking tbeir dwellings and often finding only the
spot where these had stood. More than one mourn-
cut group did I chance upon, gray-hailed fathers,
and careworn mothers, and fair rosy■checked
daughters, gazing sadly and tearfully at heaps of
broken stones and burnt rafters, and seemingly
conjuring up for themselves, out of the devastation,
the presence of the cozy chambers and the cheerful
fireside where they so often had sat before those
brutal tubes on Gammelsmark crushed them under
a shower of iron. Whether Sonderborg will ever
rise from its ashes it is hard to say, but at present
it is a mere wreck. I should think nearly half the
houses are wholly or in great measure destroyed.
But the situation is a pleasant one, and te-,,iptiog to
Dit
nh
uge
ps builder.preuaendd by Already,
its l
there
ne
edivi yga,
hr:brtoettlghtiin: 0 Stoink vaa gwtat snoiiddle ,nhboiyuuisei build-
ings
being repaired, roofs putting on them in lieu of those
shattered by German or Danish shelf, and acme en-
tirely new cottages being built. The corn springs
green over many a spot lately reddened with blood;
the peasants are hard at work filling up the trenciles
and levelling earth, and the traces of war are rapidly
disappearing.
Besides a great number of guns, the Darren left