The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-21 00:00:00

THE WAR IN DENMARK

(From the Times Special Correspondent at the Danish
Head- quarters.)

ULKEBOL, April 15.

The fire of the Prussians began to languish on
Wednesday about sundown, and although it never
ceased altogether in the course of yesterday and of
last night, and although it is going on even at this
moment, it has greatly abated the awful intensity
which it displayed during the previous days. My
impression was on the evening before last that the
Germans had been using their ammunition with
little discretion, and that they had rather suddenly
fallen short of it. I see no reason to depart from
my surmise, aad if that was the only reason for their
slackened activity the respite allowed to the Danes
need not be long, for the means of communication
the Prussians have at command will Boon enable
them to bring forward fresh stores.

On Wednesday evening, at 11 o'clock, the Prus-
sians made a sudden rush on the Danish rifle-pits,
placed at about 1,200 feet from Bastion No. 2, on
the left, and possessed themselves of them. A com-
pany of Danish infantry sallied forth immediately
with a view to recover the lost pits, but they were
barely 200 men. They soon found themselves enve-
loped by a large German force, and had to withdraw
as they best could, leaving 75 of their number, be-
tween dead, wounded, and prisoners, besides the
contested rifle-pits, in the enemy's hands. The
casualties in the forts for the same day exceeded
the average 100 dead and wounded.
We had on this side reckoned the Prussian shots
in the days of the hottest cannonade at the rate of
6,000 to 7,000 daily. In the German papers the ac-
count is much more formidable. They have, they
say, 18 field-batteries on the line, between ten com-
panies of siege artillery, at work. Their daily can-
nonade averages from 10,000 to 12,000 shots, and no
less than 500,000 shot and Ellen have been hurled
against the Dybbol bastions since the bombardment
began. In proportion to this immense effort the re-
sult may be said to be infinitesimal. It has, how-
ever, very serious consequences on so small an army
as that of the Mena,. The Forts No. 1 and 2 are
terribly shaken, and No. 6 is not in a mach more
hopeful condition. Earthworks, cannon, block•
house, and all give in—alt but the undaunted spirit
of the Danes. How it will all end it is tco easy to
foresee, but the tragedy is put off from day to day,
and the Conference may, perhaps, be in time to save
the bright honour of old Denmark. The Bth Regi-
ment alone has lost no less than 11 officers. There
is no doubt also but the Prussians evince great
lack of decision and of settled plan in their ope-
rations. They opened their frightful cannonade—
I say nothing of their mere bungling and fum-
bling work of the three previous weeks, but the
real formidable cannonade against the Dybbol line
at the beginning of this month, and after the
first heat they almost forgot the Dybbol bastions
to turn all the violence of their wrath against the
defenceless town of Sonderborg. Ay seemed
partly to have repented this wanton piece of Van-
dalism, and again, for five or six days in succession,
thundered away at the forts. Th 9 fire was at first
almost entirely aimed at the left ; it then suddenly
concentrated all its energies on the right. They
have been all this time merely feeling their way.
Yesterday, again, and the day before, it seemed as
it the Prussians cared but little for either the town
of Sonderborg or the bastions of Dybbol, and all
their efforts were made against the Sound. I have
' already told you that the great farming establish-
ment at Ronhave, after lying for more than two
months at the mercy of the enemy, within sight of
his sentries across the water at Sandbjerg, was at

last made the object of a deliberate attack of the
Prussian cannon, and had therefore to be abandoned
by its owner, who had barely time to drive his cattle
and other easily moveable property from the pre.
miser. What I said about that dear rural spot
must now sound like a dirge on its final downfall.
The place is no more. Yesterday a huge column
of smoke rose in the heavens on the north-
western quarter of the horizon, and we were soon
assured that the great barn and hay and straw
lofts of lionhave were on fire. I met Herr Rosen,
the farmer, in company with toe Ulkebol parson
hastening to the spot, not with the faintest hope to
avert, but simply to ascertain the extent of the
calamity. The farm-house continued to burn from
morning to evening, and its smoke, reddening in the
glorious sunset, presented as sublime a spectacle as
any I have witnessed in this war, which has been,
however, so rich in sights of this nature. The air
has been very keen, but incredibly bright and pure
for the whole of this week, both night and day,
and as I watched the fall of evening yesterday from
the arbour behind the cluster of the Sonderborg
windmills I looked into nearly the whole extent of
Sundewel and the adjacent seas, embracing at one
glance the line of fire blazing away here and there
in desultory flashes, unceasing, though sluggish and
sullen. The column of red smoke of Ronhave was
gradually darkening as daylight waned, and it
towered in the sky a mere black phantom by the
time the young moon had asserted her ascendancy
over the starlit firmament. The fate of Ronhave ex-
tended to several other farmhouses at Kilmer and
Ulkebol Wes iermark. The Prussians are bent on
sweeping everything before them that lies in their
way on the eastern side of the Sound, from Sonder.
borg to Arnkielsore.

However stoutly determined tostand their ground
even at Dybbol, the Danes do contemplate the pos-
sibility of their loss of that position, and are prepars
ing against the worst contingencies. The retreat of
their troops is assured bythe means of broad avenues
across the fields, and by a number of rafts and pon-
toons, which would add to the efficiency of the
bridges already in existence in facilitating the con-
veyance of troops across the water, while the ad-
vance of the enemy would be retarded by barricades,
abattis, chevaux de frise, and such other contrivances
as the modern art of war suggests. Should Dybbol
fall, three or four days must elapse before the Prus-
sians can advance their artillery and take new posi-
tions so as to be ready to push on their advantage
across the Strait. By that time it is not impossible
that the Conference may bring about an armistice,
placing the armies in statu quo, in which event the
Danes would, at the very worst, retain undisputed
possession of the island. But it would be premature,
I believe, to suppose that they would either retire
or be driven even from Dybbol before the 20th.
It will be some time before I forget the blank
look with which good Mr. Rosen looked at me when
I met him yesterday morning and asked him
whether it was Ronhave that was burning, and the
husky voice with which he gave his affirmative
answer. It is not easy for a man to walk with a
steady step towards his own home in flames, and
such a happy home as Ronhave. We met coming
from the same direction several soldiers, and even
a few peasants, being carried to the Augnstenburg
hospital. wounded ; for the Prussians are in no way I
particular, and they fired indiscriminately on the
fugitives ; but even the anguish of those death-
spread countenances affected me less than the dis-
traction of the poor man the smoke of whose burn■
ing house darkened the sun in the sky. It takes so
very much to shake the equanimity of those stout-
hearted Northerners, or to surprise them in any un-
seemly exhibition of feeling.
More than 3,000 men 'wive lately come to rein-
force the army here, and we have daily men and
officers from Bornholm, an island off the coast of
Sweden, which, like Iceland, is exempt from the
Danish military conscription, and whose militia are
only bound to defend their own territory. Many
of the Bornholmers, however, come forward as
volunteers, cheerfully giving their lives for the
cause of the common country in these straits.
I had yesterday to confirm by a new telegram my
despatch of the 3d ult., in which I stated that the
town of Sonderborg had been bombarded without
any previous intimatiou. The German papers have
first impugned the fact altogether, then they have
attempted to explain it by saying that "the shell-
ing of Sonderborg took place in retaliation of the
fire directed by the Danes against the village of
Dybbol, where the Prussian wounded lay." The
pretext is simply absurd. The village in question
was a desert at the time the Prussians got posses-
sion of it, and it lay only half a mile from the guns
of the Danish bastion, and German batteries were
reared behind its houses and in its churchyard. If
the Prussians laid their wounded there, the murder
of those poor sufferers must be laid at their own
door. They might as well have established their
hospital at the outposts, and used their wounded as
buffers to cover their advance.

I understand that the insignia of the Order of the
Dannebrog, conferred by the King of Denmark upou
Mr. Auberon Herbert, have been sent to that gen-
tleman in England through her Majesty's Legation
in Copenhagen.