The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-22 00:00:00

THE WAR IN DENMARK

(From the limes Special Correspondent wish the

rmie s )

BROACKER, April 16.
The Prussian batteries are lazy this sunny foree
noon, Their monotonous thunder is heard at longer
intervals than has lately been the case. Yesterday,
too, was a comparatively quiet day. This is in dis-
cord with the recent report that the bombardment
was to be continued with redoubled vigour, in com-
pliance with the supreme injunction that the Danes
are to be as much as possible damaged and their
powers of defence impaired by the action of the
artillery, before the lives of Prussian soldiers are
risked in the assault of the entrenchments. It is
generally believed here that the assault would
already have taken place but for orders received
from Berlin to postpone it until it could be made
with the least possible loss to the besiegers.
Yesterday the fire seemed, relatively speaking, to be
more lively on the left than on the right, so I went
in the former direction. The 6-pounder batteries,
the first to the north of West Duppel, are distributed
in sections of twos, at short distances from each
other. They were firing at forts 7 to 9, and between
them, at places where they believed Danish troops
to be stationed. From these batteries I moved for-
ward to the advanced posts, and happened to find an
acquaintance in the officer commanding these on
that part of the line, and he kindly accominnied me
to the beat points for seeing the forts, to which we
were able to get very near, there being a kind of
cartel between the line of pickets on either side not
to fire upon each other. So Prussians and Danes
stood or sat in their respective pits about 50 yards
apart, and officers visited them, and reliefs came nun
went, without a shot being fired. It seems, how-
ever, that the tacit convention was not sufficiently
stringent to inspire full confidence. "If those fel-
lows fire when we go forward," said the officer to
his second in command as he walked away with us
from his picket, " let them have it." But the fellows
did not fire, as we advanced, a party of four, to a
small trench dug in a field, the rearmost edge of
which was covered with straw and afforded an
excellent scat, while in front the earth of the ex-
cavation had been thrown up into a low parapet.
There we sat and chatted and basked in the sun,
and watched the blue-coated Danes standing
apathetically at their posts, and had an ex-
tremely near and good view of the forts, which
would have seemed deserted had not a human
figure now and then shown itself on their summit or
in the embrasures. The earthworks bore abundant
marks of shells, holes, and irregularities of surface,
but for defensive purpoaes they did not seem
to me one bit the worse than when their sides
were smooth and their surface level. They appear
to be all connected by covered ways, with what
looks like a regular wall with small embrasures.
In front of each fort is a line of posts, connected by
strong wires, to impede the advance of the assault-
ing party, which it will hardly do for a moment,
since the advancing troops will be provided with
the necessary implements to sever the wires. The
earthworks are certainly formidable to scale, but I
doubt whether a month's bombardment would render
them materially less so, judging
from the little
effect as yet produced by the heavy fire directed
against them. If they do receive considerable
damage it is evident that such damage is easily re-
paired. The extremely accurate and destructive
fire of the Prussian artillery must destroy men and
guns in the forts, but there is reason to believe that
the former remain in their bomb-proofs and that
most of the latter have been removed. The Danes
do not fire from their forts in the day, and, when
they do so at night, it has been observed that it is
nearly all from one fort on one night and all from
another fort on the next—now
all from No. 2, then
all from No. 8, and so on. The Prussians imagine,
therefore, that they have a few guns which they
move about from one fort to another, hoping so to
blind their opponents to the fact of their having
withdrawn the greater part of their heavy artillery.
It is probable, however, that they will have
suffi-
cient pieces there, when the hour of the assault shall
strike, to welcome the storming party with grape,
and probably they will also unmask field artillery
hehind the walls connecting the forts. In short,
though mortars and rifled 24's and heavy sego guns
do their worst during the whole time that can be
expected possible to elapse between this and the
assault, the line of basi ions on Dappel heights will
still be an extremely difficult place to storm ; and it
the Danes stand their ground resolutely, the loss of
the Prussians must be heavy. I have heard officers
express a hope that the loss while going over the
glacis will not be heavy, for they apprehend that if
the soldiers see their friends and comrades falling
thickly by their sides they will become so exas-
perateci thet little quarter will be given, and that
there will be no possibility of checking the work of
slaughter when once they get into the place.
We quitted our post of observation without a
shot having been fired at In, and, while returning,
the commander of the picket informed us that the
courtesy between the outposts was carried to such
an extent that Danes and Prussians mutually sa-
luted each other's officers when these went down to
visit the advanced sentries. Proceeding further
north, we came to a battery of four 24 pounders.
A general had just arrived on a visit to it, and those
capital guns were firing briskly, and with wonder-
ful accuracy, at the Danish redoubt, just to the north
of Sonderborg, of which town we obtained a capital
north-westerly view. A largo white building in the
upper part of the town seems to have been gutted
by the recent fire, at least the windows were gone
and the inside looked blackened. The guns in the re•
doubt, plainly visible, remained mute as shell after
shell went plunging into the battery. A small house
or farm a little to the Danish right had been set on
fire by a shell, and was in flames. We had a goad
view of Alsen Sued, and distinguished some of the
batteries on its opposite shore. Some distance further
north another 24 pounder battery was firing across
at a gunboat, I was told, lying in an inlet, but which
I could not distingui,h. Towards the right, as I re-