The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-29 00:00:00

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THE WAR IN DEN/AlAltePr
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(From the Scotsmeo 4c:;:Ai*V2 $3,
)
The following letter, with wliicit'zWeliiii :;,:1741:1;41;
favoured, is from a private in t h\c'fitilt'O644l
the Danish army, and is addressed histiri
SONDERBOR G, Feb. 8, IA4. S
You ask me to give you a full account of all I
have gone through during the memorable 6th-Bth
February; but, to look back, these two days seem
as long as two months. I cannot put all I would
like to tell you into one letter, but you must at any
rate know the following.

On Friday evening, at nine o'clock, I lay in the
works, along with several others of our company,
congratulating myself on being there safe and sound
after the sharp fighting we had had. We had got
our pipes lighted, and were chatting about the affair
at Bustrup, in which you know I took part, when
a sergeant came by, shouting, "Into position im •
mediately." We were on our legs in a moment,
and ten minutes afterwards the regiment stood
ready to march. Our company numbered then
four officers, ten sergeants, sixteen corporals, and
a hundred and eigbty-one privates. Our brave
Colonel Bcck rode along before us, and said—" Yes,
children, there will be stiff work for us, bat I know
I can depend on you. To the left, March!" and
off we set. I believed, as did most, that we were
on the road to Missunde, but when we left the
town behind us, we heard the sad truth from Lieu-
tenant Riebau. I spare you all the oaths and growls
which passed from rank to rank. I was silent, but
my imagination pictured a retreat full of horrors;
truly my imagination fell short of the reality. How
that terrible night between Friday and Saturday
passed I know not, as I literally slept, staggering
along with my blessed 75 kit, and my elegant thin
leather boots (my thick pair had been hors de com-
bat for several days). The boots pained me be-
yond expression ; I felt as if walking or,l thorns. I
have a dim recollection of being in a house, and get-
ting a glass of milk frczen over ; of seeing the long
spectre-like line of the army in the freezing cold
, night, trudge along the slippery road ; of seeing
horses and overturned carriages ; but I repeat, I was
asleep. For three nights I had not had in all four
hours sleep, and the march and my ill-humour put
me all out of sorts; so we went on up hill and down
hill till eight o'clock next morning, when we made
halt at a little village. I went into a house where
there was an old woman, and she gave me a cup of
delightful coffee or rather chicory ; but never did
Gianeld's 12s. coffee taste half so delicious. Add
to that a biscuit hard as stone, and a piece of half-
frozen pork, and you have my meal, which, however,
strengthened me exceedingly. An hour afterwards
we resumed our march.

The road was perfectly full of carriages and guns,
and a regiment of dragoons rode past us, keeping in
the fields, as the horses stumbled so much ou the
frozen road. At 12 o'clock we had again a rest.,
while company on company marched past us. ....
As I made for my company, which was a little
outside the town, our sergeant said to me, " Do you
hear the Austrians ?" and now I could hear in good
earnest the rambling in the distance. " Close in !"
cried the sub-officers; whips cracked on the spent
horses, and hero and there one fell. " Out with it
to the side, and cut it loose, if it cannot rise," and
on we went. A whole waggonfull of commissariat
monsters, supplied with large cloaks and footstools,
had, sad to say, to leave their comfortable seats,
and go on foot till they found another conveyance.
The thunder of the cannon came nearer and nearer.
" Company, attention ! Left face ! March south,"
and we turned on our own steps. We met now
several battalions, and at last the 9th and 11th
Regiments. The latter greeted us with " Hurrah
for the Bulsviers I" and a soldier with a hoarse
bass voice growled, holding up his bayonet, " See
that you give them a good allowance of this," and
away they went northwards. We were alone. Col.
Beck now came forward and said to the men-,-." The
General trusts toyouto holdout; if we hold here for
two hours we save a whole division. Do not fire till
the enemy is on you, and then in with the bayonet."
"Depend on us, we'll do our duty." I know yon
will, children." We then moved into a field to the
left, then in a line over a slight rising ground, and
as soon as we had passed the acclivity, there we had
the Germans. From the eabt came a regiment of
cavalry, and right along the high road another,
while a company of horse artillery rode at the
gallop into a field a little way off, and boom they
went. A shell struck between me and the man at
my side, and rose again, ricochetting 20 paces from
me. A fearful cry told that it had done its work.
After a qnarter of an hour had passed, we were
formed into a square, and down came the cavalry,
shouting and cheering, with their sabres raised,
some of them discharging their pistols—" Stand
fast, aim well, lads !" The dragoons broke and
fled, leaving many horses and mon behind them.
" Fall into line—forward," forward we went—
then shells again from the artillery--then into
squares to meet another charge of the cavalry,
whom we again beat off. So it went on for two
hours, our ranks getting fearfully thin. We got
breath for a moment, and I heard a voice near
me whisper—" Farewell, my Marie ! Farewell, my
dear little ones."' The words touched me deeply ;
they came from a brave comrade from the neigh-

bourhood of Roesbilde, who regularly received a
letter every post day, and who as regularly himself
wrote loving words to his dear ones at home; I
pressed his hand and whispered—" God never
deserts the widow and the fatherless." " Thank
you," he said, and loaded again. (I know you will
be pleased to hear that this brave modest fellow is
still alive.) An it got dark, the enemy charged
again and again, and, alas! one company got broken;
it was a frightful moment, we heard the sabres and
bayonets rattling, and wild shouts from either side.
Onr square held firm, although we were charged at
least twenty times. At last I had not a cartridge
left, and had to help myself to those of my fallen
comrades. At last the night fell, the snow held off
for a little, and we drew slowly back through a
wood and through several villages, stopping every
moment to take down the most troublesome of the
dragoons in our rear. Between eight and nine
o'clock, we reached Flensburg, had two hours' rest,
and then got on board a steamer, which brought us
to Sonderborg. At ten o'clock, twenty of us were
quartered on a workman who lives immediately out
of the town. Our condition when we reached Flens-
burg was pitiful. The gallant regiment was now a
mere ruin, not more than fifty of our company Were
in all to the fore. But, Ged be praised ! already to.
masses
b sse
day our numbers have swelled, and many dear com-
rades are again collected round the tattered red rag
which we love so well. A colonel came forward
while we put ourselves into position, and said,
" I thank you, gallant Ist Regiment. God bless
you!" When we passed other divisions they
shouted " Hurrah." Yes, at one place a standard
W
was lowered before us. W
The enemy must haveas
they charged on us quite blindly, and
de ray well
des of their
lya, an
dead aid wounded lay on the snow and dyed it
suffered frightfully, proud.
red ; but the cursed shells and grenades which they
threw in on us cost us man brave men. N. N.

----
EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE IN THE THAMES
TUNNELL.—This morning, shortly after 8 o'clock,
a respectably • dressed middle-aged man mitered the Thames
Tunnell,
Upon the Wapping side, and, after going a few
steps down the shaft he leaped over the bannisters and fell
a corpse
at the bottom. He was brought up on the
Wapping side of the river, and taken upon a stretcher by
three of the Thames police and a man named Wood (who
is the Thames Tunnel' Company's bricklayer, &c.) to a
suitable place to await the coroner's inquest. The unfor-
tunate man is quite unknown at present.
CLIFTON SUSPENSION-BRlDGE.—During the past
week the fixing of the third of the main chains
which form the eastern side of the Clifton Suspcnsion-bridge
has been completed, and preparations have been made for
shifting the wire ropes on which the temporary platform
has rested to the western side of the bridge. The woodwork
has already been removed, and, to preserve a
temporary
pathway across the chasm, a smaller platform has been con-
structed, the supports of which are firmly bolted to the
lower chain. This platform, which runs along
the off side
of the chains, will be used tom fixing the suspension rods,
&c. The erection of the western wain chains will, it is ca-
pected, proceed more quickly than the eastern, because
many of the arrangements made for the one just completed
are ready for the other, and the period of the year now ap-
proaching is more favourable to the progress of such work
than that during which the eastern main chains have been
erected.