The Sun.
London, England, 1806-12-03 00:00:00

froliz the HAMBOIicH CORRESPONDEA TEN
of Notiimler 22:

itE'mArtits ,L-Y -A FRENCH OFFICER ON THE REPORT

OF GEN. BLUCHER.

General BLUCHER begins his Report thus
With atteje ct(' heart I am under the necessity of inform-
ing your Majesty of the annihilation and captivity of the corps
of tic ops'whic.h't had.the.mis;OrtunetOcommand, in a situa-,
toot, inch admitted rot of any ether tate.
That a -corps, cut oif ?rum the heart of the State, and
from all the other troops,and fortresses. should he annihilated
in a fortnight, by,a corps six times as strong, after it had
pended all its anintunitiort in tour engagements, requires no
justitication ; but it would ailbrd me the highest satistatlion•
it your ;Majesty would follow my humble Report. step by
step an,l judge of the measures which Ladopted."
.11elative to a fume six tunes -the strenerth of Ills
own, Gen..l3LuCiii.:R-errs. The troops in and
LubeCk4.when 6(4. capitulation took place, did Dot
• ,
exceed 2.5 or 36,000 men ; and these were then for
the tirit .tune colleaed together. Marshali Bcrttia
DOTE and Sotrur had . only a -part of their troops
npr Lubeck, 4d the Duke of B.E)tG. bad only one..
third of Ills corps. .

think it necessary to begin with stating, that the objeet
of:Lir operations of toy corps, till the agift, that is, till. the
capitniation of the Prince of flonant:onr; was the jutfaien
of the two, and gaining the Oder : that afterwards Inv utmost
efforts werz exerted to draw off the; French from the ()der,
ar d to remove them from the heart of (he Prut;sian 'Monar-
chy, in order to gain time for the provisioning °four fortresses
and the approach of the remaining Prussian troops, and the
knssion armies.",

General BLUCHER fails in his obje& to prove that
be aitned at getting time for provisioning the for-
tresses, since these places "had been entered by oth&
corpgnf the Prussian army. And as to waiting for
the Russians on the Oder, that was idle, since the
French troop; hare entered Poland.

" The result has proved that 1 wiis not quite unsuccessful,-
ak three French principal corps, those of IseluaA r, BERNA.
r F., and Soup?, surrounded mc ; when, totally destitute
of aintirunitirni, I wAs obliged to capitlate, with 9400 men, at
Rfintau, bctween Kiel and Lubeck."

General BLUCHER was et ;his outset pursued by
the first troops of the Army alone, which foUght,
him at Zabel, Nossentivn, Old Schwerin, Kaldrum,
Crewitz; Fahre, and Gadebusch. Gen. I.lLucuia
liad then, including the corps of Weimar, bet Ween
25 and 30,000 men,• with 3000 cavalry, and 11'2
pieces ofcannon. However, Gen. BLUCHER refused
an aCtion- with only 12,000 infantry of the first corps,
which ptirsued him, and were only supported by the.
light cavalry of the 4th'corps". Then was the time
for Gen. BLUCHER to have availed hitnself of hissu-
perior numbers, and accepted the challenge given.—
This he even evaded on the plains of Meckienburgh,
where he might have used his numerous' cavalry to
advantage. He was not in want of ammunition, as
upwards of 1.50 Pkissiait waggons, &c. with every
--aescription of it, watt surrendered in and near Lu-
beck. . - • . .
I shall nosi-commence the more circumstantial narrative,
which I shall however allriAge as much as possible.
9i4 the Lith ()dotter the Prince of Hot' tiv L ails gave ma
the command of the corps which Duke EuGENE of Wirtem-
berg had till then c,tnmanded. It had been greatly weakened
-by a dcfe: , near thile ; and had, besides half a battery of rz-
pounders, on ly one and a half 6- pounders, and a horse battery,
but neith:r forage nor bread. The artillery was principally
lost at i'.l.lerstadt and in forced marches.

With this corps I marched on-the 26th in the environs
of Ruppin. The P►-ince ot.-Hooxivi.ouz ►vas in the vicinity.
O Lychen.
" My intention of going by way of Zehdenik„ the dired
road to Prentzlau, was frustrated ; the enemy having posses-
sion of that place and Gransee. I marched thence the 27th,
with the tat division of the corps towards Furstenburgh, and
with the ad to Lychen. Towards evening my rear:was 'at-
tacked near Men z ;. it repulsed the enemy, but I withdrew to
urgteßbu rgh ►o join the tat corps. '
" Ott the 2Sth I joined the diVision Which had been station-
ed at Lvchen, and diretted my march to boitzenburgh. The
Prince oft•loxxr m oas had marched by Schonemark toPrentz-
lan, I dared not take this circuit, and was under: rlie neces-
sity of iesolving to drive the enemy out of 13oitzenburgh, un-
les4 I telinquished all hope of joining the Prince. In this
march the enemy attacked the rear not tar from L chen; but
was.repulsad by my regiment, which took upwards of 3o pri-
soners, and killed more than fifty men.
." On my approach, the enemy evacuated Boitienburgh ;
the patroles, however, found enemies in all the-adjacent
places; and from the tew villages which I was forced to take
posse Sion of, to prevent the men and horses from dying of
hunger, I was obliged to drive them out in the night.
" A t tour o'clock in the munting of the 29th, when I was
ready to set out for Prentalau, I was informed by some strag-
glers, who had -escaped from Ho FIE N LOH E'S Army, that the
let:lice had capitulated at P tentzlau. My corps amounted
to to, ioo men; before me. at the distance of eight miles, was
WI ex T'S Army ; on my flank, or in my rear, the corps of
Ekt N ADoTTE each of these.was at least twice as strong as
nay corps, which, besides, had neither bread nor forage, and
was exceedingly exhausted by the many forced marches."

Here the General commits another error ; the
:number-of the first corps that followed him was not
double that of,his own. He was pursued in his
retreat by 12,000 only,. These troops had, fewer re-
sources than the Prussians, as they were obliged to
trace the same ground which had been previously.
exhausted by General BLUCHER'S corps.

" My resolation was soon formed. Instead of marching
to the right, towards Prentzlan„. I marched immediately to
the left, towards Strelitz. I hoped thereto form a junction
with the corps of WEIMAR, then to advance towards Magde-
burgh, or, according to circumstances, to cross the Elbe, in
order to supialy Magdeburgh and Hameln, fur a longer term,
with provisions, and to set tit the enemy's rear.
" Meanwhile, 1 received no account of the corps of Wet-.
AR. ftotn several•Ofliccrs and lagers whom I had sent out.
On the 30th 1 marched past Strelitz, to Dambeck, nut there
n:et with it unexpededly. There, too, I received the first
information that the corps of Marshal SOL/LT was coming
front the Elbe to meet me. Before it reached the place, my
rear was harassed by the enemy."

When General 131.-UCIIER kept to the left to gain
Strelitz, he was.pursued and attacked by 100 cavalry
only,. under Col. GERARD, Aid-de-Camp to hince
PoNTo.Colivo, and who compelled him -to leave
that place.
" On the 31st I sent two Officers to the Elbe, for the pur-
pose of colieding the vessels necessary fin- crossing that river, '
'at Boitzenburgh and Lauenbuigh. I rnarchetl to Wahren,
and the toilowing day to Old Schwerin and G Lave.
' After the arrival of So u Lr's corps, my situation had be-
come ‘.
more critical than ever. I had, it is trite, formed a
junetiort•witli the corps of WEIMAR ; but it was necessary
that the troops, exhausted with fatigue and hunger, should
be distributed at night in the villages, that they might there
obtain a scanty subsistence. By this. separation, however, my
corps was always to imminent danger of being dispersed, in
case of any attack. The ine,sures 1 at:opted were as bAlow :
At dusk the-corps separated ; ant h6or before day-break the
re.4ißi6its marched out to the rendezvous, which was fixed
in such a tnauticr, that I advanced from six to eight miles.
By this disposition, the magnitude of the danger in which 1
was involved was only somewhat diminished."•

Marshal SOULT pursued the -column tin-der 'the
Duke of WEimAn, in the rear of BERNADOTTE,
Wfib follow%A the column of General BLucllEtt, as
the hater took Boitienburgh in
.his-Way, while
WUMAR'S corps bore off towards the'Lake of Mu.:
rig, not far from Speck. These movements were
the cause of the junction of both corps, ilite 4th