The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-19 00:00:00

THE FIGHTING ROUND LE MANS.

The correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette gives an in-
teresting account of the fighting round Le Mans. So
late as the Bth, he says, I was told at Le Mans by the
people of the town that it was impossible for Chanzy to
be beaten. It was believed ho had 200,000 men under his
command while the Prussians had only half that number.
Chanzy's forces were probably as strong as this, but
they were dispersed, while the Germans were under-
estimated, being 180,000 strong, and were massed
together. The French had slightly the advantage in
artillery, but the German troops were greatly superior,
being disciplined and experienced soldiers,whereas Chanzy's
army consisted principally of mobilised National Guards.
On the Bth a rumour spread through Lo Mans that im-
portant movements were imminent, and on the 10th
serious fighting began. A strong attack was made on the
French line, and a violent encounter took place at Mont-
fort. The French fell back upon Champagn4, but the
ever-advancing Prussians crossed the Huisne,
and, after another hotly contested, action, took
possession of the village, capturing numerous prisoners
and four cannon. The result of the day's fighting was
that Chanzy retired upon strong positions near the town,
and the Prussians were enabled to advance within twelve
kilometres of Le Mans. In the town we could
plainly hear the French batteries at YvreSTEveque
cannonading the enemy, from one in the afternoon
until five in the evening. It was long before
the above facts came out ; during the evening it was
reported throughout the town that although the French
troops bad been forced to fall back, they had at least' done
serious damage to the enemy. One enterprising news-
monger had the audacity to assert that round about
Champagnd the slaughter of the enemy had been
so fearful that their killed lay a yard deep in
the fields, and that many had died standing,
propped up by the fallen bodies of their slaughtered com-
rades. At daybreak next day was heard the sound of a
frightful cannonade, which continued at intervals.
Rumour spoke of terrible German losses, but presently
more trustworthy news arrived. Early in the morning
General Chanzy, who was suffering from indisposition,
inspected the French positions and appeared full of confi-
dence. The Prussians, however, had been reinforced by
60,000 men on the preceding day, and attacked the
French on all sides, gaining an important result and
forcing a detachment of the French to retreat on Arlencon,
while the ocirp;% dispersed betweetl the tioire 444 the Loir

was cut off from the main army. Still the French had not
lost any ground, and could easily re-establish their
intercepted communications. When night "set in, the
Prussians retired, and all anticipated that the struggle
would be renewed at daylight. But the enemy did not
wait till then, for in the middle of the night
the town was aroused by the booming of cannon. . A red
glare illumined the sky, and lights appeared in
many a window. The Prussians had surprised the French
troops occupying the eminence on the left bank of the
Huisne, which was the weak point, and the violent and
unexpected artillery attack completely disconcerted both
officers and men. The officers in command were
too astounded or dismayed to give orders, autl,
left to themselves these unfortunate and inex-
perienced troops knew not what to do. In a
fatal hour they determined to retire. Horses were
precipitately harnessed to the guns, defending their bat-
tery, and the column commenced to retreat. They did
not pause in their march until they reached the
town, down the now lighted streets of which
they came, spreading panic and dismay. Exag-
gerated reports stated that Chanzy was completely
routed, his positions taken, and the army all but
annihilated : and the inhabitants refused to believe that
no such serious disaster had taken place. After a few
hours' repose the retreating column marched out of the
town and took up their position on the Buttes St. Georges.
By this time it was daylight. The loss of the surrendered
position was found to he irreparable, for the enemy could
turn the French positions and attack them in the rear.
The generals in command of the different divisions were
consulted, and unanimously advised a retreat, for which
orders were accordingly given. It was an exciting
morning. While the various corps were falling back on
the heights of St. Georges and Bouillon,
to the west of Le Mans, Chanzy's big
breech-loading naval guns, thundered upon the
Prussians from his position atYvre-PE'veque,delaying their
approach. In the town the alarm bell was ringing, the
National Guards assembling, the wounded being hurried
out of the town by all possible means. Two bridges
were blown up over the Sarthe and the Huisne, and the
railway viaduct over the Sarthe mined, ready to
be blown up any moment. Half-a-dozen projectiles had
fallen on the town by noon, and the railway station was
blocked with an excited and frightened train of people.
The whole place was in confusion. Steaming engines
were waiting to depart. Trains were being hastily formed
indifferently of passenger carriages, luggage vans, and
trucks. An immense amount of war materiel
covered the platforms, and was being piled without regard
for symmetry and order into the many trains which one
by one in rapid succession steamed away. For my part,
having already had the pleasure of being in a town occu-
pied by Prussians, I had no desire to experience it again,
and determined to get clear of the enemy as
soon as possible. I jumped into a third-class carriage of
a train with no less than forty carriages or trucks. The
rumbling fire we had heard through the morning which
told us the fighting continued,was every moment becoming
lender, and frequent explosions could be heard in the
town, in spite of the hurry and noise in the station.
Having crossed the mined viaduct over the
Sarthe, we soon got away into the open
country, beyond the thunder of the cannonade. As
the last train left j.e Mans—leaving behind it still five
locomotives, 160 carriages, vans, and trucks—a dramatic
incident occurred. All were busy loading a train with
military stores, when an employe, with a pale and excited
face, dashed on to the platform, and whispered to the
stationmaster that the Prussians were marching on the
town. The stationmaster shouted for a train
to be immediately formed, and in fifteen minutes
54 loaded carriages drawn by two locomotives were ready.
The majority of the employes scrambled in. The guard
was leaning out of his, van helping a wounded soldier in,
when a frightful crash was heard, and part of the
glass covering of the station fell in, shivered. A
bomb fell through the shattered roof and exploded.
Seeing it fall, the guard of the train hastily withdrew
within his van. Not so, however, the unfortuna. e
trooper. Before he had time to clamber into the train,
the projectile hail exploded, and cat him iu two. The
incident warned the engine driver that there was no
time to lose. The train steamed out of the station
at as fast a rate as its extreme length would
permit. It had scarcely been on its journey five minutes,
when a continual small-arm fire, intermixed with louder
detonations, was plainly heard. My informant, who,
with some twenty employes of the company, was seated
in a goods van on the top of some cases of
arms, looked through the small railed window of the van,
and discovered a large body of Uhlans, who had
evidently just rode up, and had failed to cut the line in
time, discharging their pistols upon the train—happily,
however, without effect. A minute afterwards shells and
'Chiang were far behind, and at full steam
the train passed over the bridge across the
Sarthe, which' a few minutes afterwards blew up. The
remainder of the journey was safely accomplished. We
learn through Conic that when the Prussian advanced
guard entered Le Mans they were met by the French
National Guards, joined by a body of sailors
from Havre, who charged them with the
bayonet in the streets, and inflicted great damage.
I learn from a semi-official source that when Gambetta
heard of Chanzy's defeat, he exclaimed that if it were
necessary to send 800,000 men to recapture Le Mans he
would do so, so highly important in his eyes was this
junction—surnamed by its local journals the key of the
West.

A correspondent, writing from Chaumont on the 12th
instant, says :—" The day before yesterday our railway
towards the south was partially destroyed for the fourth
time, but, fortunately, no military train was injured, the
deed having been discovered in time. General von Man-
teuffel has arrived at Chatillon to take the command of
the united corps of Generals von Werder and von Zas-
trow. The 2nd Army Corps is advancing likewise by
forced marches."
The Debats of the 12th states that up to that time the
fires caused within the city by the bombardment had been
very trifling, and were easily extinguished. During the
night of the Bth-9th of January twelve fires broke out,
but were checked by the pompiers with a few buckets of
water. On the two following nights the fires were less
numerous. The most serious conflagration occurred on
the route de Choisy, where a shell falling upon a heap of
shavings, caused the destruction of the premises.
Emile de Girardin, in a pamphlet entitled " The Hun-
dred Days," relates a conversation which he had on the
sth of October with M. Glais-Bizoin, a member of the
Bordeaux section of the Provisional Government. To
Girardin's representations Glais-Bizoin replied : " Be
easy, and entertain no anxiety. I will have my head cut
off if before the 31st of December Paris has not been re-
lieved by the Loire army, which is already 300,000
strong. I tell you this quite seriously, and you may re-
peat my words."
A Paris letter from a Frenchman to his friend in
Switzerland, says :—" It is terrible to think that whereas
12 days ago Trochu possessed general confidence, this has
so much collapsed since the evacuation of Mont Avron
that yesterday the groups of people in the streets called
him an imbecile and a traitor, worse than Bazaine. His
treacherous conduct, they say, has for its object the in-
stallation of the Comte de Paris, in whom King William
is especially interested. They reproach him with sham
defence, sham sorties."
The acquisition of Saigon, in French Coehin-China, for
a German naval station, as part of the indemnity to be
exacted from France, has been discussed from time to
time by the German press, and the Berlin Geographical
Society has just issued a report which is favourable to the
project. It is urged that the increasing German trade in
Eastern Asia renders the constant presence of men-of-
war necessary, and that in so remote a part of the world
the German fleet requires for its protection a station
where it can rendezvous, refit, and obtain the necessary
war material.

The mortality returns of Paris during the first week of
the present year again shew a -lamentable increase, the
number of deaths for the week ending on the 6th of
January being 3,680 as against 3,280 in the previous re-
turn. These figures do not include the military popula
tion. The fatality from smallpox declined from 454 to
329. Bronchitis caused 343 deaths as against 258 in the
previous week, and pneumonia numbered 262 victims as
contrasted with 201 in the proceiling period. Diarrinea,
which had been fatal in 98 cases in the previous week, is
ascribed as the cause of 151 deaths in the last return. Dr.
E. Decaisne, in the France, reports that the condition of
the hospital establishments had somewhat improved, hos-
pital gangrene being very rare, and purulent infection less
prevalent.
At Ingolstadt, where 10,000 French pr;soners are con
fined, one of them, named Gombault, the sergeant of a
Turco regiment, was tried by court_martial on the 10th
instant. He was a Parisian, 23 years of age, who had been
frequently punished for insubordination, and on account
of two attempts to escape had been placed under restric
tions. During the hour allowed him for exercise in the
open air he tried to pass the barrier, and on being pre,
vented by the sentry he violently attacked him, as well as
a subaltern who came to his assistance. The oourt con-
demned him to death. He received this very composedly,
and smoked a cigar up to the place of execution. He
shewed some feeling, however, when the staff was broken

over him. He gave the signal, and four well-directed
shots killed him instantaneously.

The Bromberg Gazette says that a French colonel, a
prisoner of war, escaped with his orderly from the for-
tress of Grundenz and succeeded in crossing the Russian
frontier. But they were both arrested by the Russian
authorities and delivered up to the military authorities of
the Prussian fortress of Thorn.

IN THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY. - Three French
officers, two of whom are from Alsace, and thoroughly
understand German, have been residing for some time at
Breslau in a house where a portion is let to a poor woman,
whose husband is away at the war. This woman has a
little son, who took a great liking to the officers, and
came to see them every morning. One day the
child did not come in, and for a week continued
absent. At the end of that time he called, and said with
tears that he had now a little brother, but that his
mother was very ill, and he had to attend her himself
alone. The officers quieted him, and told him they would
go to the church in the afternoon to act as sponsors for
the child. The nurse, on being. informed of this, came to
see the officers, who directed a carriage to be sent for, and
conveyed the nurse and child to the church, where the
baptism was solemnised. After the ceremony the nurse
received a handsome compliment, and the mother was
presented with a note for 100 thalers ; afterwards at the
dinner, to celebrate her rising from her bed, being sent a
tart and two bottles of wine.—Silesian Gazette.