The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-07 00:00:00

THE ALLEGED PRUSSIAN ATROCITIES.
In a communication from Dijon, dated January 26, the
correspondent of the Daily News writes : Yesterday,
while waiting for a batch of wounded coming up
from Daix, to be housed in the general hospital,
one of the porters told Inc that in the inner court-
yard was the corpse of a Franc-tireur who had
been burnt alive. I wen; to the secretary and
asked to see the corpse ; then went with Lieutenant •
Davis, and two Baden surgeons. Of all ghastly
sights seen in these days, this was the ghastliest. The
poor fellow, who has since been recognised as a captain of
one of llicc:otti's companies, had been tied to a tree ; the
marks of the cords were on his arm. The fire had been
lighted at his feet, and he had burned slowly up-
wards. His back, which had been bound to the tree,
was not touched by the fire, his neck and face intact,
a part of his red plaid shirt still hanging on. It
i probable that the miscreants had been disturbed in their
famous sport, and that the fire went out before the un-
happy victim was dead. It so happened that the same
Baden surgeon who examined the corpse was assigned
to me in the evening to attend to the few Prussians left
at Daix. He was in a most pitiable state of terror ;
still he went, did his duty, remained at the farm
all night, and this morning I brought him and the
remaining wounded back to Dijon. One colonel and a
dozen soldiers had died in two days ; another major in the
village was breathing his last. The rest were hardly
transportable, but I had to choose between the risk of
transport and the risk of the vengeance of the Franca-
tireurs. For all the serious cases who had to be moved in
a recumbent position we provided separate cars, and es-
corted the convoy to the Lyceum, where the majority-of
the enemy's wounded lie. The Baden surgeon and a very
gentlemanly major were profuse in their thanks. They
said they did not expect to be so treated by Garibaldi.
Relieved from my fears for these men, I drove out
to Hauteville, to the house where the members of the
Saone•et-Loire Ambulance had been murdered. I
found a very respectable woman, sister of the Mayor of
Hauteville, and her daughter, at home. They
told me that on the night of the 21st-22nd, some surgeons
and nurses came and took possession of her house for a
temporary hospital, hoisted the flag with the red cross,
and, having attended to all their wounded, were seated
in the kitchen awaiting some food that she was
preparing. Suddenly the Prussians rushed in.

One officer, who spoke French, swore that she
concealed Francs-tireurs. She let them search ;
they found none. Then in cold blood they killed the
head surgeon, and another doctor who was trying to
escape, and left for dead on the ground four of the nurses.
The soldiers returning in the morning, stripped the dead
and wounded. In the same house a young girl of 20 years
of age was shot through the heart, but accidentally.
Hitherto I have stood up for the Prussians, and dis-
believed the stories of their atrocities. Now my whole
soul revolts against them. Ricciotti's surgeons
are still prisoners. The colonel in command at Chatillon
promised—nay, pledged his word—that they should be
sent back on the 12th January, via Switzerland. We are
now at the 26th, and there are no tidings of them; and a
gentleman who met Zulinski the other day assures me
that, as a Pole, he is to be taken to Russia. Poor General
Bosak is dead.

January 27.

'To•day I have been some of the officers of the- legion
whose surgeons were massacred by the Prussians at
Hauteville. They do not belong to the Army of the
Vosges, but to the 3rd Legion of the Mobilised National
Guard of Saone-et-Loire. On the 21st they had taken
possession of the village with two battalions. As soon as
the outposts were placed a patrol of the enemy's cavalry
entered ; they were repulsed. Half an hour later
a patrol of infantry were repulsed likewise ; but towards
evening, attacked on three sides by the Prussians, they
were obliged to retreat behind the village. The ambu-
lance surgeons and nurses remained at their post in the
house they had occupied in the centre of the
village, when the Prussians entered, and, long
after firing on both sides had ceased, attacked the un-
armed ambulance. Dr. Morin, head surgeon, received two
balls in his head ; an officer discharged his revolver in
his breast, the soldiers finished him off with the bayonet.
Dr. Milliard was murdered outside the house while trying
to escape ; the Infermiers, D'Heret, Champigny, Fleury,
Legros, and Moine, were fired on by officers armed with
revolvers. The assassins carried off the four horses, the
material, and even the surgical instruments belonging to
the ambulance. The bodies of the murdered surgeons have
been exhumed, and brought to Dijon; the wounded nurses
are lying in our hospitals.