The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-03 00:00:00

THE SIEGE OF STRASBURG.

An inhabitant of the besieged city on the Rhine far•
nishes the Paris Temps with some particulars of the
bombardment :—" None of the defenders of the
place posted upon the ramparts have as yet
been killed. The walls, palisades, and gates of
the town are still intact. The Germans only
fire upon the city, and seek to destroy as many
houses as possible. The commandant of the place sent a
Captain Roederer with a flag of truce to endeavour to
obtain from the German commander permission for the
women and children to leave the town. The German
General returned a negative response, saying that if
the women and children were let out the place would
not surrender. The trumpeter who accompanied Cap-
tain Roederer was killed, and that officer was himself
wounded. It was only after the 22nd, when the Badese had
brought up their heavy guns, that Strasburg began to
suffer the worst. Whole streets have been burnt. The
Rue de Dome is a mass of ruins, as is also the Rue
de la Nu6e Bleue. The City Library and that of
the Protestant Seminary have been demolished.
The Protestant College, rebuilt about four years
since by public subscriptions from all parts of the
world, no longer exists. The Temple Neuf has been
partially burnt. Two quarters of the city have been
entirely destroyed. La Kratenau and the Marais Kajenck
no longer exist. L'Aubette, the Picture Gallery, the
Scheidecker Mansion, the Church of St. Thomas, with
the famous mausoleum of Marshal Saxe, all have been
destroyed. Everywhere there is ruin, ashes, and fire.
The unhappy inhabitants, huddled together in cellars,
see their homes burning, and cannot attempt to save
them. Shells and rockets continually feed the flames.
Many citizens have been killed. The potter of the
Hot -1 de la Maison Rouge, while going his rounds with
laLtern in hand, had his had carried off by a cannon

ball. The statues of Kleber and Gutenberg hare been
injured, and the Cathedral has received its share of de-
structiou. Several portions of it have been knocked
down. General Ulrich has declared that he will not sur-
render except upon a heap of ashes, and a heap of ashes
will very shortly fill the place of a city which but a little
while since was so flourishing.
A correspondent of the Carlsruhe Gazette says : At
this moment Strasburg is burning in at least four places,
one near the Cathedral. Although this is intentionally
spared as much as possible, the roof has already been
struck by a few bullets. The condition of the inhabi-
tants, as described by a few fugitives, is frightful, and one
cannot deny them the deepest sympathy. Already 600
persons have been killed by our projectiles, and whole
streets are as good as destroyed. The governor has de-
clared that if the town falls into the hands of the Ger-
mans they will find it only a heap of rubbish. This fierce
resolution is partly attributable to his having lost a son in
the battle of Woerth.

IN FRONT OF THE FRENCH AT G-RAVE-

LOTTE.

Some idea of what the fighting is like in the present war
may be gained from the following portion of a letter by a
Prussian officer who fought at Gravelotte :—" .` Second
company to the right ; first to the left ' As
we are turning a copse we are suddenly in the thick of
it. Into the copse, then, and along its outskirts. The
fire is heavy, but as yet the balls fall short of us. At first
we are at a loss to make out whence they come. Can it be
that we are fired at from the heights in front, at a dis-
tance of at least 1,800 paces? As we proceed our doubts
are set at rest. We have the enemy really before us,
and in a few minutes begin to suffer very perceptibly.
Forward ! forward ! Spreading out_in thin lines, we are
running on while our breath lasts. But we are exhausted
even before wee= see the enemy, so great is the distance,
and so steadily ascending the long-stretching slope we
have to go over. Stop ! We are still at 1,000 paces from
the French, and must take breath before we can proceed.
Not a shot is fired. Now on again, a few hundred paces
right into the potato-field. Stop again, fire a few shots,
and now at them at a run. At last we succeeded in get-
ting near enough to see the heads of the French popping
out of their ditches. As usual, they were in rifle-pits on
the slope and top of the hill. By this time very many of
us had fallen, and we. halted, on wholly unprotected
ground, to exchange some rounds with our friends
opposite. Captain Baron Von Arnim was shot in the
foot, but remained sitting in our midst to direct the move-
ments of the company. He soon got another hall in his
breast, when he had to give it up. Finding we could not
do much execution, we betook ourselves to .our feet again,
and ran to within 500 paces of the enemy. Now, at
last we had a fling at them. I measured the distance
myself, took a dead man's rifle and popped away as fast
and as well as I could. At this juncture Major von
Fabeck was shot, Captain von Hagen was shot, and four
men next to me were shot. We were in skirmish-
ing order, and beginning to melt away like wax.
In front stood the French, concealed in excavations
up to their very eyes ; behind us for a distance
of 800 paces the ground was strewn with dead and
wounded. If we had been strong enough, we should
have tried to cross bayonets, but our numbers had already
been so very much reduced that we could not think of
making the attempt. Indeed, had the French assumed the
offensive they must have taken .or killed every man of us.
But according to their practice they kept in their ditches,
and were quite satisfied with slaughtering us at a distance.
The thing became perfectly unendurable, and there arose a
low murmur in our lines that we had better fly at them at
any expense and knock down as many as we could while
there were any of us left to do it. At this moment
Captain Von Berger, the adjutant of our Brigadier,
came up at a gallop, shouting from a distance, and
ordering us to remain where we were if we would
escape being taken prisoners. So we just stood our
ground until troops were perceived coming to our sup-
port in the distance, when we all advanced again, and at
300 paces once more opened a murderous fire. All
through my men were very calm and self-possessed,
Under the circumstances of the case they could not but
know that the gieater part, and, perhaps, all, of them
had got to die. Yet they were as tranquil as the few
of their officers still remaining, and fooked with perfect
equanimity upon the French relieving again and again
their tirailleurs in the ditches. We are now near enough
to see that they had four rows of rifle pits, the one over
the other. The fire was terrific, and Sadowa in compari-
son to it mere child's play. By and by our cartridges
got exhausted, and we had to empty the pouches of the
dead and wounded. As many of the latter as had a spark
of life left (lid all they could to assist us in this. But
everything has an end, and so had our ammunition.
I had given orders that every man was to reserve
two cartridges in case the French took the offensive,
and with these two cartridges in our possession we
confronted the enemy even after we had ceased
to fire. After a little while, which seemed to us
terribly long, our supports came up. They were skir-
mishers of Queen Elizabeth's Regiment, and the moment
they joined us I heard their captain give the command
in my rear, ' Charge with the bayonet !' I was lying on
the ground with a shot in my left arm and shoulder-
blade; but as I heard those glorious sounds I jumped up,
and halloaing to my men, fiercely repeated the word of com-
mand, ' Charge with the bayonet !' But alas ! there were
only three men left to respond to my call. With the ex-
ception of a few who had joined another company the
whole of my men were down. I do not know whether
the three survivors took part in the attack. As .
for myself I could not do it. I sat down
on the ground. The moment the Elizabeth
regiment charged the French jumped out of their
ditches and ran away. An enormous quick fire was opened
upon them, and, as I can assure you, to some purpose. The
French were driVen from their whole position. The villages
around were on fire, and the shooting continued here and
there. We had been opposed to the Guards, who were
the last to retreat.