The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-29 00:00:00

THE ROLL OF HONOUR.

The special correspondent of the Standard, writing
from Paris, December 22, sends the following list of those
deemed worthy of citation for their bravery and devoted-
ness in the late sortie :—Eighty-three new names have
been added to the roll of honour so wisely established by
by General Trochu. To the fallen be the first place
given. Amongst the foremost occurs the name of
Captain de Neverlee, killed at the head of a company of
freeshooters as he was leading it to the attack of the
park of Villiers. De Neverlee's death is a real
loss ; he was a most daring and energetic officer, and had
given many proofs of legitimate " devilry," the only
means to circumvent a crafty foe, since the investment.
He was attached as orderly to General Ducrot, and com-
manded a picked corps of determined fellows, into whom
he had succeeded in infusing his own spirit. Though
a chieftain of irregulars when he got his death-
wound, he held a regular commission in the
cavalry, and took part in all the combats
of the first corps of the Army of the Rhine
at the opening of hostilities. Three officers in a batch of
the 17th battery of the 11th Regiment of Artillery—
Captain Tremoulet, Lieutenant Chevalier, and Sub-
Lieutenant Mathis—are rendered funeral tribute in these
lines, "Heroically sacrificed themselves, and fell while
sustaining the attack on the enemy's position." Lieute-
nant Perseval, of the Engineers, is one of those unlucky
brave men whose fate gives the lie to the Latin proverb,
fortuna juvat audaces. He was wounded on the 2nd at
Champigny, but held his post, And was engaged on the
3rd, before the re-crossing of the Marne was decided on,
in looping the steeple of the village church, when a
merciless shot from the enemy cut short his career. The
lieutenant colonel of the 42nd Regiment of the line, M.
Prevault, a highly promising young officer, who had only
received his command a few days before, was struck
dead while fighting valiantly at the head of his men. M.
Gironin, adjutant-major of the same regiment, met a
similar fate on the 2nd. He defe led a garden sur-
rounded by the enemy for seven hours, and when
in the long run he was obliged to beat a retreat,
he made all his soldiers retire from the position by
a breach in the wall, remaining to the last himself. As
he was preparing to step out to rejoin them, he dropped
mortally wounded ! Proal, the adjutant-major of the
55th, was mortally wounded also on the 30th ult., while
charging at the head of his battalion. Captain Parisot,
of the 107th. was shot at point blank range while
hurrying his company to the support of some com-
panies of the left, whose safety was compromised,
but not till he had had the satisfaction of picking
down two of his assailants with his revolver.
Lieutenant Martel, of the same regiment, who was grie-
vously wounded, is mentioned as having behaved magnifi-
cently during the entire Combat of the 2nd of December,
Chef de bataillion Mowat, dig Bedford of the 14th, is cited
as having commanded his battalion most brilliantly on
the 30th of November, up to the moment of receiving a
wound, to which he succumbed on the following day.
There is a letter of introduction beside me from your
own correspondent at Paris to M. Mowat,
captain adjutant-major of the 4th battalion of
Foot Chasseurs, which I have never been able to present.
I knew he was here, but could not find out in what regi-
ment he had been drafted, and now only when the grass
must have been growing for weeks over the brave gentle-
men's head, do I get the first trace of where he was to be
found. The fortune of war—horrid, brutal, ab6mittable
war ! There is one compensation in this case. Poor
Mowat was a thorough soldier, and lie has met
the very death he would have chosen had he had the
choice. By a singular coincidence of ill-luck MM.
de la Monnerayc, Dupuy de Podio, and Sanguinetti,
lieutenant colonels respectively of the 122nd, 123rd, and
124th Regiments of the line, were all three " in ono red
burial blent "—killed while gallantly charging at the head
of their men. lame officers of the 4th Zouaves came in
for honourable mention—Captain de Padenas, who had a
horse shot under him, and was mortally wounded as his
company flung back the enemy ; Lieutenant Prisnat,
who returned from Metz with a wound, and got his
death under Paris before the lips of the wound
were well brought together ; and Lieutenant Leroux,
who stopped in a position attacked by superior forces,
and would not flinch to save his life. It s'y est fait tuer
sans reculer, says the report. These three comrades • in

tr.lrokim sought ince the I.oua,ves of yore, the legendary I
Zouaves of Africa, the Crimea, Palestro, and Puebla— li,,t
t'l e gingerbread interlopers disguised in the rakish fez,
:inked to many interlopers of reckless courage, who dis-
honoured their flag at Chantillon. Colonel de Grancey,
the Mobiles of the Cote d'Or, and Desprez, the naval
Lptain, mortally wounded while making a bold recoil.
naissance of Choisy-le-Roi on the 30th of November, both
of whom of whom have already figured in my correspon-
dence, have both come in for posthumous citation.
It is pleasanter to turn to the list of those who are
alive: One cannot add " and well," for some of them
will carry painful mutilations to their grave ; and if they
live for 50 years hence will have almost daily reason to re-
member how dearly they purchased their renown at the
siege of Paris. Take Sub-Lieutenant de Cambray, of the
Mobiles of the Loiret, for example, as handsome a
young man as one could see a month ago, his face beam-
ing with ruddy health, now a pale, bed-ridden cripple,
minus an arm, and a leg mangled by a piti-
less splinter of shell on the 30th of November, and
since cleanly and scientifically sawed off by the
surgeons. Brigadier-General de la Mariouse, of the
Reserve, is among the lucky few. He covered himself
with glory on the two days of the action of Villers, was
a ways in the thick of the hail of death, and never got
so much as a scratch. Captain Viel, of the
staff of the artillery of the 2nd Corps, was not
so fortunate. He was seriously wounded. Thurel, a
driver in the sth battery of the 21st Regiment, is .a
valuable mau, and richly deserves his citation. Here is
what is related of him :—" Though grievously wounded,
brought back his piece with a 'single horse, the three
others being killed." Just fill in that picture to appre-
ciate the steady coolness and die-hard pluck of Driver
Thurel to the full. First, there must be a complete rain
of projectiles on the ground he occupies to take down
three norses out of the team of four that went to the gun.
His escape must have been by the thick of a finger nail.
The horse beside that on which he rides is killed,
he himself wounded, in all likelihood by the explosion of
the same shell. He looks round ; his companion driver
has disappeared. What is to be done ? They must retire.
No standing that fire. But the gun—is it to be lost ?
Quick as thought Driver Thurel disengages the tackling
of the horse that remains from the prostrate carcase beside
it, yokes his solitary beast to the limber, and slowly
drags the cannon off the field. Private Arrighi, of the 42d
Regiment, stopped seven hours on the top of a wall on
the 2nd, watching the enemy's movements, and never so
much as a hair turned. His comrade, Marchand, is
another tyke with stout backbone. He was wounded
twice, but would not leave the field until a third shot
lent force to the arguments of the infirnziers by breaking
his leg. The 105th Regiment has reason to be proud of
Private Faure. At the park of Petit-Bry on the 2nd he
took down three Prussians with his Chassepot ; rushing for-
ward to seize on their arms as spoliaopima, he was confronted
by four others. Did he turn back again? Not a bit of
it. " Surrender," cried Faure, and the four wretched
warriors laid down the guns they were unworthy to carry,
and followed him like lambs. Leonville, of the 107th,
had the pleasure—rare in modern battle—of exacting
reprisals off the flesh of the man who attacked him. A
Prussian officer charged on Leonville, and pierced
'
him with his sword • the Frenchman, smarting under
his wound, pinioned his antagonist, tore the bloody
sword from him, and, as the wound continued to sting, ran
the foeman through from breast to back with his own
weapon ! Brigadier Tourene, of the 11th Artillery,
shewed proofs of handiness and attention to his business
that entitile him to rank as a model gunner. In a forward
movement of his battery a piece was dismounted, a shell
having exploded on the fore part of the gun-carriage.
Brigadier Tourene lost no time hesitating, but trotted up
an ammunition waggon, detached the leading portion
of it, to which he rigged the direlict cannon, and
moved it on to the position it was destined to
occupy. The Abbe de Marhallach, chaplain to the
Mobiles of Finistere, must belong to the Church Militant.
He is signalised as having " always advanced to the most
dangerous posts in the extreme advanced lines of skir-
mishers, where with admirable coolness and presence of
mind he lavished his ministrations as priest and doctor on
the wounded." To see the grave man going under the
hottest fire as calmly as he might pass, breviary.in
hand, from his presbytery down in Brittany. to the parish
church, it is easy to divine that there is a mystery
behind that black gown. So there is. Life has no charms
for him ;he seeks the higher life. The Abbe de Mar-
hallach had a wife whom he had loved and won; she died
and an adorable infant with her, and left him alone in the
world. There is the secret of his scorn for death ! In
addition to being cited on the order of the day, he has
been named Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, as well
as another Breton priest, the Abbe de Kergariou de
Locmarla, Chaplain to the First Division of the
Second Corps. Three of the 135th, forming. part
A the corps d'armee of St. Denis, have come in for
aotice—to wit, Captain Fourier, who had two brother
officers slain by his side at the attack on Epinay (he was
the first to burst into the park by a hole leaving passage
to a single man, and was cheered by his men on the
ground) ; Serjeant Roux, who, putting himself at the head
of ten comrades, stormed a house occupied by eleven
Prussians, and took them prisoners ; and Private Thenays,
who bayoneted a sentinel outside one of the enemy's
posts, and, springing over his corpse. compelled
those within to surrender. Dr. Ory, of the 10th battalion
of the Mobiles of the Seine, is the only surgeon on the
Roll of Honour. He dressed the wout.ded under fire the
same as if he were in an hospital, and had the corporal
who was waiting on him with bandages stretched at his
elbow by an unreflecting bullet. None of the Legion of
the Friends of France are catalogued on the list, but two
of them, De Rozencranz and Musson, have been admitted to
the Legion of Honour, and a th ird,who is plagued with the un-
happy name of Muller, has got the military medal. This
is a distinction not to be despised ; it is conferred
Eby a
decree of the same date on General Tripier, of the ngi-
neers, who has seen 46 years' service and 22 campaigns,
and has been grand officer of the Legion of Honour since
1866. Last, but by no means least, on this golden
calendar must be mentioned Mr. Alexander Ellysen, who
had his horse killed under him while conveying assistance
to the wounded. He has got the right to wear the red
ribbon in testimony of his devotedness.

THE CHANCES OF ULTIMATE VICTORY.
Writing from Bordeaux, December, 24, the specia_
correspondent of the Telegraph says :—From both English
and German newspapers I learn that the Prussians are
very indignant with England for furnishing France with
arms. How -supremely absurd this is may be seen
from the fact that, up to the present time, the num-
ber of English-made rifles sold to France does not
amount to 8,000, whereas the United State have
already supplied this country with 150,000 stand
of arms, and double that number are now on their
way hither. If the Prussians want to quarrel with
somebody on this question, why do not they do so with
America, or even with Belgium ; for the latter country
has certainly managed to send the French more than
three times as many muskets as have been brought from
Great Britain? Steamers with tens of thousands of rifles,
and millions of cartridges, are arriving every day in
the various French ports from the United States.
But the best story I have heard about contracting
for army supplies was told me the other day
by an American gentleman, who says that at New
York the chief contractor for provfsions for the French
army is an American-German; and that the chief con-
tractor for shoes for the Prussian army is a Frenchman
who lives in New York. How these gentlemen would be
denounced by the patriots of their respective countries if
they were found out, as they will, perhaps, some day or
other ! As regards the provinces of France giving
in when Paris capitulates, I can only repeat
what I have said before, that they have no
notion of doing so ; and I have reason to believe
that most of the diplomatic body here are of the same
opinion. Moreover—and this I can myself state for
certain—all the foreigners, with very few exceptions,
now in this part of France regard the chances of ultimate
victory as by no means desperate for the French Areny.
The common opinion is, that if France can only hold out
a couple of months longer, and thus give time for
the organisation of armies in the various camps
which are to be formed, Prussia, must, in the
end, be worn out. Of course this is a mere matter of
opinion ; but I confess that, in common with the rest of
the English here, I look upon the ultimate triumph of
France as far from impossible. There was a time—
shortly after Sedan—when the French soldiers seemed
really to believe the Germans invincible, and this was
caused by continued and continued triumphs one
after the other, as well as by things being
allowed to go on very 'much in the old manner.
But all this is changed now.. The discipline which
Gambetta has introduced into the new army is one of
iron. For any crime in the way of leaving the ranks
before the enemy the penalty is death. There have been
several instances in which young soldiers of good families
have been condemned by courts-martial to be shot for
desertion, and in no single instance has Gam-
betta overlooked the offence or pardoned the cri-
minal. The utmost that the relations of a young man
—son of a general killed during the present war—who
had remained behind when his battalion advanced at
Orleans the other day, could obtain by way of favour,
was that the execution of the offender should be private
instead of public. This immense change in the discipline
of the army has already produced no small effect, and
will be more and more felt as time goes on.
As you will have already learned by telegrim, there
has been fighting once more outside Paris, and with
advantage to the French troops. As yet no particulars
have reached us here. From the North General
Faidherbe telegraphs to-day that he had a successful en.
counter with the enemy at a place called Pont-Noyelles-
All these affairs are perhaps of trifling value when taken
individually, but together they help to prove to
the Gardes Mobiles and Gardes Nationales that
the enemy is not invincible, and, that, if well
handled, there still remains a chance for the French
army. Of the savage nature of the war I need not speak
—unfortunately we know it but too well already. But
to day it assumes a more lamentable, because a more
officially barbarous form. In the telegram issued
by our Government, the immense losses of the
l3avarians before Orleans the fearful number of
Wurtemburg soldiers killed before Paris, and the fact
that the Grand Duke of Baden had his jaw
smashed by a ball from a Mobile of this department, are
all set forth as so many points in favour of the French
winning the game. To rejoice in the gains of your own
side is legitimate enough, but to gloat over the loss of life
caused to your enemy is certainly a new and not an agree-
able feature in modern warfare.