The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-01 00:00:00

THE BOMBARDMENT OF STRA.SBURG.

(FROM THE CORRESPONDENT OF THE " PALL MALL
GAZETTE.")

MANNHIEM, August 26,

I have just come from the scene of the bombardment of
Strasburg. The railway from Appenweiser to Kehl is
still open as far as the station of Kork, a village about
four miles from Keel. The commanding position for
observation afforded by the church tower and some other
elevated buildings in this place made it such a point of
attraction for sight-seers that the military autho-
rities on the day I came summarily issued orders
not to allow any strangers to visit it. The consequence
was that when the train steamed into the station, disap-
pointment, general and desperate, befell a whole host of
tourists who found themselves confronted by inexorable
sentries refusing admission even into the station-house.
What became of these protesting travellers I do not know.
Some of them I came across later as they were
gazing on the conflagration in Strasburg from
a distance considerably in the rear of Kork,
but the greater number, I apprehend, were
driven back to a point whence all they could enjoy
was the sound of the heavy guns. Thanks to perseve-
rance
and some protection, I contrived to get well for-
ward, and although I cannot give you many details, I can
state generally the present condition of affairs. The city
is now invested from all sides, the heaviest batteries being
on the west, north, and east from the town,
the latter of which is on the German side. Since
the 24th the real bombardment has commenced, and
it was the report of its severe effect resulting in a confla-
gration of terrible proportions which induced me to under-
take the expedition. As evening c.sme on the besiegers,
who till this fired but occasionally, opened from all their
batteries an incessant fire of shell and heavy cannon upon
the def ences of the city which was answered for the first
part of the night with considerable vigour, but
which slackened after midnight. But what made
the scene one never to pass from memory
was the terrible conflagration which burst out in Stras-
burg about nine o'cloCk and raged on throughout the
night. At the commencement the fire was apparently
within the citadel alone, but soon we could see that
it raged on various points, and we counted dis-
tinctly from eight to ten different fires burning
luridly in the black night, and Strasburg stood out be-
fore us a city of devastation and raging misery. But
even this scene of glowing destruction of a sudden be-
came intensified. It was just close on a quarter to
three as I stood watching with breathless interest the
rapid succession of shells flying into the doomed city,
when like the flash of a Bengal illumination in a theatre,
there shot up a bright glowing flame, wonderfully clear
and perplexingly smokeless, that shed a white light
through the murky night, and of a sudden lit up the
minster with a vividness that instinctively brought
a hushed exclamation to the group amid which
I was standing : " Good God ! the cathedral
is on fire." But the next moment convinced
us that the glorious old minster on which waves the white
flag was untouched. The conflagration, so startling and
so tremendous, was elsewhere. Where it might be was
indeed matter for speculation, though now we know that
it was the arsenal which was destroyed. For hours and
hours it burned on, the same glow of clear
lambent fire shedding over minster and over the
dark outline of the city, against a horizon dotted
with lines of lurid fire, an indescribably pallid and
ghastly illumination. I left my station as the day dawned,
and still the fire was raging ; and as I quitted Appen-
weiser on my way back here there still came forth on the
horizon vclumes of smoke-clouds to tell the tale of
continued devastation. And now for the prospects of
the siege. Strasburg is a lost city. The citadel has been
seriously injured, and it was expected that an assault
would have been made this night ; but I have reason to
believe the Prussian general is not disposed to
reduce the town in this way, partly because he knows
he can bring it to terms by battery, and partly
because, I apprehend, he is not willing to expose it to the
fate of a city taken by assault by an exasperated soldiery.
The conduct of the French commandant, General Uhrich,
I am sorry to say, hus rendered the people about here
indignant. He has wilfully directed his fire on the entirely
defenceless town of Kehl, and absolutely gutted it. I
am not exaggerating. What I here state I would not
have believed but on the authority of ocular demonstra-
tion. Kehl does not any longer exist. There is not one
house in it that is not more or less battered to
pieces. It is a mass of smouldering and flaming
masonry. Such scenes of ruthless devastation are in the
character of the proceedings of the French in the days of
Melac ; and the result is a furious exasperation on the
part of an absolutely ruined population. It was a harrow-
ing sight to see the poor country folk in the surrounding
villages with the remnants of such moveable goods as
they could save.

Gustave Aimard, the novelist, is said to be about
organising a free corps of the press, for which he has
asked the authorisation of General Trochu.

Numbers of the French fugitives from the battle of
\Voerth are still lurking in the woods of the Vosges, and
are daily brought in to the Prussian camps.
The Figaro says that certain proprietors are leaving
Paris from fear of the siege, and it recommends their