The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-08 00:00:00

ME SUN, LONDON, THURSDA.I, DECEMBER 8, 1870

THE WAR.

THE GREAT SORTIES.

ACCOUNTS FROM PARIS.

COMBINATION BETWEEN DUCEOT AND VINOY.

From Paris, letters throwing important light upon these
sorties have been received by balloon mail. One gives
the following particulars :—On Tuesday, while the atten-
tion of the enemy was engaged at Gennevilliers by
a formidable cannonade, the lga,udhuy division
attacked in force Thiais, Chevilly, Play, and Choisy-le-
Roi. The same night the troops of General Ducrot
endeavoured to cross the Marne under the fire of Fort
Charenton, in the direction of Choisy-le-Roi, where an
accident nearly spoiled all. A bridge of boats on the
Marne proved insufficient, because the Prussians by open-
ing the sluices at Neuilly-sur-Seine had inundated the
country. This was the most important part of the operation.
The French successes at Thiais, Hay, Chevilly, and
Choisy le Roi, where they gained possession of a district
called Gare aux Bceufs, were for the moment uselebs,
and had to be evacuated, though not before the enemy's
works had been destroyed. Some forty cannon were said to
be spiked. The Marines especially distinguished themselves
in the affair, as did the Breton Mobiles from Morbihan,
whose leader was killed. The Gare aux Bceufs was taken
by two battalions of the National Guard, under the com-
mand of M. Ybos, who released Trochu on October 31,
and M. Langlois, a Socialist Republican. M. Langlois,
who is a disciple of Proudhon, was Mused, before the war
war broke out, for his peace propensities by a mob who
were then busy shouting "A Berlin !" but who were
not certainly so near him under fire. Count Roger, an
old man of seventy, especially distinguished himself
among the volunteers of the Notional Guard.
The French loss was estimated at 600 at the least,
and 1,000 at the most, but as the news of the accident
at the Marne, and the consequent retreat reached Paris
just as the evening papers were being published, the
affair assumed its worst aspect. It was so gloomy
in the Liberte that in the evening, when a
Government notice was placarded announcing the suc-
cess of the cannonade at Gennevilliers, and detailing
the operations in the South, the crowd made a bonfire
of the paper, and shewed some inclination to break up
the presses. The next morning a decree appeared, abso-
lutely prohibiting any account or comment on military
operations, other than the official communicattons, on pain
of the suspension of the offending journal. The Govern-
ment also gave further particulars of the military proceed-
ings of the previous day. It spoke of great losses sus-
tained by the enemy, who certainly at this time hoisted a
flag of truce.
During the day (Wednesday) a fresh notice, dated
two o'clock, announced that the Governor of Paris
was at the head of the forces, that General Ducrot had
crossed the Marne by the bridge of boats, whose construc-
tion had been delayed; and that the action was going on over
a vast perimetre, sustained by the forts and the batteries
in position, which were crushing the enemy by their fire,
and extending the cannonnade before all the French lines.
The Government could not give further explanations
with safety, but it stated that the French troops were
masters of Montmedy, and held it. Choisy-le-
Roi was in flames and was evacuated by the
Prussians, whose batteries were pouring their fire
on it incessantly, but were answered by the French.
These last vague statements awakened some doubt whether
the French could hold the positions they had so hardly
won, There was no question that the Germans will
have to make a tremendous effort to repulse them. If
the French could conquer before Paris, and if the army of
the Loire could, by assistance from the united
forces in La Sarthe, manage to resist the Prussian corps, the
Germans in France would be threatened with total de-
struction.

The Petit ✓ournal Officiel, which appeared late on the
30th, speaks of a false alarm on the previous night, which
gave rise to the belief in a Prussian attack on the plain of
Gennevilliers, near the bridge of Bezons. The official note
expresses great regret that this report was incorrect, as
there could be no doubt how the Prussians wonld have been
received. The tone of this note shews great confidence,
and gives warm praise to the soldiers. Another false alarm
took place the same night, but this time the rumour was of
a disturbance at Belleville and a descent of its inhabi-
tants on Paris. This originated from the exaggerated
reports of the new Prffect of Police. The commandant
of the 3rd section very unadvisedly beat the rappel in several
quarters, and a reflection of these fears appeared in the
Government proclamation. The apprehensions reached
to the outposts, but were so entirely false that the Belle-
ville battalions, under M. Ulric de Fonvielle, were loudly
cheering General Trochu before Fort Rosny at the very
time that they were accused of endeavouring to overthrow
the Government. With the exception of an absolute
fever for news, there is complete tranquillity in Paris.
Any attempt at disorder would be unanimously scouted,
and resplutely crushed.

[This narrative, it will be seen, breaks off before the
result of Ducrot's effort on the east could be known.]
ACCOUNTS FROM THE GERMAN LINES.
PRUSSIAN COUNTER ATTACK ON FRIDAY.
Wednesday's sortie by Gen. Ducrot resulted in the occu-
pation of the villages of Champigny and Brie, in the loop
of the Marne. On Friday the Germans made an effort
to retake these villages, and likewise to destroy the
bridges across the Marne. It is clear that they did not
succeed. The Saxons, Wurtembergers, and a por-
tion of the 2nd Prussian Corps was told off
for this duty. The programme, says the Daily
News' correspondent, was complicated more or
less unexpectedly by a counter-offensive operation pro-
jected by the French against Villiers, no doubt with
intentions of penetrating further, and of ultimately
breaking through the cordon. Thus it fell out that as
the Germans were pressing on to the attempt of driving
the French out of Brie and Champigny, Messieurs the
French were simultaneously pouring out with intent to
take Villiers. When two bodies are going opposite
ways in the same grove, it is a law of nature
that a collision is the result. The writer .con-
tinues :—There, on the gradual slope .
of the
further bank of the Marne, under the wing of Fort
Nogent, and extending right and left along the line of
the Chaumont Railway, were dense columns of French
infantry. How they came there I know not, it was as
if the spectacle had sprung up by magic, The Bois de
Grace lying in front of Champs afforded a favourable
cover for a detour into the rear of Villiers, which
evidently was the point for which the French advance
was intended. That force—l refer exclusively to the
section which threatened Villiers—must have been
at least 20,000 strong. How large was the force with
which the Wurtemburgers and their good friends of the
2nd Army Corps had to deal towards Champigny I have
no means of even roughly estimating. Surely in these
dense columns, standing in support under Nogent, there
could not have been less than 20,000 men. But
directly and face to face it was with the 20,000
men of the left advance with whom the 10,000

Saxons had to cope. Not with them alone, but
with those terrible projectiles also, a storm of
which incessantly clashed on to the upper ground
on which stands Villiers, and into the glades behind it.
Of the manner of the French formation, I can only say
that their skirmishers came out with as much regularity
as if the day's work had been a peaceful parade. The
fleployment sprung up with immense rapidity and seeming
discipline, but there appeared to be considerable looseness
in the formation, a total want of interval, and indeed in

places an overlapping of battalions. Had there been nothing
else to do on the part of the Saxons but to repulse an assault
on Villiers, directed solely and straightly against it, the
task would have been comparatively simple, and not
very bloody, notwithstanding the artillery fire. But the
French advance, threatening in its deployment as it did
to sweep right on, overlapping Villiers, up the space be-
tween that village and Noisy, and so to get through upon
Champs, called for other tactics. Villiers could only
serve as a position on which to lean the Saxon left. It
became necessary to meet the French in the open. From
behind Villers the several regiments came out to the right
on to the brow and under the shell fire. As the
French troops came up the gentle aclivity, the guns
of the forts continued to play without interruption.
Line was formed, the rear files pelting up at the double,
and in a twinkling less than fifty yards separated the com-
batant lines. Then came a volley, then a venomous file-
firing, and the French broke and gave ground. It was
only to back into the next dip to let the guns of the fort
go to work again. The Saxons had perforce to find what
cover they might. When the 108th Regiment came back
—it had not been gore twenty minutes-35 officers
out of forty-five had gone down. Neither of the blithe
lieutenan;:s were to the fore. Ard row came a lull in the
musketry fire, just as a few minutes before there had been
lull in the cannon fire. The Saxons could not get their
artillery into action with advantage. The ground itself
was unfavourable, while the fire from the forts must, in
silenced the field
guns. Therefore,
atTuhreereoffortel:ingtsh, haveisgr esredaidl
yantue
was
lost
to them—an advantage only to be appreciated
by those who have seen German artillery in
action. What I have been writing of took place
before noon. After a little the artillery fire from the
forts slackened considerably, and the French infantry
made no demonstration. On the German left, however,

about Champigny, it was evident that: hard fighting was
going on. About one the French made another advance,
having, as I believed, received considerable reinforce-
ments. The Saxon infantry confronted them, on the chal-
lenge, with the old result. But a different policy was
this time adopted. It was plain the only escape froM
the terrible thunderbolts lay in getting to close
quarters with the French infantry, unless indeed a retro-
grade movement was to be made, and that was not to be
thought of. So, when the French fell back, the Saxons
followed on, as if they wanted to settle the question with
the bayonet point. It was the old motto, " Vorweirts,
immer vorweirts." But the vortviirts was very slow.
What happened for the next hour I could only
guess by the constant crackling. of the small arms.
The forts confined themselves seemingly for the
most part to firing into and over Champigny and
Villiers. But at length the French were visible slowly
and stubbornly falling back across the north side of the
neck, the Saxons pushing them hard, the French ever
and anon rallying. On this portion of the plain south
of Brie there was a prolonged struggle. I understand
the Saxons were striving to get at and cut the obnoxious
pontoon bridge. But this was an impossibility, when
Nogent went to work again with the terrible accuracy
of which the short range admitted. The combatants parted
about 3 o'clock, both sides falling back. The fort fire con-
tinued some little time longer.