The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-15 00:00:00

THE BATTLE OF WOERTH.

The bare fact of the matter is that up to the nour in
which they encountered each other, neither of the com-
manders had any idea that they were about to come to
blows. The army of the Crown Prince advanced into
France by way of Weissenburg without evidently
having the remotest idea of what forces he
had before him, and MacMahon was equally
unaware that his corps d'armee was about to be
attacked by an overwhelming force. He was ordered to
concentrate on Bitsche: and moved his corps d'arm6e up
by easy stages. Poor Douay's division he sent up via
Weissenburg. Another went by Soultz, sous Forets, whilst
he himself, with two divisions and the reserve of artillery
brought up the rear. The march was conducted in that free
and easy style which is the curse of all French armies,
and which African corps are especially liable to. Now,
the whole of MacMahon's infantry—at least, the greater
part of it—came straight from Africa, and were, there-
fore, equally remarkable for their valour and for that
disregard of and contempt for orders which renders the
African army so dangerous to handle before a disci-
plined enemy. Douay's division pushed on without
concerning itself in the least as to what was be-
fore or behind it, and, without taking even the
ordinary precaution of planting grandes gardes, en-
camped round Weissenburg on the night of the
3rd, and went to sleep in happy unconsciousness of
what the morrow was to bring forth. It is clear
that the Prussians or Bavarians on the other side of the
Lauter were not aware of the prey that lay thus defence-
less within their reach, for otherwise by sunset they would
have surrounded and captured the whole division. It so
happened that the Germans marched forward before
Douay's division had started, and destroyed it by sheer
weight of numbers. MacMahon hearing the guns on his
right as he was marching up from Haguenau, collected
a few of the survivors of Douay's corps, and though
he saw he had a whole army before him, determined
with what forces he had in hand to oppose the passage.
He sent word to Dourty and De Failly to send up supports,
and retreated fighting all the way to the valley of Nieder-
bronn. He made a stand wherever he could, but I have
it on the authority of an eye-witness, whose letter I dare
not transcribe, that it was a running fight all the way.
There was no rest for the French—at every halt the Prussian
batteries, and those " infernal uhlans " (to use the words
of my correspondent), opened upon and swooped down on
them. The arrival of supports from Dourly and De
Failly enabled the French to make a final stand in front
of the Valley of Niederbronn. Wet, weary, footsore,
half-starved—they held their own for twelve hours,
and, finally, when the corps was destroyed,
that portion of its debris which stuck together
showed so formidable a front that even the Prus-
sian cavalry dare not pursue it through the narrow
valley from Niederbronn to Saverne. This immunity
was purchased, however, at a fearful cost. MacMahon
saorificed the. whole of his cavalry to save the rest of his
corps d'armee ; and looking at the odds he had to contend
with, it reflects the highest credit on his generalship that
he was able to rally its debris at Saverne and Saarburg.
But his corps was, as a corps, annihilated. In
addition to the panic-stricken crowd, which threw
everything away, awl were captured by hundreds at