The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-27 00:00:00

THE WAR.

THE ACTIONS FOUGHT BY GENERALS
VINO Y AND DUCROT.

After noting the confusion between the actions fought
by General Vinoy and General Ducrot, the Standard
gives the following details :—On the 16th General
Vinoy's corps had a sharp skirmish with the
Prussians near Creteil. A few men were killed
and wounded on both sides, and General Vinoy, finding
the Prussians in force—from 30,000 to 40,000 men
—and being played upon by their guns, which during
the night had been placed upon the heights of Mely,
he took refuge under the guns of fort Charenton,
and the redoubts of Gravelle and La Faisanderie.
On the same evening another skirmish took place
on the other bank of the Seine, in front of Fort
Ivry. It having become evident that the Prussians
who had crossed the Seine near Juvisy were marching
towards the west, and massing in the Bois de Mendon.
Viney's corps, or at least a portion of it, made a recon-
naisance towards Choisy le Rol—query, Choisy sur Seine.
This force fell in with the rear guard of the Prussian
corps marching on Versailles. An engagement took place
in which the French gained the advantage, losing
only 43 men killed and wounded against, it is said, 400
casualties on the Prussian side. The strength of the
Prussians on this occasion did not, it is asserted,
exceed some 4,000 men. On the 18th General
Ducrot, who, at the head of the 14th corps,
composed of troops of the line and Mobiles,
had taken up a position on the heights extending from
Villejuif to Meudon, advanced to feel for the main body
of the corps, making the flank movement above
alluded to. He marched early in the morning, and
massing the bulk of his troops in dense columns
on the plateau of Chatillon, he commenced the action
by a heavy cannonade on the Prussians concealed in the
wood in his front. This, however, had not the effect of
inducing the enemy to chew himself, and after a time the
French commander, becoming impatient, rushed forward
strong detachments, and among them a regiment of Cui-
rassiers, in the direction of the village of Bagneux, a
little to the south-east of Chatillon. The Cuirassiers were
received with a heavy fire, which emptied many saddles,
and put the survivors to flight. All the efforts of
the French line to carry the woods were fruitless, the enemy
being too strongly posted. At this moment a battalion of
Mobiles coning up in support fired by mistake into the
16th French Regiment. The latter, panic-struck, retired
at speed. This incident appears to have taken place
on the French left. In the meantime the Prussian guns
had been placed on a height which commanded
the plateau on which the main body of the
French troops were placed. On this a general retreat of
the first line took place—that on the left was effected
with haste and confusion, that on the right with a fair
amount of order. The second line, discouraged by
the retreat of the first line, also fell back and
did not re-form until protected by the fire of
the guns of Forts Montroge and Vannes. In fact
the French fairly abandoned the field, and the new re-
doubt on the heights of Chatillon, about two miles from
the Fort of Vannes, was abandoned, the seven guns
which it contained having been previously spiked.