The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-09 00:00:00

SAARBRUCK, AUG. 2 & 6.-WOERTH, AUG.

of infantry and a battalion of Chasseurs. The brigades
composing the unfortunate division which was crushed on
Thursday were those of General Peltier de Mont-
marie, consisting of the 16th Battalion of Foot
Chasseurs and the 50th and 78th Regiments of
the Line, and of General Pelld, one of the best
fighting brigades of the army, made up of the Ist Zouaves
and the Ist Algerine tirailleurs. The division was com-
manded by Abel Douay, and its strength—l am not
violating the Prime Minister's law, which only refers to
`movements of troops and military operations by land
and sea '—its strength, Irepeat, was about 8,800 rank and
file. I have often been tempted to laugh as I caught in
stray copies of your London contemporaries estimates of
the numbers at the front fkom soi-disant `war
correspondents.' The strength of the French army
our neighbours will be obliged to me for stating it—
has been grossly exaggerated from the first ; at no moment
were there more than 250,000 men at the frontier (as it is
termed), just 100,000 less than the pro-Minister of War
stated in the Chamber. He added that there were
1,110 pieces of ordnance and 52 batteries of mitraille‘uses,
which would make a total of 312, taking six as the propor-
tion to a battery ; but when a man deceives or is deceived in
one detail he is not an authority on another of the
same order. We have seen that the Frenchmen in
front of Weissenburg were some 8,800 strong in
infantry, but to these must be added General
Septeuil's Brigade of Cavalry, some 1,200 men
of the 3rd Hussars and 12th Chasseurs can-
tonned in the neighbourhood. Against them was brought
the maim of the Prussian left wing, which had been
established in an entrenched camp covering the Badish
Fortress of Rastadt (which itself covers Carlsruhe, the
capital of the Grand Duchy), and protecting the line of
railway to Darmstadt by Bruchsal, the direct communica-
tion with the strong seat of supplies at Mayence. The
direction of this, the great army of action on the
left, was entrusted to the Prince Royal of Prussia,
the heir to the throne, who had under his orders a
picked body of troops from his father's Royal
Guard, the burly, broad-shouldered men of Pomerania
and Brandenburg. The Bavarians and Wurtemburghors
were also attached to his command, but do not crop up
in the thick of Thursday's fight. The glory seems to
belong, as well as its dangers accrued, to the splendid
King's Grenadiers and the 50th, a crack regiment
from the Silesian contingent. The sth Prussian Corps
was engaged in company with the 11th (Cassel),
under General Plonski, and the 2nd (Bavarian), so that
the advance was serious, and, numerically, most formid-
able. The attack appears to have been made about six
o'clock in the morning, while the French were preparing
their early coffee. The dark masses of the Prus-
sians were concealed by a thicket bordering the
French camp, and almost kissed- on its margin
by the waters of the Lauter. Stealthily they
crept along, and burst upon their enemy with a cry and a
quick hail from the needle-gun. The French were alarmed,
but not panic-stricken ; their troops, the most of them,
were agile veterans of the army of Africa, accus-
tomed to these ruses de guerre. They formed up steadily
in a twinkling, and met their assailants with spirit
unadaunted. As a rule, Zouaves do not run without
cause. Neither do Turcos. Neither ran in this instance,
but disputed the ground they occupied fiercely, inch by
inch, for several hours, retiring only before the crushing
weight of numbers again and again reinforced. They
sullenly fell back on an eminence to the rear of their
position, the Col. du Pigeonnier, or Pigeon's Hill, where
the Prussians ceased the pursuit, for pursuit in the end it
had undeniably become. The tactics of the attacking
force is reported to have been less Prussian than French.
Their orders were to push ahead at any samifiee, not to
mind the leaden rain from the %Chassepot, to keep,
on, and by this manceuvre, this irresistible ap-
proach at a rim, they forced the French do
retire if they would not be captured. Some of them
were. We hear upwards of 500 had that fate. They had
'attempted to establish a defence in the church of Weissen
burg, and in some of the vaults with- which the town
abounds, were there surrounded, and had no alternative
but to surrender. The general in command of the division
Abel Douay, did not survive to set his teeth over his
misfortune—like Latour d'Auvergne, when the roll was
called, at the close of the day's bloody work, to his
name the answer was ' Dead, on the field of honour.' The
colonel of the 50th was killed, also, while rallying his men.
But the Prussians bought their victory dearly ; the
Grenadiers of the King and the Silesian 59th (of whom I
have already spoken), and who took such a leading share
in the hard work of the fight, suffered heavily.