The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-16 00:00:00

110 W WOERTH WAS LOST.

The Patrie gives an account of the movements of the
first corps d'arm6e under
,MacMahon during the battle of,
the 6th, and the retreat., According to this state-
ment, when the Marshal and his staff arrived at
Strasbourg, they found nothing whatever in readi-
ness.. There was no encampment, no ambulance
and every branch of administrative service was painfully
incomplete. Was this the fault of the Ministry or of the
Intendance ? Whoever was to blame, the Marshal set
to work to organise his divisions, and as soon as they
were. in something like order he moved towards
the northern frontier. On the evening of the 3rd all the
divisions of the Ist corps had left Strasliourg and had
taken' ug their p6sitions in- Saulz, a. 'little town near
Weissenburg, and the vicinity, from whence they com-
manded the valley - which extends along the left bank
of the 'Rhine at the foot of the Vosges mountains.
Those divisions which were stationed at Haguenau,

Soultzet, and Reichshoffen, had their communication's
secured and occupied good positions, but the unfortunate
Douay division, which was to the extreme front, was too
far from the others to be properly sustained in face of
au enemy whose strength was not accurately known.
On the afternoon of the 4th, the Duke of Magenta left
Strasbourg with his staff and arrived at Haguenau, in-

_ .
tending subsequently to make Reichshoffen, the central
position, his head-quarters. On reaching Haguenau, how-
ever, the first thing he heard was that the 2nd Douay division,
which weak and isolated, had been left far too much
in advance, had been attacked and crushed by the enemy,
and its brave general killed. On hearing this disastrous
intelligence, the general ordered an immediate advance to
Reichshoffen, where he arrived at 1 a.m. Two hours later
he set out on horseback for the north-east, to reconnoitre
being anxious to take up a strong defensive position im-
mediately, as he was uncertain what the strength of the
enemy was, and how soon they might profit by their
recent advantage to attack him. He found the position
he wanted some four kilometres to the south-east
of 'R,elchshoffen, near the village of Freischwiller. To
make this position secure it was necessary to occupy as
well the woods of 'Niederwald and the hills at Eberbach,
but the Marshal had not enough men for this. His position
was in the shape of a Z, the houses of Freischwiller
forming the front line, and the rivulet of Sauerbach, on
which stand the town of Woerth, flowing before it. The
same evening, about five o'clock, news was brought to
the Marshal that the Prussians were reconnoitring
the French position. On the 6th the --Prumslans-
moved northwards, and their artillery began to occupy the
heights of Woerth, in face of the French centre,at the dis-
tance of about two kilometres. The attack was soots
begun by the Prussian right, which concentrated a power-
ful artillery fire on the French centre.' Their
fire, which was well directed, did great damage ; and`
meanwhile they were busily engaged in massing their
men on their left, perceiving that the Marshal's weak
point was his right "wing, which he had not, as
mentioned above, enough men to strengthen properly.
The French right was soon obliged to retreat before the
advancing force which quadrupled theirs,and the Marshal
made an attack on the Prussian centre in the hopes of
making a diversion, but he had not enough
men to sustain it, and, after a struggle of
six or seven hours, the French General
seeing it was hopeless to retrieve the fortunes of the day
with.his weakened forces, ordered their retreat. The
Prussians followed in pursuit, but not very closely, and
the Ist corps, greatly diminished by an attack that had
better never have been begun if it were not to be better
sustained, reached S,averne on the morning of the 7th.

• PRIMITIVE COOKING. —The Prussians carry no
tents, and when the men arrive at the end of their day's
march they select the driest and most convenient piece of
'ground they can find, and set to work at once to bivouac.
Some go for wood; which in this country—a very woody one
—is not far to seek. Some go for water, while others un-
load the bread and bacon waggons: Others out trenches
for the fires to boil the soup for supper. . That,soup is the
mainstay of the German as of the French, and, indeed, of
most Continental armies. The Prussian troops I have
watched make this toup"vdry simply; Each man carries. a
kind of deep saucepan without a handle, which serves as ket-
tle, water-bucket; and; in fact, generally makes itself useful.,
Into this pot is put pretty much whatever comes to hand,
and a savoury mess: at least for hungry ,men, is soon
made.—Daily 1V elos Correspondent. •

IHE YIELD OF W OFRTFI.—IN ever nave 1 ballet
a sight so extraordinary as I came, on by the little stream.
let the Sauer, which flows by Gunstett. At an angle of
the road, by a vine plantation, there had been evidently a
sanguinary combat between the infantry ; but a little
beyond it lay the scene of a cavalry charge, the relics of
which formedthe strange spectacle lam writing of. There
were heaps of cuirasses still bright, and brass helmets
with plumes which had been taken from the dead,
wounded, and prisoners, and piled at intervals along the
road. Between these lay saddles, swords stuck in the
ground, horse trappings, valises with "8 " and "6" on
them, here and there single cuirasses, dead horses, helmets,
swords, muskets—the ground trampled, the vines beaten
down—pools of blood—a foul, sour smell every Where ; this
literally for two miles on each side of the road. In the
village itself was a pile of 30 or 40 cuirasses and helmets;
then another pile of the same. Further on, mixed up
with these " trophies" of the hapless Cuirassiers, we came
m the signs of disaster to a regiment of lancers—staves
with red and white streamers in all directions, lancer
shakos, saddles, valises, and tunics—blue laced with white.
One would think lancers and cuirassiers had all fallen to-
gether; but to whatever regiments lance and cuirass
belonged, it was plain they had been routed and de-
stroyed. One remarkable circumstance is this—not a
cuirass was pierced by a bullet. I looked most narrowly
—others did the same. And yet what had been the
fate of the wearers? That is a problem I cannot
solve, nor could anyone else ; but it is plain that the
Cuirasseurs were annihilated. It is said that one regi:
went charged a battery and got in among the guns, but
was smitten by the infantry on the flanks with a leaden
shower that beat them to the earth never to rise again—
unhorsed, or dead and wounded,. the unhurt all taken in a
few seconds. This sort Of. work was visible for quite two
miles along the road.—Tintes' Correipondent with the Army
Of the Crown Prince.

WHAT FRENCH RUSTICS THINK.—No contrast
can-be `mate complete than that offered by Paris and the
rural districts of France at the present moment. I have
been passing backwards and forwards from town to
country, and can judge _well. Paris has recovered from its
panic after the affair of Woerth ; it is now full of life and
hopes and. fears. But In: our villages there is a dull,
blank look of misery and.resignation which it is painful tc
witness. Soldiers leave Paris in uniform singing more or
less gaily patriotiC songs; but each individual soldiez
leaves his village in hjs blouse and wooden shoes with a
heavy heart. At every railway station may be seen
groups of snrrowful rustics from different hamlets, waiting
for the. train which is to take them off to the camp.
What is to become of the fields when all the stout
young labourers are gone ? The tillage of the land
seems with our peasants to be an object of anxiety quite
independently of the people the land is to feed. " Why
did gou not tell us that the FlAiseite meant war? We
would never have said ' Yes '" they querur'usly repeat.
They were told so, but now one has not the heart to
remind them of it. The Liberal Empire has passed away,
and so has the Empire of PlBiscites. That institution
has becorne associated in the rustic mind with war, and
any attempt to appeal to it again would be hopeless.--
French Correspondent of the nine&

CRUELTY TO Tif WOUNDED.—The cruelty dis-
played towards the wounded is the cruelty of wild

70.

=mans. u pwaras of twenty peasants have been tried
by court-martial for mutilating and dispatching the
wounded, have been found guilty, and have been shot.
Of their guilt no doubt could be entertained, because
they were taken red-handed. • A member
of a court-martial, before which some of these
peasants were tried has -just arrived from. the front, and
has communicated to me the particulars of what
occurred. A middle-aged peasant and his son
a boy of 14; were put on their trial. A deaconess,
that is, a Protestant sister of charity, gave evidence
to the effect that a few yards from the spot
on which she was binding up the wounds of a soldier the
peasant hacked a groaning, wounded Bavarian to pieces
with a scythe. The lad was found deliberately cutting
the throat of another wounded man. The father, being
found guilty, was sentenced to be shot. The decision as
to the punishment to be inflicted on the lad was
postponed. It is creditable that no summary
vengeance was taken in any case. Each of the
peasants had a fair trial. Of course, the soldiers
are infuriated at the way in which the inhabitants behave.
Even the members of the Sanitary Corps are not spared.
Several have been killed by shots fired from the windows
of houses while they were going on their errand of mercy.
The badge on their arm of a red cross on a white ground
afforded them no protection.—Prussian Correspondent of
the Daily News.