The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 3, 1866.

ness had completely closed in and the moon
had not yet risen ; the Prussians pressed up to

the barricade, the Austrians stoutly stood their

ground behind it, and, three paces distant, assail-
. . _

ants and defenders poured their fire into each
other's breasts. Little could be seen, though the
flashes of the discharges cast a fitful light over
the surging magges ; but in the pauses of the

firing the voices of the officers were heard en-
couraging their men, and half-stifled shrieks or
gurgling cries told that the bullets were truly aimed.
This was too severe to endure. The Prussians,
firing much more quickly, and in the narrow street,

where neither side could show their whole strength,
not feeling the inferiority of numbers, succeeded in
tearing away the barricade, and slowly pressed
their adversaries back along the village street. Yet

the Austrians fought bravely, and their plans for
the defence of houses had been skilfully though
hastily made ; from every window muskets flashed
out fire, and sent bullets into the thick ranks of the

advancing Prussians, while on each balcony behind
a wooden barricade Jagers crouched to take their

deadly aim ; but in the street, the soldiers, huddled
together and encumbered with clumsy ramrods,
were unable to load with ease, and could return no

adequate fire to that of the Prussians, while these,
from the advantage of a better arm, poured their
quick volleys into an almost defenceless crowd.

As the battle in the street was pushed inch by
inch towards the Iser, the Austrian; in every house
which the foremost ranks of the Prussians passed,
were cut off from their retreat, and were sooner or

later made prisoners, for the houses of the village
do not join on to each other, but are detached by
_ . _ . _

spaces of a few yards, and there is no communica-

tion from one house to the other except by the open

street. The whole of the Prussian force was now

up, and, extending between the houses which the
first combatants passed by, cut off the escape of
their garrisons, and excha.nged shots with the

defenders.

With shrieks and shouts, amid the crashing of
broken windows, the heavy sounds of falling beams,
and the perpetual rattle of the fire-arms, the battle
was heavily pressed down to the narrow street,

and about half• past eleven the moon came up

clear and full to show the Austrian rearmos

ranks turning viciously to bar the Prussians
from the bridge. The moonlight, reflected in the

stream, told the assailants that they were near the
object of their labour, and showed the Austrians
that now or never the enemy must be hurled back.
Both sides threw out skirmishers along the river
bank, and the moon gave them light to direct their
aim across the stream ; while on the first plank of

the bridge the Austrians turned to bay, and the
Prussians pausing some short paces from them, the
combatants gazed at each other for a few moments.
Then they began a fiercer fight than ever. The
discharges were more frequent, and in the narrower
way the bullets told with more severe effect. Herr
Von Drygalsid, leading the fusileer battalion of the
31st, a lieutenant-colonel of only two days' stand-
ing, went down with two bullets in his forehead,

and a captain at his side was shot in both legs ;
many men fell, and the grey horse of a Prusrian
field-officer, with a ball in his heart, fell heavily
against the wall, kicking amid the ranks, but he
was soon quieted for ever, and at that moment men
regarded but little such wounds as could be in-

flitted by an iron-shod hoof, even in the agonies of
death. The Austrians stood gallantly, and made
an attempt to set fire to the bridge; but the..diffe-

rence of their armament again told here ; and it is
said that, galled by their hard fortune, they charged
with the bayonet, but that the Prussians also took
kindly to the steel, and this charge caused no change
in the fortune of the fight ; certain it is that the
defenders were ultimately obliged to retire across
the bridge.

While this combat was proceeding slowly along the
street, another fight was carried on upon the railway
almost with an equal progress, and with an almost
similar result. A party of the Austrians fell back
from the point where shots were first exchanged,
and where the railway crosses the road, along the
line. They were pushed by some Prassian detach-
ments, but neither side was here in strong force,
and the principal fighting was done upon the road,
but here, too, the needle-gnu showed its advantage
over the old-fashioned weapons of the Austrians, for
ie latter fell in the proportion of six to one Prus-
The railway bridge was not broken, but the

lines were torn up by the retiring troops, and the
line is now not passable by trains. The Prussians
pushed over both bridges after the retreating Aus-

,rians ; the latter threw a strong detachment into a

large unfinished house, which stands by the chaussee,
about a quarter of a mile beyond the bridge, and
again made a stand, but not of long duration ; they
had lost many killed, wounded, and prisoners ; many
of their officers were dead or taken ; but they stood
till
escapedthe f
they could t
hgea gather
housesr in
o the village, and, harasseda f
11 the stragglers who had
by the pursuing Prussians, drew off sullenly by the
main road to Munchengratz. Thus terminated a
Prussians,
4 o'clock this morning, fo
contest, which fought upon both sides with the
greatest vigour and determination yet
whenetres theulted lastina
droppinget
hleearre victoryw e eshnootfsca ceased,
Austrian
hed, about
soldiers within three miles of
Podoll-bridge, except the wounded and the taken.
There was no artillery engaged on either side ; it
'was purely an infantry action, and the Prussians
derived in it great advantage from the superiority of
their arms over that of their opponents, not only in
the rapidity, but in the direction of their fire, for a
man with au arm on the nipple of which he has to
place a cap naturally raises the muzzle in the air, and
in the hurry and excitement of action often forgets
to lower it, and only sends his bullet over the heads
of the opposite ranks, while the soldier armed with a
out raising the butt to
ifbreinechha-sloteadhiongfirmosusikt eotfikweeipths his muzzle down, and
his shoulder, his shot still takes effect, though often
low, and a proof of this is that very many of the
Austrian prisoners are wounded in the legs.
The road to Podoll was this morning crowded
with hospital waggons and ambulance cars bringing
in wounded; every cottage in the way was converted
into a temporary hospital, and the little village of
Swierzin was entirely filled with stricken men. The
sick bearers, one of the most useful corps which any
army possesses, were at work from the very begin-
ning of the action. As the combatants passed on
these noble-minded men, regardless of . the bullets
and careless of personal danger, removed with equal
hand both friend and enemy who were left writhing
on the road and carried them carefully to the rear,
where the medical officers seemed to make no dis-
tinction in their care for both Austrian and Prus-
sian. Not only was it those whose special duty is
the care of the wounded who alone were doing their
best to ease the sufferings of those who had suffered
in the combat ; soldiers not on duty might be seen
carrying water for prisoners on both sides alike,
and gladly affording any comfort which it was in
their power to give to those who overnight hadbeen
firing against their own hearts ! Nor is this won-
derful, for after the
flash of the battle is over, and
the din of the musketry has died away, the men of
this army cannot forget that one common language
links them to their adversaries, and that after all it
is probably German blood which, flowing from an
Austrian, trickles over the white livery of the House
of Hapsburg.
In the village the utmost disorder gave evidence
of the severity of the contest. Austrian knapsacks,
shakos, clothes, and arms were scattered about in
wild confusion. Dead horses lay in the ditches by
theroadside. White coats and cloaks, which had been
thrown of in the hurry of the fight, lay scattered
along the road; the trees which had formed the Aus-
trian barricade were still on the side of the street,
and held many a bullet. The cottages had been ran-
sacked of their furniture, and their beams and roof-
trees had been torn down to form defences for the
doors 'and windows; while along the street and
upon the banks of the river lay objects which in
the distance look like bundles of untidy uniform,
but which on nearer approach are seen to be the
bodies of slain soldiers. Sometimes they lie in
groups of twos or threes, twisted together as if
they had gripped one another in their mortal
b
agony, and sometimes single figures lie on theiracks, staring with livid countenance and half-
closed hazy eyes straight up against the hot
morning sun. The dark-blue uniform with red