The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-07-20
THE PRUssIAN NEEDLE GUN TELLS.

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last.
THE PRUSsIAN NEEDLE GUN TELLS.
Major Won Hogen, commanding the
Second battalion of the Thirty first,
which was following the Jagers on
the first sound of the firing, had put
his troops into double-quick time, and
was soon up to reinforce the rihemen.
1t was now nearly dark, and the fash
es of the rifles, the reports of the
shots, and the shouts of the combat
ants were almost the only indications
of the position of the troops; yet it
could be seen that the rapid fire of
the needle gun was telling on the
Austrian line in the road, and the adj
vancing cheers of the Prussians
showed that they were gaining ground.
Then, while the exchange of shots
was still proceeding rapidly between
the window gratings of the farm
house and the Prussian firing parties,
who had extended into a corn-feld
on the right of the highway, there
was a sudden pause in the firing on
the road, for the Jagers, supported
by the Thirty first, had made dash
and were bearing the Austrians back
beyond the farmhouse to where the
cottages of the village closed On each
side of the road, and where the de-
tenders had hastily thrown some
hewn- down willow trees as a barri-
eade across the way. bt
DASH AT A BARRICADE.
Then the tumult of the fight in
creased. Darkness 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
PAGES distant, assailants and defend
ers poured their fire into each others
breasts. Little could be seen, though
the flashes of the discharges cast a
fitful light over the surging masses,
but in the pauses of the firing the
voices of the officers were heard en-
couraging their men, and half stifed
shrieks or gurgling cries, told that the
bullets were truly aimed This was
too severe to endure. The Prussians
firing too quickly, and in the narrow
street, where neither side could show
their entire strength, not feeling the
inferiority of numbers, succeeded in
tearing away the barricade, and slow
ly pressed their adversaries back along
the village street.
1 Yet the Austrians fought bravely,
and their plans for the defense of the
houses had been skillfully 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 wooden barricade,
Jagers crouched to take their deadly
aim; but in the street the soldiers,
huddled together and encumberedwith
clumsy ramrods, were unable to load
with ease, and could return no ade-s
quate fire to that of the Prussians,
while these, from the advantage of a
better arm, poured their quick vol
legs into an almost defenseless crowd.
A STREET FIGHT-INCH BY INCH.
As the battle in the street was
pushed inch by inch toward the Iser,
the Austrians, in every house which
the foremost ranks of the Prussians
passed, were cut off from their retreat,
and were sooner or later made prison
ers, for the houses of the village do
not join on to each other, but were de-.
tached by spaces of a few yards, and
there is no communication from one
house to the other except by the open
street.
The whole of the Prussian force
was now up, ard, extending between
the houses which the first combatants
had passed by, cut off the escape of
their garrisons, and exchanged shots
with the defenders.
CONTEST FOR THE BRIDGE,
With shrieks and shouts, amid the
of broken windows, the |
heavy sounds of falling beams, and
the perpetual rattle of the firearms,
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 rear
most ranks turning viciously to bar
the Prussians from the bridge.
The moonlight reflected in the
told the assailants that they
were near the object of their labor,
and showed the Austrlans 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 PAGES from them,
the combatants sgazed on each other
for few moments. Then they began
a fercer fight than eVer.oThe dis
charges were more frequent, and in
the narrow way the bullets told with |
more severe effect.
Her. Won, Drygalski leading the
fusileer battalion Of the 31st-a Lieu
tenant Colonel ofonly two days stand
ing-went down with two bullets in
his forehead and a Cantain at his side