The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-13

The Stronghold ON the roselle-Its Relations
to the War and Capacity for Standing


to the War and Capacity for Standing n
Siege.
Professor d. H. Mahan, of the West Point Mill
tary Academy, writes as follows to the New York
Euening Post concerning Metz under date of
August 9:-As Metz has now become the central
point to which all the movements of the French
and Prussian armies converge, and, therefore,
the one upon which public interest will be con-
centrated for the next few days, | send you an
offhand sketch of it and its main Notifications,
reduced from very accurate plan L obtained
while residing there in 1890, and which was
engraved in 1891 from surveys made by men,
ber of the then French IngeTieurs Biographies.
Metz, after many vicisstudes, came, in the
feudal period under the protection of the Ger
man Emperors, and became virtually free city.
During this time she was fortified, in the method
of the day, with walls fianked by round and
square towers. In 1928 che placed herself
under the protection of France, and Charles
of Germany, resenting this step, undertook to
reduce herto her former dependence on Germany,
by siege which from its duration, the means
displayed by him, and the obstinacy and skill of
BILE affairs of this character This defense was
conducted by the celebrated Duke de Guise, sur
named le bdLdfre, from wound he had received
on the face. At the moment when Charles after
making breach in the walls, supposed the way
into the place open to his columns he found, to
his modification, that Guise had erected in rear
of this breach fortifcation stronger than the
original, the one known ever since as the Re-
trenchment de Guise.
From its important strategical position the
Notifications of Metz were remodelled and
greatly added to by the celebrated Vauban. In
the reign of Louis XIV, Cormontaigne, another
master of the art, added to its works two master
pieces, the Double Crown of Belle Croix and that
of the Moselle; thus occupying two of the former
most vulnerable points-that by which Charles
V approached the city, and which lies one hun
dred and twenty-five feet above the level of the
Moselle, and the approach to the suburb on the
south, which is but slightly above the river level.
Every resource of the engineers art has been
availed of in giving additional strength to this
stronghold The Double Crown of Belle Croix
has system of counter mines of three tiers, for
a subterranean defense and the valley of the
Seille has been turned into account by damming
back the waters, so as to flood to considerable
extent the ground above the city, and the bitches
of the works on the north and east, aud also to
place in an accessible position an earthen work
that fanks the approaches on the east fronts
and, by an arrangement of sluice gates within
the city to drain off the water from them any
moment to sweep away the debris of any breech
that might be made within them. Similar ar
rangements are made to fill the bitches of the
Double Grown of the Moselle, and to lay under
water the meadows to the Moselle bordering the
south fronts.
But slight additions have been made to the
Notifications since Cormontaigne's time. Gene
raj d'Arco, during the French Revolution
erected o small advanced work, in advance of
the hornwork II, upon some pet plan of his
own; but it Is scarcely more than an Engineer
ing toy, though the General himself was really
q man of eminent talent. Later, an other small
lunette, with fanking easements a la Hano, has
been erected.
1t is hardly within the scope of probabilities
that in the present temper of the nations, when,
to use hackneyed phrase, war is sought to be
made "short sharp, and decisive" Prussia will
besiege Metz, which is regarded in France as
nearly impregnable. The works of Vauban and
Cormontaigne have reduced its assailable points
to three, each offering engineering difficulties
to siege works of no little magnitude. The
first is at the Double Crown of Belle Croix
which lies on the narrow plateau between the
valley of the Seille, on the east, and that of
small stream, called Ruisseau de Valliere, on
the west This outwork, If taken, would bring
the-besiegers in front of new difficulties in the
lay of the ground towards the main enclosure,
and in the defenses of this portion of it. The
second is along the plateau on the east, lying
between the vales of the Seille and Moselle.
Here the difficulties lie in the mar
rowness. OF the front of approach,
which is swept in flank by the inaccessi-
produced in the Seille valley; in the successive
outworks, that of d'Arcon's lunette, which is
mined, and that of Vaubans hernwork behind
which again lies the main enclosure, with
bitches of extraordinary depth, through which
rapid current of water can be readily turned
from the artificial inundation above the point
where the seille enters the city. The third
point is the Double Crown of Moselle on the
south of the city. This point, although intrin-
sically weaker than the others, has wide and
deep bitches filled with water. To its rear lies
the fortified suburb, which can only be reached
by crossing the Moselle; and behind this again,
the city, the quays of which can be converted
into good defenses, and, with the Moselle,
secure the city from an open assault
What bearing Metz will have iu the present
struggle remains to be seen. If forced upon it,,
the French forces can find breathing space
under its fire; but will this stop the march of
the swelling masses of Germany now impelled
onwards like flood? Will 1t not be now as in
that memorable campaign of 1914, when it stood
| like strong door in an open field, around which
the invader rolled onwards, on either side scath-
| less. Paris is now, as II ever has been, the
| grand decisive objective of every invading army,
since grand armies came into vogue. Napoleon
| in vain threw himself into the rear of his enc
| mics, in mis- last brilliant movement in 1914,
without arresting the march of the prudent
timid Schwartzenberg. Win beaten army under
Metz stop the Prussians of to-day?