New-York tribune., 1870-09-06

The TRIBUNE's special correspondent at the
Kings headquarters, sends the following ac-
| count of the battle of Beaumont on Tuesday,
August 80:
THE PURSUIT OF MAC MAHoN.
| Up to Thursday evening, August %, at 8
| o'clock, we all thought we were going to con-
tinue our march Pariswards, without turning
to the right or left. But ON Thursday evening,
when the officers of the staff were at dinner,
in the refectory of the Lyceum at Bar-le-duc,
an orderly came in with important news. Two
officers jumped up from the table and rode oil
north in the direction of Clermont- The news
that had come was indeed important, namely,
that MacMahon, who had quilted Chalons and
taken up very strong defensive position at
| Rheims, was in full march to relieve Bazalne
! at Metz.
Our route for next morning was therefore
changed, and we started off for Clermont-en-
Argonne, to throw ourselves between MacMahon
and Steinmetz After tedious marching, bad
quarters, and wretchedly cold wet weather, we
reached the village of Grand Pre- on Monday
evening Aug. 30.
On Tuesday morning | started early from
Grand Pre-, the Kings headquarters, to
see the battle which was expected to
take place on a line from the village OF Stonne
to Stenay, nearly midway passing through
Beaumont. MacMahOn was believed to be
trying to push on to Metz according 10 MS
plan of catching Steinmetz between himself ane
Bazaine. But the Prussians were always just
! thirty-six hours in advance of MacMahon from
the time he left Rheims.
| | had not gone far on my road to the 'front.'
before fell in with the Crown Princes stafi, his
Royal Higness riding at the head of his aides
de-eamp, in the plain uniform of Prusslan
! general, with no orders but the star " Pour Ia
Uerite,D and the iron cross. For that matter,
however any Prussian officer who wears these
two is not permitted to display any others.
We rode slowly over the hills until we reached
an eminence above the valley of the Bar,
small stream which, on the French map,
is honored as river. On this hill
we sat for terribly long time, and
I own / began to think we had come
on a wild-goose chase. One well-known En-
| clish correspondent created small excitement
| by calling attention to French shell, as he
| called it, bursting on a hill to our right. AS
this news, had it been true, would have shown
that the French were getting between us and
Metz, all glasses were instantly leveled at the
smoke, which came from dying campfire.
THE BATTLE BEGINS.
But at 1918 o'clock there was suddenly
puff of white smoke from hill about two
miles in front of us, and before we had fairly
time to turn our glasses on the hill French
battery of six guns opened on the Prusslan
columns advancing in the road below. So in
effectual however was their fire, that 1t was
not thought advisable to send up Prusslan
battery to reply; especially as we did not
wish to let the enemy know what our forces
was and whether we were a corps d'armee or
merely an advance guard. After little more
! than half an hours firing, the French
! batteries ceased to fire, limbered up, and re-
| tired down the hill to gain the highroad to
Beaumont Our scouts discovered that the
French were in full retreat in the direction of
| Stonne, where they again took up position
later in the day; and that the cause of their
rapid retreat on Stonne was the advance of
our right wing Prince Albert of Saxony
in command, between Beaumont and the
Meuse, threatening to turn the flank
of the French left on the ridge of the
| hill on which lies StOnne. The enemy made
stand. but the attack from the Prussian right
was SO determined that the French could offer
no effectual resistance on this hill; yet they
had very strong position, somewhat resem-
| bling that occupied by them on the hill above
| Gravelotte on the memorable 18th of August.
| THE ARMY RIsKED TO SAVE THE EMPEROR.
They had two mitrailleuses, and fired a
dozen rounds or so, with what object it was
difficult to discover. They were much too far
from our most advanced columns to do the
slightest mischief Possibly they hoped to at
tract the attention of their own right flank.
The Emperor was with them, and they may
we'll enough have been nervous about his
safety.
After some time one of the Prussian batter
les advanced up the slope and shelled the
Stonne road for half an hour to see If they
could get a reply. About o'clock we ad-
vanced rapidly from our hill to that of StOnne.
The columns climbing the slope below the
village cheered loudly as the heir to the throne
passed them. 1 was, l own, not very much
inclined to cheer, as the Prince had been COM
pelled by the nature of the ground to keep
well away from any other point which could
give us good view of the right In that
direction we could hear heavy fighting which
we could not see
FRENCH DIVISION SURPRISE IN CAMP.
However, when we got on the hill above
Stonne, we had a capital view of nearly the
whole of the right and one aid-de-camp COM
ing up with the news we soon learned what
was passing there. whole French division
had been surprised near Beaumont in camp,
and had fed leaving all their tents and bag
gage When say chad fed" mean all fled
who conld and whom the Prussians were not