The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-08-16

The correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune
telegraphs from the Prussian headquarters:
Though the engagements at Weissenberg and
they are in reality of the highest Importance.
The earliest official dispatches undere,timated
the magnitude and extent of the victory. In
stead of ten hundred prisoners having been
captured at Weissenburg the number amounts
to nearly two thousand. Both struggles were
stubborn. The French soldiers stood their
ground well and their rifles proved terribly
destructive. It was downright hard fighting
which enabled the Germans to claim the hon
ors of the day. A wounded French prisoner
avowed in my hearing that his countrymen
could not withstand the weight of the Ger
mans attack, the fight being one not of bull
let's only, but of bayOnets also, and was de-
cided at length by actual strength of the re-
spective combatants, physically. The average
of the German soldiers are heavier men than
the ordinary French 1t was supposed that
the introduction of the new weapons would
alter the mode of warfare and render the
old style of hand-to-hand combat obsolete.
This engagement proved otherwise. The
Zouaves did what they could to check the ad-
vance of the German regiments by pouring
vOlleys of fire from their concealed position.
They had posted themselves in pits dug for
the purpose, and not until the regiment had
suffered from their concealed fire did the Ger
man soldiers know that their progress was to
be contested. They saw no sign of any
troops in their front. Such an ordeal as this
has tested the stuff OF which these men are
made.
They bore themselves with extraordinary
valor-men were struck down by hundreds,
Al, al I'D sale
Zouaves were driven from their places of con-
cealment and the ground they had occupied
was won by their opponents.
The exact details are not forthcoming. It
is impossible to learn even approximately how
many fell, but it is quite certain that the Ger
man loss has been proporlionally enormous.
During the day and night the wounded have
been arriving here.
This afternoon all the beds in the hospitals
were occupied. These hospitals will contain
about 1000 men. The field hospitals are also
full, and hundreds of wounded men have been
sent on to Frankfort, where there is accom-
mediation for 5000. Long strings Of stretch
ers, on which lay the wounded soldiers and
officers are passing through the streets to-day.
So great is the slaughter that the arrange
ments proved inefficient. Wounded men laid
for twenty-four hours on the battle field be-
fore discovered. A private dispatch from a
military surgeon confirms this dispatch.
From Woerth, the place where McMahon's
army was thoroughly beaten, he says that
while the victory was complete and the num-
Der of prisoners taken amount to 5000, the
losses on both sides were enormous. The
losses in killed and wounded and in prisoners
can be i'll afforded by the French.
To replace those who were killed, wounded
or missing is hardly possible. The Germans,
on the other hand, fill up all blanks in the
course of a few hours. They have super
abundance of trained soldiers ready to join
their regiments at moments notice.