Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-09-14
WAR NEWS.
Further Details of the Closing Battle
About Sedan.

the battle ABOUT SEDAN which we puOliSHeu
yesterday was not complete. We give the
conclusion, which is as follows.
"There will be a devil of a fight for that
crest before it is won or lost, said Sheri-
dan, straining his eyes through his field
glass mt the hill, which was not three miles
from Where we stood. with the tull sun
shining on il from behind us. At half
past one the French cavalry-this time, |
fancy, a regiment of carbineers-made an
other dash at the Prussians. who, on their
part were being reinforced every minute,
but they met with the same fate as their
brethren in the iron jacket, and were sent
with heavy loss to the right about. The
Prussians took advantage of their fight to
advance their line "a couple of hundred
wards nearer the line which tn. French in
fantry held. These adventurous Pru-sians
split into two bodies each having q break
of hundred yards in their line. We were
not long i'm seeing the object of this move
mcnt, for the little white puffs rom the
crest behind the sllirmishers, followed Ivy
a connection in the dense French masses
showed us that Yes diables, de Prus-
slams have contrived, heavens only
knows how, to get couple of six Founders
up the steep ground and have opened on
the French. Something must have at this
point been very wrong with the French
infantry, for, instead ofattacking the Prus-
slams, whom they still Outnumbered by at
least two TO one, they remained i'll column
on the hill. Seeing their hope of retrieving
the day vanishing from before their
ewes, still they did not stir. Then the
French cavalry tried to do a little Balakla-
va business. 1t tried, but without the sue
cess of the immortal six hundred who took
the guns. Down came the cuirassiers once
more, this time riding straight for the two
field pieces, but before they had got within
two hundred yards of the guns the Prus-
slams turned a line as if on parade, and
waited until that furious French horse had
ridden on to a point not fifty yards away.
Then they fired. The fire seemed to US to
empty the saddles of almost the whole of
the leading squadron, and closed before
them the direct and dangerous road they
meant to follow. Their dash at the guns
came to a halt. When once this last effort
of the French horse had been made and
had failed, though they pushed CALAMITY
as far as men and horses could go, the
French infantry also fell swiftly back to-
wards Sedan. 1t fell back because it saw
that its chance of carrying that fiercely
contested hill was gone, and saw that with
the Prussians holding the honor of crown
ing it with their guns, their own French
line could not much longer be held. In an
instant, as the French retired, the whole
slope of the ground was covered by swarms
Il
out of the ground and push forward by the
help of every slight roughness and dent on
the surface as fast as the French went
back. These reckless enemies followed af-
ter the last desperate charge of the French
cavalry. General Sheridan remarked to
me that he never saw anything so reckless,
so utterly foolish, as that last charge. 1t
was sheer murder. The Prussans, after
the French infantry fell back, advanced
rapidly, so rapidly that the retreating
squadrons of French cavalry turned sud-
denly round and charged desperately once
again, but it was all no use. The days of
breaking squares are over, and the blue
lines soon stopped the gallant onset.
1t struck me as most extraordinary that
at this point the French had neither artil-
lery nor mitrailleuses, especially these lat
ter, on the hill to cover their infantry. The
position was a most important one, anC
certainly worth straining every nerve tC
defend One thing was clear enough, thai
the French infantry, after once meeting
the Prussans, declined to Try conclu
sions with them again, and that the cavalry
were seeking to encourage them by thei
example. About O'Clock still other rein
forcements came to the Prussians over thi
long disputed hill between Torcy and Sc
dan to support the regiments already estab
lshed there.
All the time that this great conflict wa
going ON under FritZ's eyes and mine, ma,
/ add. another was fought, none the les
severe and as murderous for the Bavarian
as the one | have attempted to describe fo
the French. If there was a want of mi
trailleurs on the hill above Torcy, ther
was certainly no want of them in the Ba
Zeilles ravine. On that side there was 70
more than AN hour one continuous roar @
musketry and mitrailleuses. Two Bavari
an officers told me that the losses in thei
regiments were terrific, and that it was tn
mitrailleuses which made the havoc. 4
five minutes past two in the afternoon tn
French totally abandoned the hill betwee
Toucy and Sedan and fell back on the FoJ
bourg of Caval, just outside the ramparts
the town. Now the battle is lost for til
French said General Sheridan, TO tn
great delight of the Prussian officers. On
would fancy that the French had almO'
heard his words. They had hardly bee
uttered when there came a lull in the firm
all along the line, or rather circle, as it Ina
now become. Count Bismarck chose tn;
moment to come and have IA talk with h
English and American friends. i VIZ
anxious to know what the Federal Char
cellor had done about the threatened nel
trality Of Belgium, and my curiosity Wa
soon gratified. ] have been told that I'll
Belgian Minister Of War said to Count Ri
march that so long as the Belgian troops 4
their utmost to disarm any number
French soldiers who may cross the frOntie
/ will strictly respect the neutrality Of Be
GUM hut If, on the contrary, the Belgian
either through negligence or inability {
not disarm and capture every man