Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-07-31
u,porTEsE SEAT WAR.

MAP THE SEAT WAR.
The rapid conclusion of France and
Prussia TO leave their differences to the
arbitrament of arms has taken the civ
ilized world by surprise and rendered it
impossible on the instant TO furnish the
intelligent reader with a correct repre-
sentation of the geography or topography
of the States in which, and the points
about which the belligerent operations of
the hostile parties are ikelyto occur. We
present to-day q general map of France,
Belgium, Holland, touching the southern
part of Denmark, including the Danish
Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, which
now belong to the North German Confed
Grafton: also including the North German
States under the supremacy of Prussia,
and the South German States, which are
likely to be the first field of active opera
lions, touching Switzerland on the south.
-SIf our readers will carefully examine
this map, they will find that the French
troops can penetrate into Germany by the
following routes: They may, in the first
place, advance from Muhlhausen toward
the Rhine, cross the noble old river at
Loerrach, in the Grand Duchy of Baden,
seize the passes or the Black Forest, cross
the Neckar and spread all over Southern
Germany. During the revolutionary and
Napoleonic wars, at the close of the last
and the beginning of the present century,
this route vas the favorite one of the
French commanders and it is quite
probable that Gen. Montauban, Count de
Palikao, will attempt to throw the forces
under his command by this famous old
route into Hohenzollern, Wurtemberg and
Bavaria. Had the governments of the
South German States manifested the
slightest symptoms of hesitation and fall
tering in the support of Prussia, and if.
as the French government at the com
mencement of the present war crisis be-
lieved that, in a war between France
and Prussia, the governments of
Wurtemberg, Bavaria and Hesse-
Dsrmstadt would be very re-
luctant to come to the assistance of the
great Power of North Germany, the Lo-
errach route would have, probably, been
the one by which the main body of the
French army would move to Germany.
But it became apparent, as soon as the
~gar cloud burst, that the North Germans
and South Germans would forget their
petty rivalries and rise as one man in
order to- prevent the Emperor of the
French from annexing TO his dominions
the German provinces on the left bank of
the Rhine; and so it is more than proba-
bic that only movement of secon dairy
importance will be made by way of Loer-
rach and the old Hohenzollern principali-
ties.
Another and no less important approach
from France toward Germany in the
Strasburg route. The French troops may
force the passage of the Rhine below or
above the Kehl. They would then march |
through the Valley of the Rhine past |
Rastatt, Carlsruhe and Bruchsal, cross the |
Neckar at Heidelberg or some other con-
venient point, and penetrate into North |
ern Bavaria. 1t seems quite certain that |
one of the French columns will follow |
this route. But, in doing so, it will have |
to operate with extreme caution, mas |
much as it will have to pass by the strong |
fortress of Rastatt, which is now manned /
by the splendid Baden contingent, under |
the command of some of the best officers
of the Prussian army. 1t would also |
have in its rear the fortresses of the Ba-
varian Palatinate, Landau and Germers-
helm, which from the southern angle of |
the great quadilateral of German fortress
es on the left bank of the Rhine.
The third of the files by which the
French troops may advance into Germany
leads through the Maize Valley, past the
great Fortress of Mayence and the city of
Frankfort-on-the-Ma Main, toward the great
highway through Central Germany, by |
way of Eisenach, Weimer and Jena, right
into the heart of Prussia. The French
Generals will, however, hardly dare to
cross the Rhine above or below the for
tress of Mayence, where a strong Prussian
force is concentrated, which, if need be,
could be largely reinforced, in the course
of few hours, by the masses of troops
now assembled at Coblentz.
The fourth of the great military ap-
proaches from France toward Prussia is
the valley of the Moselle. 1t seems to
be now quite certain that this valley will
be the one in which the main body of the
French army will be hurled upon the
forces of the King of Prussia, and that
here some of the great battles of the war
will be fought. The French have an ex-
cellent base of operations in the vast
fortress of Metz, while the German troops
will lean on Saar-LOuis and other strong
strategic points which have been chosen
and fortified with a special view TO an
invasion of Germany by the armies of
France. If the German troops should be
defeated in the first engagement, they
would take up another position leaning
upon the mountains running almost par
allel to the course of the Moselle, and,
finally, in the event of further reverses,
fall back upon the strong places darnleS
of Coblentz and Ehrenbreitstein, with the
great fortress of Mayence within a dis
lance of few hours only.
In order to cross the Rhine north of
Coblentz, the French troops would have
to pass through Belgium, and as England
has given France rather plainly to under
stand that any violation of the neutrality
of the Kingdom of Leopold II. would be
resented by England, It is hardly probable
the Emperor Napoleon will order his
troops to take that route.
The concentration or movements of
troops has given temporary importance TO
unimportant places. This will continue
10 be the case during the war. There
fore to keep ourreaders thoroughly posted,
IL