The New York herald., 1870-08-20
Continued Prussinn Successcs-The Advance
on Paris.

en- Paris.
Bazaine fights desperately, and is not easy
to crush. Such combats as those of Monday
and Tuesday seem to assure us that the French
army has not lost heart, and wherever there
is an army of nearly two hundred thousand
men, of good morale, handled intelligently, 1t
is not safe to reason on conquest as one
might in their absence. AS to the immediate
seizure of Paris, therefore, that is counted
upon in Berlin, there may still be doubts, and
the situation Is by no means without possi-
bility that would be damaging to the glory of
the Prussian Princes If for a moment we
compare the present disastrous position of the
the Jena campaign, we see what may convince
us that bad as the French situation is it could
be infinitely worse If the Prussians had not
confronted stubbornly fighting army at every
encounter. By the First Napoleon the Prussians
were beaten in one great battle, and their
capital fell into his hands, while some minor
combats gave him possession of the whole
country in an astonishingly short time. But
in the present war the Prussians beat the
French at Wissembourg, at Forbach, at Frosch-
weller and Woerth, and have been compelled
| to beat them again at Metz and Mars la Tour,
while the seizure of Paris is a fact still, per-
haps, beyond other battles.
The battle at Mars la Tour, fought on Tues
day, the 10th, was continuation Of the fight
of Monday. It will be remembered that the
Prussians fought the French on Sunday to the
south Of Metz, near Pagny. The Prussian
advance reached that point with the purpose Of
| crossing the Moselle to cut the French line of
retreat west of the river, and encountered there
a French force, posted, perhaps, to cover the
crossing. They walked into this force at once,
had much outmarched what was behind,
attempted to destroy it with overwhelming
force, and thus brought on general action,
the other German corps being rushed forward
at sound of the firing. From this fight the
French troops were withdrawn into the works
at Metz, and the Prussans, following up to
the works, lost heavily by the fire of the
| fortress. That night Bazaine hurried his
! troops across the river, but the Prussian army
had also been hurried over, and at daylight
they were ON the flank of the French, as the
latter were on the march from Metz to Verdun.
With the enemy on his flank Bazaine was COM
PEELED to face about and fight, and thus oc-
| Cured the battle of Monday near GravelOtte.
Marshal LAdmrault had that day the extreme
! right Of the French and drove the Prussians
| that were in front Of him, holding at night the
| ground the Prussans had held in the morning
but at the other extremity of the line the
French fortunes were not 80 happy, for
Prussian force seems to have wedged itself
between the French left and Metz, thus cutting
| off whatever troops had not already crossed
the river, and apparently shutting them up in
the fortress. Some dispatches from London
tell us that the force thus shut up in Metz is
the ''main body" Of the French army, but if
this is true the detachment" that is cut Off is
| very effective one.
The French soldiers bivouacked at Grave
| lotte on Monday night and resumed their
march towards Verdun on Tuesday, sending
| their wounded before them into Etain, not far
from Verdun. They had gone as far as Mars
la Tour about one-third the way from Metz
to Verdun, and as far from Gravelotte as
Gravelotte is from Metz, when they were again
obliged to form the line of battle and face their
enemy. 1t would appear that they were thus
overtaken by the Prussian cavalry which was
engaged by the French cavalry, and bril-
liant collision of this arm figures in the
dispatches. BY the report from Bazaine the
line Of battle was engaged at four p. NJ, and
the fight was continued with desperate tenacity
while daylight lasted. 1t resulted in turning
| the French right completely and thus pushing
| Bazaine from his line of retreat Indeed, he
must have been driven some miles from his
| first line of battle; for his wounded from this
| fight were sent into Briay, which is off his line
Of retreat and nearer to Metz than Mars la
Tour is Moreover, there is discrepancy in
the reports of the scene of this days battle
which can only be reconciled by the supposi-
ton that the battle began at one of the
| places reported and ended at the other
| Bazaine himselfreports this fighting as between
Spncourt and Thionville Thionville is
directly north of Metz, about twenty miles
away, and Spncourt is about equally far
north with Thionvile and thirty miles to the
west of it. Parallel with the road from Metz
to verdun and to the north of it there is a
little stream, an afiuent of the Moselle, and it
is likely that when sorely pressed during Tues
day the Marshal reformed his line on the fur
ther side of this little stream, though he must
have been pushed even far from that to get
between Spincourt and Thionville. Prussian
artillery is reported as intrenching itself near
BRAY, 30 that wherever Bazaine is exactly he
is fighting and has taught his foe not to despise
his efforts.
With the force under Bazaine thus nearly