The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-08-18
WAR ITEMS.

Yerdun is a place of no great Importance
| in itself, but it may be made very strong
point in 4 line of defence. It was once the
place of detention, for English prisoners in
Tho old Napolconic wars, from which now
ana thcn Incredible escapes were made /;
amongst others, that of Sidney Smith, the
aero ot Acre, who made his way from the
shter'orof France to the seashore. Verdun
mas 4 population Of 10000. It is fortified,
and has citadel.
daonSevlllc, the town from which the En-
DeTor writes TO the Empress, is about 22O
EEiles from Paris, and has about / 60O in.
aabltants. 1t was once place of some i'm
portance, and has the ruins of Qualifications.
a very suggestive item of Intelligence is
contained In the announcement that body
OF thirty thousand of MacMahon's troopS.
supposed to have been captured by the
PruSslans, had arrived safely at Strasbo1iru.
AS the entire force under that General did
not exceed fifty thousand men, it is clear
that, 'dtF,54oSing this statement to be fact.
he could, after the sanguinary battle at
WCWtn, have had but veryfe men to lead
hack upon Nancy. The battle of the 9Th
must, therefore, before the receipt of this
news. have been accepted as equivalent to
the almost total annihilation of MacNfahon's
command, and the magnitude Of the results
which have followed it thus become some
what more intclligiblc.-Nc,1 York Times.
BRUSSELS a FRENCH CITY.-Every hour
has shown me how the two countries
France and Bclgium-are united together.
There is no difference Of language or peo-
pie. Brussels is as French rs Paris. There
is Flemish newspaper here, and a few of
the bills posted on the walls are in both
languages. and there are occasionally Flem-
ish sermons i'll the churches, but the whole
appearance Of the place is French, and !
| cannot find in the Belgian newspapers any
signs Of cnmity to France, and ccrt%inly
! not the slightest indication of sv.npathy
! with Prs,ssia.- .-BrusselS lcttcr--Ee,r York
Times.
The special correspn-.. of the Tribune
writes from Paris sunday evening Q4th) ::
.lhc 1cel'h.S is moro and more hos
tile to the Emperor. 1t is openly
&C places, that, come what may, the
Emperor will never again be seen in Paris.
People express this opinion with energy
not now fearing mouchardS Government
! informcrs). But mo surrcnder!' is the
! general cry among all classes. They call the
Emperor IAN imbecile,' and his generals
'coisrtcrs and 'traitors'; but even the
strongest anti-Imperialists say that Of course
the enemy must be driven out of France.
and are under the impression that the na-
! ton can and will conquer.
Napolcon's dispatch about Louis and
| himself is again up. the TT1b&ne says it
rc:lGs as follows under the head of " lie
F.. G0pttnlc du Ecu": IL 3 q dos soldats Qui
pic,vdlcat en- ic tOyaM 81 cdtme."
, Les iG1nlcs are there.
The first man killed in the war was a
Frcnchmnn hya soldier Of the Hohenzol-
lcrn regiment.
Among the defenders of the French
lronterS-for this will he their special SER
vice when the regulars have gone forward
| is the Youngest son Of the late Baron James
dc Rothschild bearing the stripe of SIM
| pie corporal.
4 SohDlER's MARRIAGE.-A young and
thriving merchant of Saar Louis was to
have been married ut Saar Louis to Il young
| lady from SchlciZ OH the 10th of July. On
| that morning came the tclcgraphic order OF
mobilization. The train carried Off the
! bridegroom quarter Of an hour before the
! time fixed for the marriage. He, like thou
sands of other men of an equally good po-
sition in life, took his place as 4 private i'll
! his rcgincnt-the Forticth HohenzOlcrns-
and chccrfully arranged with his bride that
the marriage should take place as soon
: aS his battalion should reach Saarbruck.
! lie would then 60 off to the war, and she
would return, as his wife, to her
home. The bride came yesterday with her
! brother TO Saarbruck. | had the pleasure of
walking up with them this afternoon to
watch the battalion i'll which the bride
groom was TO appear pass from the nigh
| road into the bivouac field. The bridegroom
was there in the thick of the helmeted
stream. and ran from the ranks and kissed
his bride with German fcrvor. The men
marching past looked at them with sympa-
thetic admiration, but with no sign Of won-
| der. much less of coarse dcriSiOn. Then the
| bridegroom ran on to the place he had left,
and the bride went to an officer and begged
few hours leave for the bridegroom that
they might get married. The officer, OF
course, was only too glad to listen to such
request from the lips Of such an applicant,
and escorted the bride to the colonel OF the
regiment, from whom leave had to be OBJ
tained. We saw the bride with dark eyes
| more expressive than ever, and shadow OF
apprehension over her broad forehead, not
| too German for perfect beauty, repeating
her request to the colonel, and winning
from his lips of discipline the gentlest an
swer. The bridegroom was sent OIL on
! leave till midday tomorrow. The mar
riage will be a few hours earlier. l do not
think that any Englisman could have Wit
messed the scene without the thought cross
| ing Min tudG IL lHlpfiei sticn u socicIS
in the army and such noble simplicity OF
life us we in England have not yet learned
even to aspire to. Extraordinary, how
outrE would it seem in England if we were
told that a gentleman serving as private
in the army ran from the ranks and kissed
his bride, and then that the bride went up
| before half the regiment to the ofh-
GERS and made the request which l have
recorded! And what would be the be-
hayior of the men who saw it take place?
| If it excited admiration it would be for the
sineularity and unusualnesS of the thing; ;
| in Germany it was perfectly natural, ana
| mention it not because it was singular, but
| the reverse, because it caused no surprise
and no embarrassment to any one because
| it shows what is the tone Of the German
army, in which men of all ranks serve side
| by side, and how simple and natural society
| is in comparison to everything that we are
accustomed to in England. TO assure you
| that this is no romance, give, with the ap-
probation of the bride and bridegroom the
names OF both. The bride is the Frauleln
| Angelica Hennig, born in SchleiZ, in Cen
| tral Germany the bridegroom, Herr Au-
gust Britz, born in Saar Louis.-Sddr6r'uck
letter IN Neso York Tribune.
THE GERMAN CoMMANDERs.-The North
German Correspondent, Of Berlin, OF July
4 says:
Thc commanding officers of the North
German army are now all appointed. The
superior officers of the general staff Will be
General de Blumenthal, Colonel de Stiehle,
and General de Sperling:
Herwarth de Bittenfeld and Vogel de
Falkenstein have been entrusted with The
military government of the provinces. par.
ticularly exposed to the eYentualties Oh