The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1870-10-11


THE FRENon AND PRusslAN AEuLlRm
CaNrARfp.--The Prassians 20 10 work
with their big guns as they do with
their rifle, slow but sure the
captain Of each gun taking aim as care
fully as il he were shooting for prize
As to the persisteney OF the men iunot
drawing trigger until sure Of their aim,
a characteristic story has been told of
a jaeger In the battle at Spiehcrcn lIo
was in a wood also held by the French
tirailieurs, and kept putting his needle
gun up TO his shoulder, and Bringing it
down again without firing. An officer
standing by got impatient and OK
claimed, Shoot, you stupid don't
stand there all day. No, no, an-
swered the soldier quietly, lch, habe
ihn nicht ah, SO, he added,
bringing his rifle down with a look of
delight as a French skirmisher rolled
over with a bullet through his head.
This il is that makes the needle gun
fire SO deadly the en- are taught
never to fire without feeling confident
of Lifting. And this sort Of fire has
much greater moral eject than the
blazing away Of the French oftun from
the hip as hard as they can load and
FIRE, This is, indeed, one of the rea-
sons Of the great slaughter caused at
close quarters by the maitrailleuscs
the men who had only seen them fire at
a distance despised them, and so rush.
ed on them recElcssly and were fright
fully butchered Mitraileuses eight
in number were in as many separate
earthwolks behind the Nordun roed on
Thursday They were 50 placed that
it was next to impossible for the Prus-
sian artillery to reach them, being a
little lower than the road, and just
sweeping it. This not only served to
protect them from the enemy's shells,
but prevented the gunncrs from firing
at too great distances for the mitrail-
leuses were placed so low down that
they could only reach the Prussiaus
either en- the road itself or on the last
200 yards up the slope. We below
could tell even after dark when the at
tacking columns were closely engaged
by the sulIen roar of tho mitrailleuse---
quite peculiar sonnd plainly distin-
gulshable even al owe the dcalening
roar of Thursdays artillery ] much
regret the Prussians did not capture
one, that might describe it for the
benefit of your readers ] did succeed
myself in capturing a looded case just
ready 10 be emptied into the breach of
one cf the Infant Lonis, pet wcap
ons. This case, made Of strong card
board, is composed Of twenty-five sep
arate cells for as many cartridges. The
front, or lid, is torn off when the car
tridgcs are wanted, and slight shake
makes them fall into the breech. he
cartridges themselves strongly resem-
BILE ordinary central fire Daw Or Boxer
cartridges, only they arc bigger and
longer about six inches long and an
inch in diameter The balls are the
shape ef an Endfeld ball, and ! should
fancy about the double the weight
Round one Of the works in which a
mitralleuse had stood | counted forty
three empty cases, and forty-throe null
tiplied by twenty-five equals ,O1o--
pretty well for one gun, considering
that the ninety guns which belong to
the eighth army corps only fired 1000
shot and shell in the battles Of spichc.
ren, Colombay, Resonyille and Grave
lotte, or seycnty-Onc shots each IN four
battles, in the two latter Of which ar
tillery played very large part Dur
ing part OF Thursday battle was only
ten yards behind four Krupp four
Founders, and had thus a good chance
Of seeing the working Of krupp brecch
pieces At the risk Of offending my
many Frussian friends | must say that
saw nothing to prove the great supe-
Houty which they claim for4he breech
loading guns over the muzzIe-loading
guns. After more than one discharge
the gunner at the brcech piece had TO
tug tremendously hare to gettbc brecch
open, and enec saw the lever had to
be applied before the gun could be re-
loaded. Relative 10 the French the
Prussian fire az superior. The burst |
ing cf the shells appeared 70 be good
nearly all seeming 70 burst At the right |
time, and there are but few unexploded
shells to be seen on the field of battle. |
1 donbt whether the Prussians fired |
any shells with time fuses the French |
certainlysdid, for toward dusk one could |
see them tlaziug through the air from |
fort st. Qucntio. r War Correapon- /!
dent near Metz.