The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-08
BATTLES ON THE RHINE.

-
turtles OF Fighting on the Historic Battle
s~Ground.
Ever since the time of the Merovingan
kings, ever since the world Logan, probably,
war has tainted the Rhine streams with
human blood. The world grew wiser aud
saw further-produced its Galileos, its
Raphaels, its Shakespeares-stil the swords
crossed, and the dead men went floating
down the Rhine. Nations broke their
chains, nations were enslaved, still the dead
men went floating down the Rhine. Many
vintage of blood this fair river saw; many
wounded soldier crept among its vines to
groan and then to die. Many times its cliffs
echoed back the thunder of the cannon;
many time the storm of war tore through
its vineyards The proudest ornament OF the
Rhine, says the poet, is the crimson robe it
wears when the enemies of Germany float
dead upon its waters.
The wars of the middle ages are, as Mil
ton says of early English history, the mere
fights of kites and crows. Many of those
men in steel who lived on the rocks of Raben-
stein and Falkensten fought on the Rhine
banks, and many perished in its stream. The
thieves were indeed always Staying and
thrusting at each other, and fighting for the
plunder they stole from Nuremberg, Worms,
and Spires.
The first real battles on the Rhine that are
worthy of record are those by which the great
=
general, always most terrible when hardest
pressed, was the son of Duke de Bouillou,
and from the earliest age showed genius for
war; Being delicate child, he was so anx-
ious to inure himself to the fatigues of war
that he was one winters night found by his
tutor asleep on the ramparts of the town. At
thirteen he went to learn arms in the camp of
his uncle, Prince Maurice of Nassau, and at
sixteen distinguished himself as a captain of
inf or cia nf Roic Ia A
Marshal in 1886, he went under the orders of
the Cardinal de Ia Valette to defend Mayence
from the imperialists; and there he first
began to study the Rhenish frontier. But
from Mayence the French army had to
retreat to Metz for want of money and
food. During the splendid but dangerous
retreat Of thirteen days, Turenne acquired
the name of Father" from his care of the
soldiers. Always in the front rank Of the
rear-guard, he divided his own meals with the
hungry and worn; he threw away his baggage,
and gave his carriage to the sick and wounded
and he even gave up his horse to a wounded
man to save him from the enemy.
La Valette, to wipe away this defeat, be-
sieged Saverne, where Turenne was wounded
in the arm by musket-shot. Scarcely re-
covered, he hurried to Franche Comte, and
won two battles. In 1857 he helped the Duke
of SAKE Weimar to take Breisach, the key of
Germany in the West, and town sixteen
miles from Frankfort.
In 1914, with five thousand cavaliers aud
four thousand fantassins, Turenne passed the
Rhine at Breisach, surprised and beat the i'm
perialists, and relieved Fribourg. He then
took Philipsbourg and Mayence, so rapid
were French conquerors in those days. Left
by the Duke of Enghein with only six hun
dred men to keep in check on the frontier
Mercy and the Duke of Lorraine, he seemed
to be omnipresent at that crisis. He saved
Spires; he raised the siege of Baccarat; he
took Kreuznach (how familiar these names
seem to us just now!); he kept the enemy
from uniting their severed forces, and during
the winter pushed into Swabia and Franco
mia and marched up to the very gates of Nu-
remberg.
The wearied troops at last clamored for
rest. Surprised in their quarters (1645) by
Mercy, Turenne kept firm front, rallied his
troops, and pushed, not for the Rhine, but to
Hesse, where the landgravine had promised
reinforcements. When Enghein returned,
the great battle of Nordlingen was fought in
Bavaria. The French centre was pierced,
the right wing gone, when Turenne, on the
left wing, with the Weimar allies, struck the
Austrian army in flank, and, supported by q
reserve of Hessian pikemen and musketeers
won the victory. In spite of this murderous
but useless battle, the French had to retreat
and intrench themselves on the Rhine behind
the cannon of Philipsburg The campaign
of 1915, however, ended, to the delight OF
Mazarin, by Turenne chasing the Spaniardi
from the electorate of Treves.
The next campaign of Turenne on the
Rhine (1646) was even more admirable. By
finely planned and swift march he passed
the Rhine at Wesel trayersed Westphalia anC
Hesse, and joined the Swedes. 1t was hi,
strategy to win the game, and cry che ok to
the Emperor in the fewest possible moves
Though inferior in force to the Archduke, Tu
renne tormented and bafhed him, turned his
position, passed into Swabia, swept through
Bavaria, threatened Franconia, and finally wo1
the game Macmillan cried out for peace.
Turenne then prepared to swoop on Aus
tria; for, like Lucian's Caesar, he though
nothing done while aught was left to do; bu
Mazarin now recalled the army to the Rhine
The Weimar troops, unwilling to leave Ger
many, refused to pass the Vosges and serv
in the low countries. At the instigation o
their mutinous generals, Reinhold and Rosen
they indeed effervesced into mutiny, drey
their swords, and rode Gathering and splash
ing across the Rhine at Strasburg. Bu
Turenne was not man to bend to mutineers
alone he threw himself among their swords
and strove to persuade and coax
to threaten and order them to re
main. He even rode with them a
far as Philipsbourg, but it was no use The
he broke out into flame-the great powde
magazine, his heart, exploded with rage. H
arrested Rosen; he won over two regiments
With them he flew after the rebels, overtoo
them in the valley of the Tauber, drove int
them headlong, put them to the rout, an
laid low some hundreds of these stiff necke
troopers. Then, recrossing the Rhine, Tt
renne defeated Montecuculi at Sommerhar
sen, and slew his colleague MelandeZ A