New-York tribune., 1870-08-08
THE GREAT BATTLE,

that even the warmest friends of Prussia ex-
pected the campaign to open with a French
victory Napoleon had every advantage for
taking the initiative. He had chosen his own
time for beginning the war, and, though both
parties have long been preparing for the in
evitable conflict, yet when the shock
came the other day, like a thunder
bolt from a clear sky, Prussia was certainly
taken by surprise. 1t appears to have been
the purpose of the Emperor to hurl an enor-
nous army upon the frontier before his ad-
verSary could get ready to meet it; but
Prussia, who had surprised Europe by her
prOmptness in 1866, surprised every
one again 10y the celeriy of her
movements in the face of this threatened
invasion, and before Napoleon could
reach the line of the Saar every mile of the
boundary bristled with bayonets and frowned
with batteries. The question of an advance
now became a problem of no small difficulty
There were but three or four routes on which
an invasion was practicable, The French may
be said to have held a line describing
roughly two sides of square. The
north side ran from Metz to the
Rhine; the east side followed the course of
the river through Strasburg to BelfOrt the
angle of the two sides was near Weissenburg.
If the French army moved by its left wing,
down the valley of the Moselle, it must cross
the whole breadth of Rhenish Prussia before
it reached the Rhine, fighting all the way with
powerful adversary who had the
protection of an elaborate system of earth
works Ii must reduce COblentZ and Ehren-
breitstein before it could get across the Rhine,
and it would then be connected with Its base
by long, thin line of communication, liable
every day to be broken. The route by the
railway through Saarbruck and either Mayence
or Mannheim presented theisame difficulties, ex-
cept that the line would be shorter; but
then the fortress of Saarlouis must first be
masked or reduced. A movement from the
right wing was the remaining course. This
part of the army, occupying the broad
aud beautiful valley which lies be-
tween the VOsges Mountains and the
Rhine. was under the command of the
EmperOr's greatest marshal, and embraced
the flower of his troops. If he had
thrown them across the river, either at Stras-
burg or some point between that place and
Rastadt, and so moved upon Stuttgardt he
would have had strongly fortified place to
reduce before he could cross, and then the
difficult march through the defiles OF the
Black Forest would lie before him. A move
ment northward through Hagenau and
Weissenburg led him upon Landau
and Mannheim, and involved the mask
ing of Rastadt but it was i'll many
respects the best, and exposed the interior OF
France less than any other since to a Prussian
force invading from the Baden side, the Vosges
formed natural barrier which comparatively
small army could defend.
Whether this movement of MacMahOn's
was to be the main attack, or only
diversion on a large scale is doubtful. The
indications are that the principal advance was
to be by way of Saarbruck, while the left
wing moved across the Lauter and pushed
forward to Landau. Thus the two halves OF
the army would be operating on converging
lines. The Prussans adopted a strategy
almost identical with the French, but
with the same bOldness which resulted for
them so fortunately at SadOwa, they allowed
their two convergng armies to disregard any
connection with each other, and moved up at
once to attack the French at the two points
upon which the Emperor had apparently de-
signed TO make the attack himself. The
first movement was Prussian raid
upon the railway by which MacMahOn COM
municated with the French center and left.
The next was the affair at Saarbruck last
Tuesday when Gen. FTOssard seized the rail-
way connecting the forces of the Crown Prince
with the Prussian center and right. 1hat no
attempt had been made to defend this line,
and no anxiety was manifested to recover
it, showed that the Crown Prince was
confident In his own strength to con-
duct an independent campaign. Marshal Mac
Mahon, meanwhile had moved down from
Strasburg and established bis headquarters
at HageRau, while two of his divisions Occu-
pied the fortified town of Wessenburg, situa-
ted directly on the frontier, at the foot of the
east spur of the Vosges. AS he was REINFORCED
during the recent battle by portions of Can
roberts corps from so far back as Chalons, it
is probable that the troops had already been
ordered to join him in view of an immediate
advance
Thus at the beginning of the great battle
which ragged from Thursday until Saturday
night, we find MacMahon with a powerful
corps of picked men at the angle of the two
lines which formed the French position, threat
ening two avenues of approach into Germany,
and covering the whole valley in his rear. On
Thursday, the Crown Prince with portions of
the Fifth and Eleventh Prussian Corps, and a
corps of Bavarians, fell upon MacMahon's
front carried WeisSenburg by assault,
carried the nights of Geisburg in the rear,
drove in the two advanced divisions, and
moved several miles into the French lines,
tearing up the road in the direction of Ha-
genau, and compelling MacMahon to
move hurriedly to the left and
concentrate in the neighborhood of
! Bitche. By this brilliant operation the