Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-11-18
WHY TIE FORTRRss FELL

Metz is still Ia pucelle-tne maiden for
tress-of France. Not stone of that
fortress has been injured. The works
have shown how well grounded was the
belief OF all military men in their impreg-
inability. They were designed to resist
DOmbardment or assault, and for over two
months they have kept at bay one of the
largest armies of moiern times, who could
have commanded, had it been likely to
prove of any avail, the most powerful ar
hllery in the world. Metz fell simply
because she had nothing to eat. Her
reputation as strong place of war re-
mains absolutely unhljured by the cspitu-
lation.
l am here among nearly 10000 men,
yielding them -Clycs up as prisoners of
war. Forgive me for repeating myself,
but the spectacle is too Overwhelming to
be easily dismissed from ones thoughts.
have mingled freely with the unforta-
nate people. l am now, thanks to their
narratives, in a position to supply the
mighty ''missing link" in the chain of the
history of the siege. l can tell you
something Of what happened inside,
while events notorious to the world were
happening without. shall piece together
many narratives. Ir l sometimes speak
as though had been a personal witness
OF what l relate, you viii sscribe it to
the vividness of the impression which
the various narratives have made upon
my mind.
WANT OF SALT AND SHOES.
Metz has succumed, primary for want
of salt and shoes secondalily, for want
of stores of all kinds. Scurvy has rotted
away its resisting power and swelled feet
have deprived it OF all power of attack.
The shoes-tO fix a date-may be said to
have failed with the great sortie of the
9TH of this month. All we have hitherto
known about that bloody fight at Ladon-
champs Is that after SO many hours of
advancing, retiring, artillery firing, and
hurTying up reserves, the French once
more retired to the shelter of Heloy and
Plappeville, from whence they came. To
the outside world they retired in silence
and In their usual automatic way. Ger
many held the pen, and she counted her
dead and tended her wounded and gath
cred up the debris of battle in the most
public way. The world saw it all, but
what il did not see was the seemingly
commonplace but most significant and
portentous sight of the whole French |
army taking off its boots. The sight, |
say al the prisoners have talked with, |
was never to be forgotten, accompanied,
as II was, by one loud roar of |
agony, such as might come from
Titan under the bsstinauo. The boots |
were soleless, or worse than soleless, for
where bits of leather held together they |
had simply served as a gathering place for |
sharp pebbles that could not be removed |
during the heat of action, and 80 had am |
pie time to work their way well into the |
already bruised and yielding flesh. This, |
more than the Prussian fire ard the Prus- |
sian combinations, caused the failure of |
the soItie, for at every step the men took |
they wee walking in their own blood. |
One of the correspondents, | remember, |
noticed the slOwness of the French move |
ment and divided the blame between the |
aint-heartedness of the men and indie |
cision Of their leaders, but this was its |
real cause. Before the sOrtie the warri |
Ors had simply been bOotmaking all day |
with needles and cotton thread, with |
bCA VI AbcilSI AAAtCL CN Gil VIII tldSLG
and brown paper. During the sortie the |
wretched results Of all their handiwork |
vanished in less than half an hour After |
the sprtic not hundred men in the army |
were without some laceratiDg stone |
wound to add TO those which the bullets |
of the Prussians had inflicted,
SUFFERING FOR FOOD.
- The history of the fall of Metz is sim
ply the history of the failure of its |
stores. 1t is new illus ration of the |
venerable axiom that there is nothing
like leather, ard a few other things /
b asidos, among which may be included /
white bread and salt. BY Oct. II, rice,
or rice bread was the only kind of farina-
cious food served out. BY Oct Is, bean
bread had TO take its place, and of this
something under pound was served out /
per day to each man. On the 18th, the /
allowance became half pound; day or
two later it ceased altogether, and the /
men had to swallow horse without bread /
at all. Now people often talk of "a
stomach for fighting" and the phrase is
a very good ore, for, really, uuless the
stomach be heartily engaged in a strug-
gle, the issue ct il is seldom very fortu-
late. The Ealf-cooked horse flesh may
be said 10 have completed what the rice
bread, the bran bread, and then no bread
began, and 10 have quite taken away the
stomach of the garrison for fight. You
can imagine what q sameness of any food,
except perhaps mamma, would be-must
be. Try 20 imagine G sameness of
horse-nOt horse as eaten once IN
war by epicures at fancy
banquets, but horse as eaten every
day and all day by the flies and the car
ron crow. Horse for breakfast, horse
again for dinner, and another morsel of
the same for a wind-up before turning in;
i'll cooked, at the best oftimes, for a want
of the little accessories of the kitchen
that ere needed to give a flavor to every
dlsh-sOmetimes scarcely cooked at sli.
And 10 cap the nauseOus ides, imagine
any kiul Of food, and horse above sll
kinds, without salt With that season.
ing many things not over nice in them
selves may be made estable; without it
the best mests after the third mOuthful
pals upon the taste. However sharp
Their hunger, horse simply became sn i'm
possibility for the wretched garrison to-
ward the last. They ''larked" with their
red ratiors in ghas:ly merriment while
their stomachs yearned for food. They
pelted one ano'her with their breakfasts,
and with their dinners bsited traps for the
crows which God knows
by what instinct brought thither-kept
watch over the doomed city night aud
day And when at nighttime hunger
drove them TO swallow the detested NOR
eel they continued the nauseous banquet
all night in their dreams.
One cause for this feeling of repulsion
is rot TO be overlooked. There was
something, the mep-sBd especially the
cavalry men-assured me in the fact that
The horse had once had his place in the
ranks. 1t had once been part of the
army,. ihis 'Tation, distinct military
conrade, a friend. he had
obeyed the same word of commsnd,
trembled with the same generous excite
meut Of strife, brsved the same dangers
often shared the sam; couch as the soldier.
And then TO knock hitA "a the head, this
brave companion in arms, and MUNICH HIM,
after al. In most cases where men had
''knoWn the horse, il was perfectly inn
possible TO get them TO touch him. In
some cases they attempted active inter
ference on his behalf, as for some loved
in the hands of The exeeu