The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-08-30
After q Charge.


Writing from Maxwiller, where the
headquarter of the Crown Prince were
located on August sth, Mr. W. H. Rus
sell says:
1--WE, after a time, reached the village
| of Gunstett, the environs ofwhich were
the scene of desprate action between
the French right and the Prussian len
during the memorable battle Of Woerth.
Like several others of the villages, 1t
was crowded with wounded, and pale
faces looked out of the windows OF the
cottages, with heads bound up; but
there were soon more terrible evidences
OF the struggle. The debris of knap
sacks, pouches, muskets, shoes, frag-
ments Of clothing, shakos, thickened as
we went on; dead horses swollen to al
enormous size with their legs stuck up
in the air, lay about in the elds; and
now We came oil dead Prussian who
had fallen stiff as if in the act of charg-
ing, and then came Zouaves and Turcos,
mostly the latter, in all the fantastic
rigidity of death in battle, the faces IN
most cases covered by the decent care
of the country people with little pieces
Of linen, which the rain had beaten IN
on the lineaments in relief The burial
parties were busy close at hand and all
over the country, but the harvest was
too heavy for the reapers. have seen
now many fieIds-and the more | see
OF them the less like them-but never
have | beheld a sight so extraordinary
as | came on by the little streamlet, the
Sauer, which flows by Gunstett AT an
angle of the road, by vine plantation,
there had been evidently sanguinary
combat between the infantry; but lit
tie beyond it lay the scence Of cavalry
charge, the relics Of which formed the
strange spectacle j am writing OF. There
were heaps OF cuirasses still bright, and
brass helmets with plumes which had
been taken from the dead, wounded
and prisoners piled vt intervals along
the road. Between these lay saddles,
swords stuck in the ground, horse trap
pings, vallses with So and "6 on them,
here and there single cuirasses, dead
horses, helmets, swords, muskets-the
ground trampled, the vines beaten down
pools Of blood-a foul, sour smell
everywhere. In the village itself was
pile OF thirty or forty culrasses and
helmets, then another pile OF the same.
Further on, mixed up with these
trophies OF the hapless Cuirasslers,
we came on the signs Of disaster to a
regiment OF Lancers-staves with red
and white streamers in all directions,
lancer shakos, saddles, vallses and
tunics, blue laced with white. One I
would think Lancers and Culrasslers
had all fallen together; bat to whatever
regiments lance and cuirass belonged, II
was plain they had been routed and
destroyed. one remarkable elrcum-
stance is this-not a cuirass was pierced
by bullet. looked most narrowly y
others did the same. And yet what
had been the fate OF the wearers
That is a problem | cannot solve, nor
could any one else; but 1t is plain that
the Cuirassiers were ann!hllated. III IL
said that one regiment charged bat
terry and got in among the guns, but ,
was 'smitten by the infantry on the
hanks with leaden shower that beat
them to the earth never TO rise again
or dead and wounded, the |
unhurt all taken In few seconds. As ,
said, this sort Of work was visible for .
quite two miles along the road. The !
rain cleared up before noon, and that
must have been some little reliei from
suffering to the wounded, who were stu! |
met in carts. There were some with |
faces upturned, cold and stItf, vino
cared no more for what the elements |
might do. | shall dwell no longer on
suCn scenes. There will, | fear, be
manv more OF them, and worse.