New-York tribune., 1870-10-03
THE SORTIES At PARIS.

The preliminary movements of a siege are
seldom of an exciting character; the one army
reduced to the defensive is incapable of initi-
ating battle; the other, fresh from struggles
in the field, is anxious to avoid useless and
wasteful conflict. The investment of Paris
has thus far resulted in only two affairs of
importance and significance. In the absence
of exciting incidents there the public have
been furnished by INSCRIPTIONS newspapers
with fictiOns of the most sensational kind.
OF these was the TumOr of a French victory
at Paris, which excited the city for
Dsew hours on Saturday last. 1t was put in an
official form, as coming from the French Sec
retary of the Interior, but bore internal as well
as external evidences of its spurious origin 1t
mentioned among other absurd statements that
the French had retaken Vincennes. The city
and the wood of Vincennes are situated within
the lines of the Paris Notifications, and have
never been occupied by the Prussians. Failure
to name the date on which the battle occurred
or that on which the report was written. rem
dered the story still more unworthy of full credit.
There certainly was an engagement before
Paris on Friday last, of which we have this
morning both German and French reports.
The French repeated their tactics of Sept. ~,
with no better results, though with more
credit to themselves, for the new troops re-
veaed by their conduct that they are fast be-
coming trained to the bloody business before
them. Like that of Sept 10, this battle
was eveidently fought to regain the nights of
Sceaux. 1t was directed, however, at a point
further west than the mistaken assault of the
former occasion, and in two columns AT the
49, ~, =
tempted a column emerging from st. Cloud
attacked in the direction of Versailles. Both
attempts failed. The Prussian Fifth Corps
seems to have Overlapped the right of the
French before St. Cloud, and when the latter
retreated threw them into confusion by a
flank attack. The battle does not appear to
have lasted more than two hours, nor to have
resulted in severe losses on either side.
We suspect that the sOrtie as it is now re-
ported will turn out to have been only
reconnaissance by the French to discover what
movements the Germans have been making
for more than week that they have been
hidden behind the Hights which they secured
by the engagement of Sept. 10. At any rate
it seems to have served the purpose of
reconnaissance, and to have revealed that the
Germans are transferring their main army
from the eastern and southeastern sides of
the city to the western and southern ap-
proaches 1t is apparent that while the arc of
the circle extending around the northern and
eastern sides of Paris from the Seine above
to the Seine below the city has been weakly
held 10y the 4th and 18th Corps and the Guards,
the lines south of the city are maintained by
the 9TH, 9th and 18th Corps, and the several
Corps OF Bavarians and Wiirtembergers.
The 9th Prussian Corps, which few days
ago held the right of the Crown Princes
army east of the Seine and the city, formed in
the battle OF Sept. 30 his extreme left in front
OF st. Cloud and Fort du Mont Valerien.
which are due west of Paris. Ii ia not i'm
probable that this movement by which the
Germans are evidently Transferring their
strength TO the west of Paris, brought about
the engagement of Friday. The idea il spg-
gested from Tours that the Germans are nre-
paring to attack on the west, where only q
single fort defends five bridges across the
Seine and numberless well-paved approaches
which converge from all directions upon these
passages Certainly, the movements revealed
by the engagement of the Both ult. would
seem TO confirm this statement
Other movements by the Prussians also