Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-09-29
THE CAPTURE OF TOUL.
How "a Handful of Men Held the
Place for Weeks.
fn.sl.u. C..osal

Tribune Special
LONDON, September q The Tribune
correspondent telegraphs to-day, via Ar
Ion, from the headquarters of Prince
Frederick Charles:
/ have just returned from Toul, travel
ing one day and two nights. The in
vestment began August 18th, and on the
18th an assault was made on the works
at point not defended by cannon. II
was repulsed, with loss of several hum
dred to the Germans. Thereafter an
irregular succession of commandments
followed, which were not sufficiently Sc
rious to effect anything. These COM
menced on the 23d. The artillery en-
ployed was field pieces and such medic
val siege guns as had been captured at
Marsal. The Bavarian railroad direc-
tors, who run the line between Weissen-
burg, Nancy and Paris, offered to build
a branch around Toul in a fortnight, but
Won Moltke said: mo; we shall have
Toul before that However, the strag-
Cling attack availed nothing, the fortress
having double escarpment with full
bastions, a number of glacis, double
bitches thirty feet wide each all around,
fully casemated and defended by seven
ty-Gve guns, of which twenty-six were
rihed pieces from Strasburg, brought
thence while yet France intended to de-
fend earnestly.
Within the last two weeks heavy siege
guns, arriving from Germany, were put
in position on spur of Mt. st. Michael
ON the northern, on the nights opposite
IL.
and at Domortin Les Toul on the south
west Nothing serious was then at
tempted until last Friday at daybreak,
when concentrated bombardment Of
the works was begun by the 2i-pounder
batteries of the Second and Fourth ar
tillery regiments, supported by the
Thirty-fourth infantry brigade. All
these forces form part of the indie
pendent command under the Grand
Duke of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., en-
bracing all that lie between the armies
of Prince Frederick Charles and Crown
Prince; that is, all the invading troops
that engaged in the sieges of Metz and
Paris. The firing continued all day
Friday with an active but very ineffective
reply from the garrison. In the evening,
the town being on fire in twenty-three
places, the pressure of the inhabitants
upon the commander induced him to
hoist the white flag and offer to capitu-
late. The offer was Immediately ac-
cepted by Colonel Montiefet, command
ing the siege corps, and they entered
the town the same evening at seven
o'clock. The conditions were precisely
those of Sedan.
The Council Of the municipality, at q
meeting held Friday, decided not to favor
surrender, but the urgency of the peo-
pie. fearing useless destruction, over
whelmed the belligerent determination
of the military and civil authorities. The
garrison was ridiculously weak, being
composed of sixty cuirassiers, one. hun
dred of the line, forty gems d'armes and
1000 raw Moblles-among them not one
regular artillery soldier. The comman-
der was Major Huck, an old cavalry
man. German officers are wroth that
such force should have blockaded the
Paris road, so essential for transporta-
ton, in fact the only line, for six weeks.
The line becomes now at once complete.
Everything had been prepared at Toul
for weeks, and trains were running by
horse power. One tWelye-fnot bridge
near Toul had to be replaced. This was
done on the 25tb, and yesterday the first
locomotive went through.
| went to Tonl on the first inspector
train that approached the town after the
surrender. Many houses are destroyed
The condition of things is worse than at
Sedan, but not so bad as at Bazailles
The gothic chapel Of st. Gengoalt, of
the date sl4, IL almost ruined. The very
imposing Byzantine Cathedral, built as
early as 292, has only window arch de-
molished and its outside battered by a
score of shells.
There were very few wounded and
no sick in Toul. Only two battalions of
the Tenth infantry remain as garrison.
The prisoners of the Garde Mobile of
the place were released under parole
not to serve again during the war. The
town and enYirons have picturesque
style. Five hundred of the Mobiles had |
been trained during the siege to serve
the guns. They did the artillery work,
but in repulsing the assault Of the 10th |
all the male inhabitants that could pro-