Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-09-09


went horses and men in numbers, in
masses, IN hundreds, and regiment
OF proud French cuirasseurs went hur-
rledIy pack in disOrder-Went back fas-
ter than II came; went back scarcely
regiment In strength, and not at all
regiment in form. It's comely array
was suddenly changed into ashape1ess
ana helpless crowd of flying men. The
moment the cuirasseurs turned back
the brave Prussians actually dashed
FORWARD IN hot pursuit at double-quiek,
infantry plainly pushing flying eaVal-
~. such a thing has not often been
recorded in the annals of war. know
not when an example to compare pre-
eIsely with this has occurred; was no
more striking episode in the battle
than when the French infantry saw
their cavalry thus fleeing before foot
soldiers, they, in their turn, came for
ward and attacked the Prussians. The
Prussians waited quietly and patiently,
enduring rapid and telling 1re from
| the chassepOts. until their enemies had
| drawn so near as to be within a hun
/ dred yards from them. Then they re-
turned with the needle gun the rapid
/ hre from the chassepOts, and the
French infantry could no more endure
| the Pruss1an fire than the cavalry, to
= whose rescue they had come. The in
| fantry fed In it's turn, and followed
the cavalry to the place from which
1 DAAGy GaLA0 Eldb B5y OuA bu6 IAu8o5
/ some hVe hundred yards on the way
/ to Sedan, where the Prussian mitrail-
| leuses, with their tearing fire, could
no longer reach them. The great OBJ
/ ject of the Prussians was gained, since
/ they were not driven from the crest OF
the hill they fought to hold, holding 1t
/ thus against cavalry. The Prussians
persuaded themselves that it was pos
| sible to establish artillery on this hill.
There viii be a devil of fight for
that crest before It is won or lost, said
Sheridan, straining his eyes through his
field glass at the hill, which was not
three miles from where we stood, with
| the full sun shining on It from behind
US. At half-past one O'Clock the French
caYalry-this time fancy a regiment of
carbines-made another dash at the
Prussians, who, on their part, were being
reinforced every minute; but they met
with the same fate as their brethren IN
| the iron Jacket. and were sent with heavy
| loss to the right about. The Prusslans
took advantage of their flight to advance
their line a couple of hundred yards
nearer the line which the French infan-
1 try held. These adventurous Prussians
split into two bodies, the two bodies hav-
ing break of hundred yards in their
line. We were not long in seeing the
object of this movement, for in a little
while puffs from the crest behind the
skirmishers, followed by a commotion
in the dense French masses showed us
that LES Dia6ZeS de Rh7kSSIazS have
contrived, heaven only knows how, to
get a couple of four-pounders up the
steep ground and have opened on the
French. Something at this point must
have been very wrong with the French
Infantry, for instead of attacking the
Prussians, whom they still out number
ed by at least two to one, they remained
in column on the hill, seeing their only
hope of retreating with the day vanish.
'ing from before their eyes; still they die
not stir.
Then the French cavalry tried to dc
a little Balakiava business. Tried, bu
without the success of the immortal
''Six Hundred, - who took the guns or
which they charged. Down came the
cuirasseurs once more, this time riding
straight for the two field pieces; but before
they had got within two hundred yards o.
the guns the Prussians formed line as i
on parade, and waiting until that furious
French horse had ridden on to point not
90 yards away they fred. The fire seem
ed to us to empty the saddles of almos
the whole of the leading squadron. The
: dead so strewed the ground as to block
the path of the following squadron, anc
closed before them the direct and dan
gerous road they meant to follow. Theil
dash at the guns came to a halt, wher
once this last effort of the French horse
had been made and had failed, though
pushed gallantly as far as men anc
horses could go, the French infantry al
so fell swiftly back toward Sedan. i
fell back because it saw that its chance
of carrying that fercely contested hill
was gone, and saw, that, with the Prus
slams holding the honor of crownlng i
with guns, theireewR. French line IN 1t.
I face, it could not much longer be held.
''In an instant, as the French retired
the whole slope Of the ground was GOV
cred by swarIns of Prussian tirailleurs
who seemed to rise out of the ground
and push forward by the help of every
slight roughness and dent on the sur
face. As fast as the French went back
these reckless enemies followed. Aftel
the last desperate charge of the French
cavalry, Gen. Sheridan remarked to me
that he never saw anything so reckless
so utterly foolish, as that last charge; i
was sheer murder.
The Prussians, after the French had
fallen back, advanced rapidly, so rapid
" that the retreating squadrons of the
French cavalry, being pressed too close
lily, turned suddenly round and charged
desperately once again, but 1t was all nc
use.
The days of breaking squares are ov-
er, and the thin blue line soon stopped
the Gaelic onset. 1t struck me as most
extraordinary that at this point the
French had neither artillery nor mi
trailleuse, especially these latter, on the
hill to cover their infantry. The posi-
ton was a most important one, and GER
tainly worth straining every nerve to de
fend One thing was clear enough, that
the French infantry, after once meeting
the Prussians, declined to try Conclu-
sions with them again, and that the cav
airy were seeking to encourage them by
their example. About o'clock, still
other reinforcements came to the Prus-
slams over this long disputed hill, be-
tween Torcy and Sedan, to support the
regiments already established there.
All the time that this great conflict
was going on under Fritz's eye-and
mine, may l add-another was fought,
none the less severe and murderous for
the Bavarians as the one have attempt
ed to describe for the French.
If there was a want of mitrailleuses on
the hill above Torcy there was certainly
no want of them in the Bazeilles ravine.
On that side there was for more than an
hour one continuous roar of musketry
and mitrailleuses. Two Bavarian off
GERS told me that the loss in their regi-
ments was terrific, and that it was the
mitrailleuses that made the havoc. At
five minutes past 2 in the afternoon the
French totally abandoned the hill be-
tween Torcy and Sedan, and fell back
on the Faubourg of CaYal, just outside
the ramparts of the town. ''Now the
battle is lost to the French" I" said Gen.
Sheridan, to the great delight of the
Prussian officers. One would fancy that
the French had almost heard his words;
they had hardly been uttered when