New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-08-30
TIE BATTLE OF FORBACH.
New York Times Report.

New YORK, August 26.-Tbe special cor
respondent of the Times, dating from Saar-
brucken, August g. gives the following
account of the battle of Forbach:
The French had made stand on two
hills divided by narrow valley, and also
behind the entrenchment on a plain ex-
tending from the side Of the second of these
hills up to wood which marked the left OF
the French position, the right being equally
marked by q wood on the top of the first
mentioned and most inaccessible of the two
hills.
On the second hill, in the middle of their
position, the French seem TO have suffered
more than on the first.
Behind fragment OF hedge twenty yards
long, twenty-four Frenchmen were lying.
Some had fired from behind regular en-
trenchments; others from behind little inn
provised mounds of earth; others from be-
hind few large stones piled one above
another.
The use of the new arms of precision has
developed in those who employ them pas
sionate love of cover.
In a stand up fight at close quarters, such
as was possible enough in the last century,
the troops who did not stand up to receive
the fire OF the enemy would have very little
chance of returning it.
The most inaccessible OF the two hills, the
Spicklerburg, as the Germans call it, with
its natural fortiication of forest on the right,
was assaulted three times before it was
taken. OF the scaling OF the second hill
will say nothing, not knowing even whether
it was scaled at all till after the French had
been beaten.
1t was down below, on a plain extending
from the side of the second hill to the woods
which closed in the French position on the
left that the decisive movement was made
which terminated the action in favor OF the
Prussians.
On this plain, lying down behind their
entrenchments, the French had an impreg-
nable position, which the Prussians, after
being engaged from ten in the morning
until six in the evening, did not attempt to
storm; but fresh troops were coming up
during the action, and General Zastrow,
whose corps d'armee, or part oft, was within
reach. on the line of the railway which con-
meets Saarbrucken with Treves, had been
informed by telegraph of the state of affairs
beyond Volklingen, at a distance of eight
or nine miles from Saarbrucken.
The disposable regiments of the Zastrow
corps, among them the Fifty-second and
Seventy-seventh. crossed the Saar and the
lofty range of hills, and hurried on at a run
for two miles and half. and reaching the
woods which closed in the French position
on the left, entered it, and attacked the
French in left and in rear, and inflicted ter
rible losses upon them.
This decided the day, but the French still
did not retire without making a most vigOr-
Gus resistance.
What was the meaning of this battle, in
which the Prussian killed and wounded
amounted to nearly three thousand men
The French losses are estimated by the
Prussians at nearly double that.
The Prussian official bulletin says simply
the Prussians stormed the heights, attacked
the French position everywhere, and beat
back the enemy toward Forbach; but the
French must have been in retreat before the
battle began, and that no doubt will be the
French version OF the affair.
Even after their position had been turned
the French kept on fighting until late at
night, and by the account OF the Prussians
themselves made their assailants pay most
dearly for victory. But the Prussians do
not mind paying dearly for victdSy:
Prussians gradually made for the highroad
which leads to Forbach, and the marks of
bullets and balls ON the trees which line the
road on each side, and ON few small
houses which had the misfortune to tind
themselves placed along gthe path of retreat,
shows what the struggle must have been.
The last desperate stand made by the
French was at a factory, few hundred
yards on their side of the frontier.
Here the slaughter was frightful, and it
only ceased with the darkness.
Next morning the Prussians pursued the
enemy far beyond Forbach, and up to this
time have made upward of 1900 prisoners.
l saw about 1000 of them brought in yes
! terday, including colonel and lieutenant
colonel, and several officers. Many were
wounded, many more foot sore while others
came on in tolerably good condition, and
did not seem at all sorry to have been taken.
The bearing of the prisoners generally
was excellent; necessarily not naughty, but
dignifed ,all the same.