The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1870-09-05

of field glasses.
"On the left was pretty church, its
gothic spire of sandstone Offering a
conspicuous target for the Prussian
guns, had General Moltke thought fit
TO lombard the town. To the right,
on the southeast side of the church,
were large barracks, with the fortifi-
cations of the citadel behind it. and
beyond this, to the southeast again,
was an old chateau of Sedan, with pic
turesque, round turreted towers of
the tenth century, very useless, even
against four pound Krupp pieces.
Tits building, l believe, is now an ar
senal. Beyond this was a citadel in
the heart of Sedan, On a rising hill
above the Meuse, to the southeast,
but completely commanded by hills
on both sides Of the river, which runs
in front Of the citadel.
"The French had flooded the low
meadows in the valley before coming
to the railroad bridge at the BazeiIle,
IN order 70 stop the Germans from ad-
vancing on the town in that direction.
With their usual stupidity (for one
can find no other word for it), the
French had failed to mine the
bridge at Bszsille, and it was of i'm
mense service to the Prussians
throughout the battle. The Prus-
SLAMS actually threw up earth
works Oh the iron bridge it
self, to protect it from the
French. who had more than oace at.
tempted early In the day to storm the
bridge. in the hope Of breaking the
Bavaria1 communication between the
right and left bank of the Meuse
This they were unable to do, and al
though their cannon SHOT had almost
demolished the parapst, the bridge It.
self was never materially damaged.
On a projecting spur of the hill,
crowned by the woods of La Marfee,
of which / have already spoken, the
Bavarians had already posted two
batteries of six FOUNDER rifed breech-
loading steel Krupp guos. which kept
up daetIo till the very end of the
day with the siege guns Of Sedan,
across the Meuse Still further to the
right flank, or rather to the east, for
our line was circuitous or crescent
shaped at first, with Sedan in the
center, like a star on the Turkish
standard, was an undulatinR plain
above the village of Bazsille,
terminating about mile aud
3 half from Sedan at the woods near
Rubecourt. Midway, that is to say,
in line from Bazielle, north, there
is q ravine, watered by a tiny brook,
which WaS the scene of the most des
perate struggle. and of the most
ffightful slaughter of the whole bat
tie. This stream, whose name / have
forgotten if it ever had one. runs
right behind the towB of Sedan,
from the woods of FIeigreuse. on the
Dorih. Behind the town rises a hill,
dotted with cottages aud fruit laden
orchards, and crowned by the woods
of Cargareune, which ruus down to
the valley of which | have just
spoken.
Between this wood and town were
several French camps. their white
shelter tents standing out clear along
the dark fruit trees; In these camps
one could see throughout the day,
huge masses Of. troops which were
never used. even during the hight OF
the battle; they stood as idle as Fitz
John Porter at the second battle OF
Bull Run. We imagined that they mus
have been uodisciplined Gardes Mo
bile. whom the French Generals dared
not bring out against their enemy.
TO the Prussian left of these French
camps, separated from them by a
wooded ravine, was a long bare hill,
something like one of the hills on
Long Island This hill, ,-on which was
some of the hardest fighting of the
day, formed one of the keys of the po-
sition of the French army. When
once its crests were covered with the
Prussian artillery, the whole town of
Sedan was completely at the mercy oI
only above the town, but the town
was almost in musket range of them.
Still further to the left, the village
of lily was set on fire early in the
day, by the French shells. South of
this, the broken railway bridge was
blown up by the French to protect
their right. A conspicuous object
right above the rail way bridge,
on the line to Mezieres, was
Wood Hill, crowned by neO and al
most hidden chateau, as he calls it. oil
Que Monsieur Pave. 1t was here that
the Crown Prince and bis staff stood
during the day, having a rather more
extensive, but less central, view, and,
therefore, less desirable than ours,
where stood the King. Count Bis,
marck, Won Room, the War Minister,
General Mollke. and Generals Sheri
dan and FOrsythe. to say nothing oi
your correspondent.
Having thus endeavored to give
some faint idea of the scene of what
is in all probability the decisive bat
tie of the war, L will next give an ac
count of the position of the different
corps at the commencement of the &C
ton. promising that all the move
meats were OF the simplest possible
nature. the object of the Prussiau
Generals being merely to close the
/ crescent of troops with which they
begau, into a circle, by effecting {
| junction between the Saxon corps on
their right and the Prussiau corps 90
their left.
This junction took place abou
noon. near the little village of lily
on the Bazeille River, behind Sedan
of which / have already spoken
Once their terrible circle formed. and
we'll solderad toge her, 1t grew stead
/ ily smaller and smaller. until, at last
/ the fortifcatious of Sedan itself wer
entered. On the extreme right wer
the Saxons. one corps d'drnlee
with King Williams Guard. Their
was also a corps d'Grnlee In reserv,
behind them. The Guard had suf
fered terribly at GravelotteS wher
they met the Imperial Guard, and th
Klng would not allow them again t
be so cruelty decimated.
Justice compels me to state tha
the arrangement was very far froI
pleasing to the Guards themselves
Who are ever anxious to be in th
forefront of battle. The Guards an
Saxons, then about $4,000 stronI
N l.. -. IL Ill. L.-l- N