The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-05

Sedan, OF which have a!ras'y spoken. Once their
terrible wall formed spd .eti s'idcred together it
grew steRCfty smaller nd smaller, until At lst th
fortifcatious OF SedsI itself were entered.
ON the extreme right we're the Saxous one corps
d'aImee, with King Williams guards; also, corps
d'armCe in reserve behind them The guards had
suffered terribly at Gravelotte, where they met the
Imperial Guard,and the King would not allow them
to be again 20 cruelty decimated. Justice compels
me to state that this arrangement very far, in
who are ever snxious 70 be in tSe fTreps of the
battle. The guards and Saxons, then about $4,000
strong were all day on the right bank of the Meuse
between Rubecourt and La Chapelle, at which
latter village Prince Albert OF Saxony, who was in
command of two corps, which have been formed
into little extra army by themselves, passed the
night of Thursday.
The ground from Rubecourt to the Meuse was
occupied by the 1st Bavarian corps. The ID Ba
varian corps extended from Bazsille railway
bridge to point on the high road from D)nchery
TO Sedan, not far from the little village of Torey.
Below the hill, on which the Crown Prince was
placed. the ground from rorey TO lily, through the
large village of Flong, was held by the lst and Sd
Prussian corps, belonging TO Prince Frederick
Charles, and temporarily attached to the army of
the Crown Prince. This was the position of the
troops about A, M. on Thursday, and great
advance took place till later, for the artillery had
at first all the work to DO Still further to the left
near Donebery, were 10000 Wirtembergers, ready
TO cut off the French from Mezeres, ia case OF
their making push for that fortress.
The number of PTussan troops engaged is esti
mated by MOltke at 2lO OOO and that OF the French
at 120, 600. We know that Mcmahon had with him
on Tuesday 10000 men that IS four corps his own
General lie Brun; that of Felix Douay, brother OF
General Douay killed at Weissemburg, and the Ish
corps, principally composed of Gardes Mobile, the
name of whose commander has escaped me.
McMahon, although wounded, command ed in chief
on the French side. 1t is almost needless TO say
that the real commander i'm chief of the Prussians
was Won Motke with the Crown Prince aud Prince
Albert of Saxony, Immediately next in command.
There were few stray cannon shots fired, but the
real battle did not begin until six A, M, becoming
batteries had got within easy range and the shells
began TO do serious mischief.
At II 55 the musketry fire in the valley in the
nf GpAa xUhi ha1 ahnnt bo-
came exceedingly lively, being one continuous
rattle, only broken by the growlngs of mitraeuse,
Saxons and Bavarians. General Sheridan, by
whose side was standing, told me that he did not
remember ever to have heard such well sustained
small arms fire. it made itself heard above the
of the batteries at our feet
At noon precisely, the Prussian battery of six
guns on a slope above the broken railway bridge
over the Meuse, near La Naette, had silenced two
batteries of French guns at the foot of the bare hills,
already mentioned near the village of Floing. AT
lO1 theinfantry no longer supported by their own
artillery. were compelled to retire TO Floing, and
soon afterwards the junction between the Saxons
and Prussians behind Sedan was announced to us
by General Won Room, who eagerly peeping
through a large telescope, as being safely COM
pieted. From this moment the result of the battle
could no longer be doubtful, and the French were
completely surrounded and brought to bay.
At 1925 we were all astonished to clouds of
retreating French infantry on the hills between
Floing and Sedan, Prussan battery making good
practice with percussion shells among the Teced-
ing ranks. The whole hill for a few minutes was
literally covered with Frenchmen running ra-
pidly.
Less than half an hour after, at IL 50, General
Won Room called our attention to another French
column in full retreat TO the right OF Sedan the
road leading from Bazeile to La Gurenne wood.
They never halted until they got to small red
rooted house on the outskirts of Sedan itself AL
most at the same moment General Sheridan, who
was using my opera glass; asked me to look at q
third French column running up broad grass
road through La Gurenne wood, Immediately above
Sedan, doubtless TO support the troops defending
the important Bazeilles ravine to the northeast of
the town.
At one O'Clock the French batteries on the edge
of the woods toward Torey and above it opened a
vigorous fire on the advancing Prussian columns
OF the Sd corps, whose evident intention it was to
storm the hill northwest of La Gurrenne, and so
gain the key of the position on that side. AT 1.15
on the Prussian columns which were compelled to
keep shifting their ground until ready for their
final rush at the hills and in order to avoid Offering
good mark TO the rench shells. Shortly after
ward we saw the first Prussan skirmishers on the
not seem in strength, and General Sheridan, who
was standing behind me, exclaimed "Ah, the beg
gars are too weak they can never hold that position
against all those French"
The prophecy pro we'd correct, for the French,
advancing at least six to one, the Prussians were
forced TO retreat down the hill to seek reinforce
! ments from the columns which were huTrying to
| their support. In five minutes they came back
again, this time in greater force, but still terribly
| inferior to those huge French "Good
heaveus, the French cuirassiers going to charge
enough the whole regiment of cuirassiers, their
| helmets and breastpates, flashing in the sun,
! formed in sections Of sqnadrons, and dashed down
/ on the scattered Prussan slIirmshers without
deigning to form in line. Squares are never used
by the Prussan infantry.
They received the cuirassiers with a crushing,
quick fire, at about one hundred yards distance,
| loading and firing with extreme rapidity and un-
failing precision into the dense French squadrons
! The effect soon startling. Over went horses
and men in numbers in a mass, and the regiments
! of proud French cuirassiers went hurriedy back
| in disorder, faster than they came-went back
| scarcely regiment strong, and not at all regi-
ment in form. Its comely array was suddenly
changed into shapeless and helpless crowds of hy-
| ing men. The moment the cuirassers turned
back, the brave Prussians actually dashed forward
in hot pursuit at a double quick, the infantry
plainly pursuing the flying cavalry Such thing
has not often been recorded in the annals of war.
| know not where example precisely like thii
has occurred. There was no more striking episode
in the battle.
After the French infantry saw their cavalry thus
falling before the foot soldiers, they in their turI
came forward and attacked the Prussans who
waited quietly enduring rapidly telling ire from
the Chassepots until their enemies had drawn with
in one hundred yards from them, and then they re-
turned with the needle gun the rapid fire from the
Chassepots, and the French infantry could no more
endure the Prussian fire than the cavalry The in
fantry fed in its turn and followed the cavalry Il
the place from whence they came-that is behind
the ridge, some five hundred yards on the way tC
Sedan, where the Prussian mtrailleuse with their
teasing fire could no longer reach them.
The great object of the PTussians gained
hill, they fought TO hold against cavalry, the
Prussans persuaded themselves that it was possible
to establish artillery on this hill.
y n mr. M WA va1 n