Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-09-09
THE FIRST PRUssIAE vIcTOR1Es.

Gasefts, with the French army, write
to that paper under date of Angus
Another battle, two more battles
fighting all along the line something
like this runs the record of yesterday
The Prussians followed up their Victo
lry of Thursday at Wiessenburg bs
pressing on to Reichshoffen (neal
| Woerth), }, where they gained another
triumph yesterday, or rather, on that
| day achieved success in two separate
engagements, one at Reichshoffen
another before Saarbruck.
On the evening of the 5th, just after
! l had closed my last, this whole COM
immunity, military and civil, was sci
boiling furiously By news of the sPrus-
| slams advance. Early on the 9th we
| were aroused by the din Of prepare
ton.
/ left my ds1sHNe,- half eonsummated,
seized my hat and lorguette and rushed
forth to see what could see.
| Everywhere / went I saw the most
exciting scenes. I stepped into a
shop to let an artillery company dash
by. A regiment of red legged infantry
soon followed at double quick. The
jolly camp [ strolled through the 9th.
er day was deserted. The dogs were
picking up the scraps of food, and a
misera bic being who reminded me oil
Hugo's Jean Vatican, was hooking
up rags. Business was extinct. Only
the doors of the shops were open. The
| shopkeepers stood about In groups
conversing. but their conversation was
un-Frenchly solemn. A gloom was in
the atmosphere. We breathed it. TAX
ing the high road In an ambulance, a
/ party of us were soon jolting over the
/ hills around st. Avoid. The very
clouds seemed to huddle together into
angry aspects. The giant face of a
mailed warrior came out over the west
ern horizon. The day wore on and
the Prussians came on. The scene of
the affair before Saarbru3k, where the
Emperor saw the first throw of his hor-
rid game, and the Prince picked up the
bullet, was near. But Saarbruck saw
another sight. The wave of war came
up out of the forest in Bavaria, day
before yesterday, swept over the hills
of Spikeren the day following. Near
er and nearer came the terrifying thun-
der; and terrifying it is-nothing is
more terrifying than the thunder of
artillery. It makes the blood rise and
the hair stand and the legs run-my legs
at least.
The first engagement came off near
the little town of Reichshoffen, were
Marshal Mcmahon, at the head of the
1st Corps, was attacked about 9 o'clock
in the morning by the Third German
army, under the Crown Prince of
Prussia
At the first onset the dash of the
chasseurs and the desperate valor of
the Tureos aVailed the French might
ly, but after four or five hours of fierce
fighting McMahon had the mortifica-
ton of seeing his army give way. By
this time the wave of battle had spread
out right and left over great extent
of country, touching Woerth on the
north and Haguenau on the south.
The Prussians had the advantage Of a
woodland, which seemed to contain
an ineXhaustible number of Germans.
There was charge upon the swarm
ing forest by the cuirassiers. but they
were quickly turned back and over
whelmed. There was a bayonet charge
by the ID Regiment of the savage Tur-
cos, who did terrible execution. but
who also were overpowered and com
Pelled TO retreat There seemed to be
an adaptation for fighting in.the woods
on the part Of the Kings army. When
the French attempted to enter. or even
to draw near, every tree seemed to dis
gorge a squad of soldiers armed with
the needle gun, which was used ICON
trary to French xpectations) with won
derful skill and ease.
In artillery also the Prussians were
irresistible. They handled their pie
ces with anaexpertness that astonished
the French commanders. The fatality
on both sides was fearful.
But that the French troops behaved
grandly during the fight there can be
no doubt. Indeed for two hours or
more they held their own with mag
nifcent determination against superior
numbers, and performed as great feats
of valor and endurance as they did on
any historic field.
However, their defeat was complete,
and when the rout beganit was a scene
of tumultuous confusion. It was a
| spectacle of absolute disorder. The
roads to the rear were filed with rush
ing, tumblng, yelling, screaming sol e
diers mixed with citizens fleeing from
the ruins or the ashes of their Gotta
ges.
gagement before Saarbruck. Gen.
Frossard, whose capture of the heights
| thereabout l described, was also at
| tackled and routed with horrid
slaughter. The consequence is that
| the right wing of the French army is
broken and twisted into a shapeless
mass, while its center is smashed be-
vond recognition. And then. while
! 80 & = "a 4 o{a II rvo-,, !
| back upon Metz, the other was obliged
to retreat on Saverne-the former
going west, the latter south. This
cuts the Emperor off from Mcmahon
with whom there is at this moment no
communication. The Crown Prince
has literally come like a wedge into
the ranks of the French, splitting
them asunder, and driving the strokes
home with such velocity and VigoI
that the Emperor's throne is rocking
to its foundation, the boy and his bull
| let are forgotten, orders have gone to
put Paris in a state of siege, and con-
sternation fills the empire.
The fighting continued with occa-
sional and awfully solemn intermis,
sions from the beginning to the end OF
that never to be forgotten Saturday
Then the sun went down, the clouds
rolled up, the moon shone, and there
was no sound in all the woods ol
Alsace, or on all the heights Of Spiker'
en-, save the groans of the wounded
or their cries for water, and the curses
| Of peasants sitting on the roadside with
out shelter for the night or bread fol
the morning.
The battle, or the series Of bat
ties which have added the 9th Of Au
} gust to the long list of bloody days il
the calendar of France, covered SOM
80 miles of front, and embraced
great variety of topography. The bat
tlefield at Reiehshoffen is bounded b,
! the woods on the one side and th
Vosges Mountains on the other. Th
} theater of Frosard's defeat have al
READY described as the picturesque val
: ley Of the Moselle, and the lofty hill
: that command the valley aud river, an
the towns beyond in Rhenish Bavaris