The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-04-18
THE BATTLE OF SEDAN.
Victor HuEo's Description OF the Great
German Victory.

| peIuaps, buey COnIeSs 10 naVlnB ZOU,UUU
men, but it is certain that their line OF
attack was thirty kilometres in length;
they hold the positions, crowd the
heights, fill the forests, they are covered
by all the sleeps, they are masked by all
the shadows, they have matchless artil-
fery. The French army is in hollow,
almost without artillery and ammuni-
tion, naked under their grape-shot. The
Germans have ambush on their side, the
French have on theirs nothing but he
roism. 1t is fine thing to die, but
good thing to surprise.
This achievement at arms is O sur
prise.
Is it fair war ? Yes, but il this be fair
war, what is foul war =?
The same thing.
Thus much said, the battle of Sedan
is recounted.
We would stop here. But we cannot.
Great though the horror of the historian
be, history is duty, and duty must be
| fulfilled. There is no more imperious
slope than this; to tell the truth, who
ever ventures upon it rolls to the bot
tom. 1t must be SO. The Judge is
doomed to justice.
The battle of Sedan is more than
battle which is fought; it is syllogism
which finishes itself; dread premedita-
tion of destiny. Fate never hurries, but
always attains it's goal. Its hour strikes
and it is there. 1t let's years go by, then,
when least thought of, it appears. Sedan
is the fatal unexr ected. From time to
time, in history, divine logic makes sor-
ties. Sedan is one Of these sorties.
So, on the LIST of September, at five
o'clock in the morning, the world awoke
under the sun and the French army
under the thunderbolt.
Bayeilles takes fire, Givonne takes
fire, Fioing takes fire; the thing begins
by a furnace. The whole horizon is
ahame. The French camp is in this
crater, stupefed, scared, startled, in
funeral swarm. A ring of thunderbolts
encircles the army. determination hens
it in.
This immense murder is carried on on
all sides at once. The French resist,
and they are terrible, for they have
nothing left them but despair. Our guns,
almost all old-fashioned and carrying
badly, are Immediately dismounted by
the terrible and precise aim of the Prus-
slams. The density of the rain of shells
upon the valley is such that the earth
is ruled" says witness, " as by rake. t"
How many guns? Eleven hundred, at
least. Twelve German batteries on the
Moncelle only; the third and fourth
a6theilung, frightful artillery on the
crests of Givonne. with the Second Horse
Battery in reserve; opposite Doigny, ten
Saxon and two Wurtemberg batteries;
the curtain of trees in the wood north of
Vlllers-C s-Cernay conceals the mounted
a6theiJung with the Third Heavy Artil-
lery as a reserve, and from this gloomy
thicket is poured formidable fire; the
twenty-four pieces of heavy artillery
form battery in the clearing near the
road from La Moncelle to La Chapelle;
the battery of the Royal Guard sets fire
to the wood de la Garenne; the bombs
and the bullets riddle Suchy, Franche-
val, Fauru-Saint Rerny, and the valley
between Heibes and Givonne; and the
triple and quadruple row of guns ex-
tend, without break, to the calvary of
lily, the most remote point of the hori-
zon.
| The German soldiers, seated or re-
cumbent before the batteries, look upon
the artillery doing its work. The French
soldiers fall and die. Among the corpses
which cover the plane is one, that OF an
officer, upon which they find, after the
battle, sealed paper containing this
order, signed by Napoleon: "This Sep
tember l rest for the whole army" The
valiant Thirty fifth Regiment of the Line
disappears almost entirely under the
crushing mass OF shells; the brave mari
nes hold the Saxons and Bavarians in
check for an instvnt, but being overflow
ed on all sides, fall back; the whole ad-
mirable cavalry of Margueritte's Divi-
sion, hurled against the German infantry,
stops and breaks down when half way
on its road, exterminated, says the Prus-
sian report, "by well directed and quiet
fire." This filled of carnage has three
issues, all of which are closed: the Bouil-
lon road by the Prussian Guard, the
Carignan road by the Bavarians, and the
Mezrieres road by the Wurtembergers
The French have not thought of barricad-
ing the viaduct of the railroad; three Ger
man battalions have occupied it all night;
two isolated houses on the Balan road
might have been the pivot of prolonged
resistance, but the Germans hold them f;
the Montvillers Park, at Bayeilles, deep
and full of thick foliage, might have pre-
vented the Saxons, who are masters of
La Moncelle, and the Bavarians, who
are masters of Bayeilles from effecting a
junction, but the French have been fore
stalled, and the Bavarians are seen there,
cutting away the hedges with their
sickles.
The German army moves all of pieC g
with absolute unity: the Prince of Sax
ony is on the hill of Marry, whence he
commands the scene. In the French
army the command oscillates at the out.
set of the battle; at 5.45 McMahon is
wounded by the fragment of shell; at
seven o'clock Ducrot takes his place; at
ten o'clock Wimpfen takes Ducrot's.
From minute to minute the wall of
fire approaches, the thunder-roll is con-
tinuous, sinister pulverizing of 10000
men. Nothing like it was ever witness
ed-never did an army sink under such
falling mass of grape. At one o'clock
all is lost. The regiments take refuge,
pell-mell, in Sedan. But Sedan begins
to burn: LIE Disionval burns, the ambu-
lances burn; nothing but a dash
through the lines is possible. Wimpfen,
brave and firm, suggests it to the EN-
peror. The thirty-eight zouaves, mad
dened, have set the example, being
parted from the remainder of the army.
they have made their way through the
foe and reached Belgium. A phi ght of
lions.
Suddenly, above the disaster, above
the enormous heap of slain and dying
/