Bridgeton pioneer., 1885-09-03
THE RED PRINCE.
The Effect of His Advent Upon the
Field of Battle.

Field of Battle.
The first time that | ever saw Prince
Frederick Charles, says q writer liz the
London NeoOS, was on the afternoon of
the battle of Mars la Tour. About
noon on that bloody day Bazaine out
there in front of the auberge of Grave
lotte had bidden adieu to his master,
the emperor, and had ridden forward
on to the great plain on whose face lie
the villages of Flavigny, Vionville,
Mars Ia Tour, and Rezonville, to find
that the Prussians were standing
athwart the plateau blocking the on
ward march of his army toward Ver-
dun; that indeed hours before Alvens-
leben had bidden Reinbaben commence
the offensive with his Brankenburger
horsemen. For five hours desperate
battle had been raging furiously. AL
vensleben had been indeed true to his
duty. With his single army corps dur
ing those dreadful hours of fighting
and slaughter, he had been barring the
progress of the whole French army.
Five and twenty thousand Germans,
out there mostly on the bare plain, had
given pause to a hundred thousand
Frenchmen. But at what cost! AL
vensleben's two divisions, Stulpnagel's
and Buddenbrock' had lost one-third
of their strength. The infantry had
been so pressed that he had been fore
ed to adopt the terrible expedient of
hurling cavalry at the muzzles of the
chassepots. From Bredow's gallant
horsemen he had not asked too much;
they had achieved their mission; they
had pierced line after line of French
infantry, and had sabered the gunners
of the batteries behind; but they had
ridden back into their positions short
by one-half of the strength with which
they had commenced their heroic
charge. The village of Flavigny was
a shamble, its cutters running in blood.
The plain around it was strewn thick
Alvensleben with anxious eye scan the
verge of the plateau for reinforcements;
for he was engaged up to the hilt-not
a man stood in reserve. He was hold
ing on grimly, but it was with the grip
almost of despair.
At the head of the ravine up which
the road winds from Gorze down in
the valley on to Flavigny up there on
the plateau, lay among the brush
wood watching the lurid scene. Sud-
denly behind me on the steep ascent
of the road l heard the clatter of many
troops. A cavalcade was approaching
at hand gallop. Out to the front
alone rode a square-shouldered chief
in red tunic, sitting the big bay with
firm, easy seat His strong lined
for inf oo1y,,. ha
over his shoulder to the man riding on
his flank. 1t was Prince Frederick
Charles, at the head of his staff, who
had ridden up from Mont-a-M Mousson,
following his own maxim of moving
direct upon the cannon thunder. Out
on to the bare plateau he rode, among
the whistling bullets and bursting
shells, and as if by instinct galloped
straight for the knoll behind FIavigny,
where Alvensleben stood in the fire
surrounded by what remained of his
staff.
1t was strange, but as if by the ad-
vent of this one man the face of the
battle magically changed. Broken
troops fell into order and began to
push forward. The batteries massed
and concentrated their fire on points
where it told. Reinforcements he had
ordered as he had ridden forward
came hurrying on to the plateau, and
joined in the fight, cheering as they
deployed and opened fire. LIE Beuf
had been pressing down from the
northward and threatening Alvens-
leben's flank, but now Kraatz-Kosch-
lan's battalions were available to con-
front him, and when they had been
too severely punished to maintain their
position headlong cavalry charge
crumpled up the head of LIE Beuf's at
tack. The sun went down on a field
retrieved for the Germans by the cool,
skillful generalship of Prince Frederick
Charles. In the twilight he swept his
front clear by the charge of cavalry
division in line, and then the wearied
soldiers were able to take up their biv-
ouacS.