The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-08-01
RHlNELANp,s RED PRINCE.
tI.on<scn Daily News.,

The 6Tst time l ever sAw Prince Fred eSick Charles was on the afternoon of the battle of Mars la Tour. About noon on that bloody day BaRaine out there in front of the snherge of Gravelotte had bidden Adieu to his master, the emperoF, and had ridden forward to the great plain on whose face lie the villages of Flavigny. nouville, Mars la Tour. and Reaouvilie to find that the Prussians were standing athwart the plateau block ing the outward march of his army to- ward Verdun that indeed, hours before Alive nsieben had bidden Reinhaben com mence the offensive with his Branden- burger horsemen. For five hours des- peraie battle had been raging fuTiously. Alvenslebea had been, indeed. true to his duty. With his single army corps during those dreadful hours of Sighting and slaughter he had been barring the progress of the whole French army. Five and twenty thousand Germans. out there mostly on a bare plain, had given pause to a hundred thousand Frenchmen. But at what cost. Avensleben's two divi- sions, Slulnagels and Baddenhrock's had los, one-third ot their strength. The in- tantTy had been so pressed that he had been forced to adop, the terrible expe. dient of hurling cavalry at the muIsles of tho chassepots, From Bredow's gallant horsemen he had no, asked too much they had achieved their missions; they had pierced line after line of French ln. tantry, and had sabred the guuners of the batteries behind but they had ridden back to their positions short by one halt of the strength with which they had ccm- menced thelr heroic charge. The village of Flavigny was a shambles, its gutters runniog blood. The plan around it was strewn thick with dead and wounded.
 We'll might Alvensleben with anxious eyes scan the verge of the plateau for Te. Inducements, for he was engaged up to the hllt lt-not a man stood Iu reserve.
 He was holding on grimly, but it was the giip almos, 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, l lay among the brushwood watching the lurid scene. Suddenly behind me on the steep ascen, of the road heard the clat. ter of many troops. A cavAicade was approaching at gallop. Out to the front alone square-shouldercd chief in
 red tunic, Sllting his big bay with a ! frm, easy seat. His strong lined face was intent, yet calm he spoke ove: h;s shoulder to the man riding on his flank.
 IL was Prince Frederick Charles, at the l1ead of his staff, who had ridden up from
 Pont a Mousson, following his own maxim
 of moving directly to and upon the can-
 non thunder. Out on the bare plateau he rode, among the whistling bullets and the bursting shells, and as fl by instinct
 salloped straight for the knoll behind Fiavlpny, where Alvensleben stood in the fire surrounded by what remained of his staff.
 It was strange, but, as if by the advent magically changed. Broken troops fell
 into order and began to push forward. The batteries massed aud concentrated
 their fire on points whese 1t told. Rein
 forcements 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.
 LeBeuf had been pressing down from the northward, and shreatenin, Aivens- leben's flank; but now kraats- KoschlAn's s b battalions were available to confront him, ! and when they had been too severely
 punished to maintain their position, a he adlong cavalry charge crumpled up the head of LeBGuf's attack. The sun
 went dewu on field retrieved for the ; Germans by the cool, skillful generalship of Prince Frederick Charles. ID the twilight he swept his front clear by the charge of a cavalry division, and then , the wearied soldiers were able to bivouac. : Two days later, on the i8th of August, was fought the battle of CrAvelotte, a less
 bloody, but more momentous combat
 than Mars la Tour. On that morn 'ng.
 Prince Frederick Charles was stirring
 early in his quarters at Buxieres, to keep the five o'clock rendezvous he had given l. his corps command-rs, that they might
 receive his instructions as to the setting
 of the battle in order. What a subject for painter, that morning gathering of the German leaders under the poplar trees on the chaussee between Vionvile and Mars Ia Tour, with the " Red Prince" in their centre, brusque curt and emphatic Around the group, coming over . new slaughter, lay the ghastly evidences of the past in the groups of dead that yet awaited burial. K -en eyed handsome faced prince of SAxony; stolidlooking August of Wuremburg; Avensieben, the aristocrat, with thin, clear cut fea. lures and bright hawk eye; Weights
 Rhetz win the shrewd, keen look Of lowIand Scot Manstein, grim, gray, and determined-theses stood in a roughly
 def1ed semi-cicie, with their horses heads turned inward, and there ad- dressed them in short, crisp sent enees. the square, upright man on the poweY- ful bay. The Red Pnnce" iet his hand fall on his thigh with an audible blow, foi he was very heavy handed in every sense --this stai~au man, with massive hair-ciad jaw, the strong, wide mouth, and piercing eye under the aSching fore head, broad and square. You could s-aroeiy fancy him as a fnend you would surely fancy him less as an esemy.
 He did not detAin his generals long ' sss.AA< hha ra<.ulxx (l Al akMn