The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1895-11-12
BATTLE OF SEDAN.
GRAPHIC STORY OF a HISTORIC
AND BLOODY CONFLICT
The French, Walled In by Human
wise, Charged Madly Again
and Again Against Prus-
sia's Armies.
wENTY- FIVE years 400 the
battle of Sedan was fought.
With Gettysburp and Watar-

'ciudl Hres, M encounter that was the
turning point of n mighty war. As
Waterloo shattered the power of the
First Napoleon and Gettysburg
checked forever the advance of Gener.
al Lee, SO Sedan tore into fragments the
hopes Of the French Nation in the
Franco-Prussian combat, reduced to II
Ieaderless legion the one effective
! army of France, and on the instant
| threw the frontier and the road to
Paris wide open.
1t did even more. 1t carried into
| captivity, gilded, but no less terrible,
the man on whom the destiny of
France was hanging at that moment,
an Emperor, proud and regal, the
third monarch to bear the name since
| Napoleon the First had held Europe
III his grasp when the century was new.
When the stern old Bismarck, then in
his heyday of statecraft and wary
shrewdness, uttered his fiat on the
evening of that eventful day, when n
white tablecloth was flying over the
citadel OF Sedan, proclaiming II truce,
there was nothing left for Napoleon
the Last to do but to surrender him
self and his army into captivity. De-
scribing the battle the World writer
says:
But little awaited. or could avail.
against the steadiness of the Prussian
attack, the massing of men on three
sides OF the army of the French EN-
| peror (the River Meuse was the fourth
side). The dark coats that set off the
fair hair and fair skins of the Teuton-
&c troops were always everywhere If
the fire from the mitrailleuses moved
them down, others sprang up VERT
ably from out Of the ground and stood
III their stead. The French light cav
airy did wonders, but the Prussians
came from the summit of the hills.
and the rush down was easy. Their
terrible momentum gave them resist
less force.
Yard by yard, rod by rod, the
French were getting hemmed in.
Their fighting space hourly grew
smaller. The calm, cool Prussian gen.
eral on the hilltop gazed across the
battle with his telescope. But Won
Moltke did not need to send out fresh
men ana fresh supplies. All that he
had done before. The two armies
Tor they were armies rather than CORPS
commanded by the Crown Prince of
Prussia and the Saxon Prince. were
beginning to meet. wall was being
formed round Sedan, wall of dark
German conts that the French, try
their best, could not break. They
dashed against it uselessly, as the
waves of the ocean dash against the
well-huilt breakwater. There was
only failure before them But with
wild cries they rode and ran to their
death.
Shells from the batteries on the hills
/ were breaking all over Sedan and the
little strip of ground surrounding it.
which the French still called their
own. They were silencing the French
guns and making vast field of the
! dead. The tri-colors were battered
md shotriddled. The hospitals in
| Sedan were getting crowded. Pack
ages of lint, splints, congresses, band
ages, chloroform, cerate and open
surgical cases with line after line of
| glittering instruments were on every
hand within the town.
The little villagein the valley of the
Meuse, Bazeilles, had been carried at
last by the Bavarians. There was n
scene OF carnage there hardly describ-
! able. Crash after crash of musketrv
resounded and walls were splashed
with blood from base to coming.
From every gutter came tue death
rattle of men in their last agony.
Houses and furniture were satin.
rated with petroleum and blazed ND
into magnificent bonires that lighted
splendidly and picturesquely the
| streets now running with blood. Be
| hind shutters, doors, street corners.
anywhere, the few French soldiers
that remained were taking their last
shots at the Prussians. 1t was pande.
monium on great and mighty scale,
Dantesque conception of the In
ferno, only more highly colorod.
Famous even to-day have come
! down to history the charges of the
French Hussrs. General Mnrpuer-
| lite, their commander, had been car
ried of the field terribly wounded, q
musket ball having passed through
both cheeks, tearing away a portion
of the tongue and palate. He could
not speak, but he waved his arm fero-
cinusly over toward the enemy'slin
| His men were in n mad fury. They
yelled in chorus, cit is our general
Ayengo him avenge him !"
Thercupon the colonel OF tho first
regiment of Hussars swung his sabre
aloft, yelling in terrible voice:
"Charge ="
Towards the Prussian squares the
squadron flung themselves in head
long gallop. The Chasseurs d'Afrique
sounded their wild Arab cry md their
| stced5 tore on like unclaimed demons.
| Their officers shouted out, "Keep
touch OF knees Keep touch Of
kneesl" The ranks had the riejditv
of n wall of granite. A storm of bui.
lets ratified on casque and breast
plate, on scsbbard and buckle like
hailstones.
The line broke at five hundred
yards from the Prussian squares. The
leading squadron was almost decimal
! - on the instant. Horses and men
vest down in one wild, struggling