The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-03
Germanx,s Peasant Army.

Ine people ndO SOlle dHSou oL eiSAi king, and were fighting the French on their own account and in their own fashion long before they had received orders from Breslau. The French gar rison of Magdeburg sought to send out parties in order to place that fortress in state to withstand siege, but these were successfully repulsed by the peas ants. who organized as volunteers, and fought for their king on the banks of the Elbe as Andreas Hofer had done in the Austrian Alps four years before. They fought with matters about their necks, for they we'll understood that in case of capture they would be executed as brigands.
 A place of honor must be given to the peasants of two little villages near the right bank of the Elbe, about fifteen miles northeasterly of Madgeburg. Schartau and Neigrupp are their names, but they are not to be found on the map. In the annals of 1913, however, they de- served well of their country, for they played role full as courageous as did Concord and Lexington in 1775. Al ready in March, 1913, they had equipped between them three hundred men afoot and as many more mounted Their leader was the Lutheran pastor. On the heights they placed tar-barrels, and when the enemy was noticed, signals were flashed from point to point, and every peasant fell into the ranks with whatever weapon he could muster lance or musket, axe or scythe. Men of seventy marched beside lads of fifteen.
 The sandy soil of Brandenburg pro- duces a peasantry unequalled for moral and physical courage. They are slow to stir, but when once in motion their march is irresistible. We shall see more of them later on. On April the 9th these peasants successfully checked a column of three thousand French who attempted to cross the Elbe some fifty miles below Madgeburg. Their leader was the chief citizen of the place. All this was happening without the author ity of the Prussian king, without even his knowledge.
 Stettin was another strong place still held by the French. It was then, as It is now, an important Baltic port at the mouth of the Oder At Kustrin, fur ther up the river, the French held still another fortress; and Napoleon was most anxious to maintain communica- tion between the two places pending the arrival of relief. So, on April IS, 1S1s a corps of six thousand French started from Stettin on their march of seventy miles to Kustrin. So far as the king was concerned there was nothing tc prevent this important expedition re. sulting successfully for Napoleon; but the people on the Oder, as on the Elbe themselves took up the quarrel. Ac- cording to one local report: 'tAt ten o'clock we received our orders, and by two o'clock the ranks were filed The principal farmers and the pastor went ahead. And thus We marched out singing as we tramped along"
 On the way they met a gang of work men engaged upon the canal connect ing the Oder with the Spree. These al once left the business of canal-repair- ing, shouldeued their axes, crowbars and picks, and marched away behind the Lutheran pastor in search of a fight with the Frenchman. Farm wagons followed in the rear, filled with food stuff, and also something to drink There was no military chest; each citi- zen paid himself as best he could. Tn the lead was carried a whita flag with g black cross upon it, and under this ban ner the peasants of the lower Oder won a glorious victory, that proved that though Prussia at Jena lost an army she did not lack brave men in other walks of life. The six thousand Frenchmen were beaten back, five hun. dred were taken prisoners, and all this cost the king not one penny With the five hundred muskets captured a picked body of sharpshooters was armed and drilled for further useful. ness.
 What was done on the Elbe and the Oder was repeated in hundreds of other parts of the country, and caused the French enormous loss, albait each indi. vidual disaster was too insignificant te figure in a, serious history-From "The German Struggle for Liberty" by Poultney Bigelow, in Harper's Maga. zine for February.
 
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