THE RETREAT OF THE DANES FROM THE DANNEWERKE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1230, 3 May 1864, Page 2

THE RETREAT OF THE DANES FROM THE DANNEWERKE.

The special correspondent of The, Times with the Danish army, accompanied that army in its hasty retreat from the Dannewerke on the night of the sth inst., and has given a graphic description of the horrors of the retreat. Accepting the offer of a captain of artillery, the correspondent took a seat in a military van. He continues:— " The wind was so chill and violent, the melting snow in our faces was so blinding, that, in spite of my multitudinous wrappings, I soon found my seat in the open van intolerable, and alighted, together with the motley crowd from thousands of vehicles (not two of which were covered, and took my place in the line of march by the side of my brave captain, who had also quitted the saddle, and was tramping along, now at the head, now at the rear of his battery. It was not long before our march began to exhibit, on a small scale, some of the horrors of the famous retreat of the French from Moscow. The night was dark, the cold terrible; the thermometer, I dare say, did not mark more than four or five degrees below the freezing-point, but the chill in our veins told a very different tale, and the slipperiness of the road was perfectly awful. The snow, which was falling thick and fast at frequent intervals, lay in the field three or four inches deep, and fringed the trees in the forests with the most picturesque fretwork ; but it was trodden to the thinnest layer by all the feet, hoofs, and wheels of a whole host, till it glistened like ice in the occasional gleam of some pale Btar, as one or two peeped out in the sky through the gap opened in the mass of clouds by the fitful blast. Dragoons, artillerymen, and all who travel on saddle were dismounted ; even led horses were put to the direst exertions to keep their footing; draught horses had to be held up, and cannons, caissons, ammunition or luggage-waggons to be dragged by the sheer strength of men, whose tread was no steadier. The falling of men and beasts, the cracking of wheels and axle-trees, was prodigious. It took us full nine hours to go over the first Danish mile and a half (less than seven English) of ground. Morning broke upon us long before we were halfway between Schleswig and Flensburg, and we reached the latter place about four o'clock p.m. on Saturday, having accomplished the whole distance of twenty-two English miles in eighteen hours. The halt at Flensburg was of only two hours. Soon after dark we were again toiling onwards in the direction of Krasau and Gravenstein; we reached the latter place at about eight a.m., after a second night rehearsing all the horrors of the previous one in an aggravated form, and only came to the end of our journey here at sunset last evening, after little less than forty-eight hours' unmitigated suffering. The cutting wind, the drifting snow, the darkness, the slipperiness of the roads, were the same throughout. Even at Sonderburg, even the streets and open places of the town and environs, where horses had to be picketed, and the soldiers to lie by their side as they best could, men and cattle had to strive hard with the treacherous ground; they had to weather the furious storm as Heaven sent it, not a few of them cursing in their hearts the madness of kings, who must needs go to war and must needswage war in deep winter! Ihavetouched in a few words, and without the least exaggeration, on the hardships and difficulties the Danish army had to contend with in its retreat, because I think, on the whole, that this retreat was effected in as admirable order as Could be expected under the circumstances, and these brave troops evinced throughout a hardy spirit and a manly endurance above any high praise that my poor pen could bestow upon it. We had not gone half a mile from Schleswig before we found a very heavy piece of siege artillery forsaken on the road. The eight horses which dragged it had become, owing to the state of the roads, as powerless as so many new littered kittens, and all the efforts of the men to share the work with them had proved unavailing. In the same manner, as we advanced on our dismal march, we, who were in the rear, came up with broken carriages, dismounted caissons, and horses falleu never to rise. The obstruction to our progress was indescribable. We moved inch by inch ; it was one step, two steps, and a halt, and especially at night, as we approached some krog, or publichouse, the throng of conveyances, especially of sutlers and other camp followers of every description who insisted upon stopping on the highway to feed their cattle, could not be broken through either by entreaty or menace, by love or force. Human selfishness, improvidence, cowardice, could not fail to exhibit their most hideous features an this occasion, as in other great calamitous occurrences. I passed wretches on the road, on the second night, who lay on the stones by the wayside, regardless of the snow that was covering them like a pall. I roused some of them, trying to awaken them to their danger, but in vain, and went my way, shrugging my shoulders, speculating on the awaking which might or might not await them in the morning. How many may have perished by the cold, how many of the horses and how much of the materiel were left behind, I have no means to tell, but I am sure all .was done that human valour and determination could achieve. Not a little confusion, indeed, reigned during the night, but order came in the morning. The battalions of infantry marched steadily and compactly in their ranks; the men, who, in the midst

of their sufferings, had no reason to complain of hunger, toiled on resolutely; the houses, hospitably open to them on the road, did not lure them to unreasonably long delays. Whenever any delay or obstruction on the road occurred of any inconveuient length, the sight of an officer—the clear, sharp, ringing voice of my friend, the artillery captain, for instance, who showed throughout an energy and strength of will perfectly indomitable —had on the few laggards all the effect of a trumpet. Up they started, ready and willing, more instantly amenable to duty and subordination than any other troops I ever marched with. I have now seen regiment after regiment coming in, not much the worse for their forty-eight hours' dreadful wear and tear."

In a subsequent letter from the Danish position in Alsen, the same writer describes the state of public opinion in Denmark respecting the retreat, the tone of the army, and the prospects of the combatants. We make the following extracts:— " There are not a few here who look upon the whole war in Schleswig as a mere farce, in which His Majesty Christian IX. has been playing a prominent part. The retreat from the Dannewerke, they surmise, was a settled matter at the time the King left Schleswig on the night of "Wednesday, the 3rd, two days before orders were given for the evacuation of the Dannewerke. His proclamation,

which here bears the date of the Bth, was already out in the Copenhagen papers on the 6th. It bore in Copenhagen the signature of Monrad, the Prime Minister, which is here suppressed, and some sentences about ' all hopes of foreign aid being abandoned,' which have been carefully expunged in the latter publication at head-quarters. Altogether the king and Government are charged with having unfairly dealt with the army. The word ' treason,' which was shouted by the Copenhagen mob at the top of their voices, is uttered here in low, but ominoua murmurs. Ido not suppose, however, that there was any treachery in the case—only great irresolution and helplessness. The Danish Government thought it was due to their honour to resent the peremptory intimation of Field-Mprshal "Wrangel, and to make some show of defending the Dannewerke. They hoped by such spirited conduct to win the applause of Europe, and to determine the movement of those allies who had flattered them with vague hopes of succour. But when they clearly understood, though too late, that foreign aid was altogether out of the question, and they were alone in the struggle, and that their small army was not only unequal to the task of holding the Dannewerke, but even ran the greatest risk of being attacked in the rear and having its retreat cut off, they gave orders for a retreat, which, to say nothing of the stain it left on the honour of the Danish arms caused them losses as severe as a pitched battle. The noble behaviour of the army, and their heroic endurance of the hardships of that disastrous march, saved it from the worst consequences of blundering generalship. The army is unbroken in strength and spirit, and no more than 2000 men are missing out of the whole 80,000. The field artillery and most of the lighter materiel are safely housed in Alsen; but all Schleswig, Frederickstadt, and the forts of the Dannewerke, with all their armament and ammunition, are gone, and the Danish army must either await the enemy's attack in this last stronghold, or limit itself to the desultory operations of what is called the petite guerre. " The Danes are anxious for a good fair trial of strength with their enemies, and the mere apprehension of a cessation of hostilities is gall and wormwood to them. They feel sure that the advantages of their present position here fully counterbalance the fearful numerical odds by which they might so easily have been overwhelmed at the Dannewerke. The constant march, the incessant outpost duty, at the latter stronghold wore out their strength and spirits; but here the service is done alternately by the various regiments, which are thus allowed sufficient rest, and are quartered at their ease about the farms of the island. Under such circumstances the soldiers are lively and merry, and eager for the fray. Their antipathy is especially strong against the Prussians, in whom they recognize the foes they combated in 1849, and to whose ambition they refer all the calamities of Denmark. Two hussars of the Zietheuschen Regiment were brought in prisoners yesterday, and the satisfaction with which the Danish soldiers gazed at their Prussian uniforms spoke volumes as to their feelings " On one point my expectations have been, utterly and most satisfactorily disappointed. I had been so often and so generally assured by my German friends that the soldiers recruited in Schleswig and Holstein would be sure 'to pass over to the euemy, or even fire on their Danish officers,' that I had almost been induced to believe it. Yet the retreat from the Dannewerke offered the best chances for mischief to the disaffected, and here we have whole battalions of Schleswigers with not one man missing, and as attentive to their duties, as ready to follow their officers against Prussians and Austrians as any of the soldiers of the Ist Regiment, who are enlisted among the Copenhagen citizens. . . . " On the mere side of the Germans the war ought to be considered at an end, and thesubject in dispute might safely be referred to diplomatic arbitration. But it is otherwise with the Danes, who have little to hope from negociation, now they would come into court as the conquered party, while they think that their enemy's victory is by no means assured, and that their own time to retrieve their fortunes and to balance gains and losses has come. 'The Austro-Prussians possess the whole duchy, they can overrun the whole peninsula,' the Danes allow ; ' but they will hardly be free in their movements without masking the strong position of Alsen by placing an army of observation of 20,000 men on the isthmus of the Sundewitt peninsula at Gravensteiu, aud investing Fredericia, on the Jutland frontier, with 10,000 more.' By their command of the sea, the Danes Hatter themselves they will always have it in their power, not only-to land small forces ot 6000 or 7000 men, wherewith to harass their enemy at the various points where the inlets or fords of Kiel, Eckernforde, the Schlei, Flensburg, Apenrade, and Hadersleben offer them many advantages, but also to carry on a destructive maritime war against the German ports in the Baltic and their shipping in ail the Northern seas. Already tlie Danish cruisers have fallen in with more than one fair German prize, and an embargo has been laid on the vessels of the enemy's mercantile marine at Elsinore. ' The war,' the Danes contend, ' is in a great measure at an end for the Germans; but it is only beginning for ourselves.'"