THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION

Otago Witness, Issue 657, 2 July 1864, Page 1

THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION

THB WAR 1~ BCHLKSWIG,

[From the ••■ Gtome NeWsl"]

Duppel has fallen at last under the persevering efforts of the Prussians. We will trace the main features of the siege leading tip to this result. The Prussians-^ second time, attempted to carry DUppel by a^ault, and were again nspulsecL Such was, in effect, the Iqbatonoe of the telegrams which reached «# in reference to the operations of March 93. We-htve beets furnished with both a German and a Danish version of .what otcunred on that day, but though, as sight hav^bestt^«ath!ipated, they differ they agree in the re■ult. At an hour so early ia the mornIng as to giffi to the attempt all the of a night attack; the Prusnati^ endeavoured to carry the Danish position ! fry surprise. They succeeded^ according to the admisiion of the Danish commander- 1 ti-chief; in penetrating between two <«f\4he lines of entrenchments, but mete •subsequently, compelled to retire. The German account- refers the initiative

- ia the engagement to the Danes, who attempted to dislodge a Prussian brigade Ifromatii position whi'h it had tucceedigd in occupying in the coarse of the preceding ' day. JBoth versions agree in stating the fighting to have been. most severe, and losses mutually inflicted to have been comparatively large. Both be- , siegers and besieged claim to hare made ' prisonerfl; and whilst the Danes allege

«re advancing <m Dybbol-iijl.. APiussuni telegram of the 19th of April estiraatea ihb Prussian loss; at sixty ~ offi^raV'-tid tipwardf of 1000 men;* and that Q&thtf Danes at 4000^ ineludingmpwards of <2000 prisoners.> Tbe^King, of Prussia Jiad-gbne to join the army: /ThefDjanislr account &i we main confirms these statements.;^ jf t BOKDJEB^OBQ A&BB THB BOMBAitbMJKI^ The following; graphic picture of :48m derborg w rains isjrom theletter of the" "Tunes" cprrespondent, dated April etn ;— ' _ We ft wetplled our way into tte town, we walked part the mills and the barracks, tnd tril/we reached our dear old dirty quarten at the Reymuth Hotel we saw that, although shells had lighted here and there and every where, the miscbieMone was Dot trifling, - A hole in the roof,or a Mattered window make,?, no, great difference in the outward look or w,th,e internal c^ 0 ?^ 1 ?? °^ a * OW V; but as,we ; nearca r the Swat Hamburg our jofd field post was a ««ap of rubbish; so was the Poste aux

that they repulsed the assailants, the latter assert that they succeeded in recovering and retaining the position from which the former endeavored to dislodge them. It is, however, abundantly clear, even on their own admission, that the Germans did not succeed in advancing their posts beyond the point which they occupied before the engagement began, and if we ascribe the attack, as is most probable, to them, we are driven to the conclusion that its object, i whatever it may have been, signally failed. 'The engagement is said to have lasted seven honm The fighting became hand-to-hand, the troops engaged using the butt ends of their muskets as well as the bayonet. The Danish ironclad Rolf Krake took an effective part in the contest. The German papers appear to lay great stress on the fact of the first parallel before Duppel having been completed in the night of the 30th March, without the work having been discovered by the Danes till the next morning. ' Five battalions of General Yon Cansein's brigade were detailed for this duty, which they succeeded in accomplishing with great celerity and in perfect silence, two battalions of the eame^brigade being pushed forward for the protection of the working party. The Boldiers in the trenches were agreeably surprised, the next morning to. receive a visit from the Crown Prince of Prussia, who came down to inspect tue work, and spoke a few kind words to themen. The Danes > fired a few shells, into the trenches, but, according to Prus^ stan accounts, without any . effect The Prussian outposts on duty on the other! side of the village, of East Duppe\ had I reached so close to the forts that they*' ex- j

Gbevaux, nearly opposite— -the red shield, with the royal arms, hanging on the door, wiw nearly all that still stood ; so were the dhouae*, each and t all, right and left, rtgrcn^bout the centre of the town, down to tfteßadhamor Council-hall ; the houses join the main street; the houses on the side artreets blanching up to the hill, or sloping j^wa to the sea— they were all wrecks; ■trTtTi a- chimney-shaft .alone was standing, there a front ;wall, there part of -the root still hung, shattered and tattered o» the main beam. Daylight had been struck through the narrow thoroughfares of the Sonderborg. The burgomaster and .the military engineers bad been for week*, busy opening a wide cross street from thttjTown-hall to the sea 5 but the .Prussians Had expedited ten times as much work in . hardly as many hours. There was something' almost exhilarating in that; broad space ; people rambled about in tlte ruina, wondering with grim delight how ; the neighbouring Ucalegon - ;£ad iared; There is always some secret savage pleasure fn the contemplation of devaata-

changed sigus with the Danish sentinels on the ramparts, and facetiously drank each other's health out of their, field^bqttjles. The bombardment of Duppet continued to be constantly kept up by the Prussians with more or less force from day to day. The famous windmill on Duppel Hill was burnt down early in April. Tbis building nsed to serve the Danes as a powder magazine and an observatory. Telegrams from the Prussian headquarters reported that many of the Danish batteries baH be£n; silenced, that several heavy pieces o? ord- f bance had been dismounted,' and' .that uch of the upper part of the entrench* eats had been destroyed. •; .' The siege works before the^DWdtf redoubts were so far advanced o^lbje 10th that a general attack appeared,'imminent. The Prussian trenches extended along the whole line from the Strait of Alsen-lo the Wenningbund, JJ;The fseconS parallel had been finished "fir some days before. The Prussians, however, had not constructed breaching batteries'^ properly so called; those established in the rear of the ; parallels appeared ' tpi be rather intended to support the. troops engaged in theassaulV. J_ telegram from Copenhagen reported that on the. s morning' of the ilth of April the Prussian*-, attempted an assault upon both the.^DanJsh* wings at Duppel, and that the attempt in each instance a complete failure. The c6m;manderUn-chief of the Danish forces/ had; made a report to the {flame effect/"' The r cannonade from the ; batteries* and approaches, he stated, drove b_ck the Prussiauis. The bombardment of the place was continued during the sub-

1 ' > •,<■'•-'."■ tion on a large scale. "As for myself, after two nights' unres^l felt my head in a glow^and my fancy pandered freely, con-: juring up old recollections of bafliejred Gaeta, and jumbling up those blackened shafts and crnmbling gables with the" stripped columns and 'riven" arches.-, of th> Roman forum.; ? less., thata'wbr w6 dwellings in one cluster, were ngfjfe ntmW uninhabitable ; :a%or6 'wefe r . : b»«S? to the ground, com* of them wes^'still crackling and reeking ;- the furnHure^ of many of them r rescued from the ruirisj was piled up,« miserable heap, -in the 1 midle of the street. People moved about gaane- the»r full, forgetting, their own errands in r speechless - contemplation of other peopled troubles. Business did not aeem to have ceased in the town'; life was not, to all appearance? extinct. Most •hops' were v open, never having bepn closed^ owners laid no claims to their property; nor did anybody covet vhat seemed to belong to nobody^ The^t#dfsßtr>et» sloping doym ottcithe> Hide of ? thie^dwM* hall were corapAratively utiiaJQre4--bu|

i sequent part of the day, and is represented to have been at least quite as violent ai on any former occasion. About 60>of the Danes were wounded. Intelligence from the Prussian headquarters states that on the night of April 13 some of the Prussian forces drove in the Danish outposts again, and entrenched themselves within 100 yards of the works. A tolerably sharp action seems to have taken place, and the Prussians positively i acknowledge a loss of about 28 men. The nearer the besiegers, approach the Danish works the greater the relative advantage to the Danish artillery, which, »t a ion* ..ranee, appears to have been almost entirely inefljictiye. Sonderborg was said t« have, been again in flames. : : • Copenhagen telegrams of April lfi deny that there exists any intention whatever to surrender or evacuate the Duppel ehtrenohments. The beaiegers may hive the plade when they cau take it— not before— appears to be the determined reply of Denmark to all suggestions of; surrender; Fresh troops^ are accordingly being despatched to the seat of war. The proximity of the Island of Alsen and the sea' affords peculiar facilities for^removals and xeiifc forcements. • • [

At last on the morning of April 18, the place fell.. On the jndfping; of that ■> d&f,' at 10 o'clock, says^atPrussian telegram, Dybbol was lost by tU Danes. The £ ieU-de-pont was gallantly' dtjfeftded, but was abandoned in the afternoon. The bridge* were destroyed. Oue general, six colonels, several officers, and tfipxk 2000 men are: dead, wounded, and missing. Alsen is still defended by. the Danej. The Prussian*

7*<Y .. v --UV -^ : .-r-,«^-J.they were the dullest and moat de«€rtedi» ' $m£ tow » f cUsfcrfct^: * All ,? &ta£rtl : - on those i ? poor fira^menti Of the centre; At ttiat \mdbw u^a to ait, 'Sna jsst tillplasf eveninft a preW milliner, th'ejaosßrnm^l 1 "* Wthe.town!: Tnew; pafltrthat gateway, that good old doctor r «Tfan^ieat by. the; positfeD^of 'Ws^iiiw^ the enemy's flw. "'-Where are the lieS homesiare no mpre^ r^thatJiptise General Gerlach dhied only ; frirther, tie officers' of the ateff swelcoiried you with ii friendly smile noj; 24\ hoars, nnce. This - was the town post-office; that'the army JtiiM^oflEiee ,• yonder lies the Holsteinischc, Hau£, lorig w^ij^tp relresh iw^mth it» ow^w^i^hiw^^itH^a^

these poor inhabitants? Why, to them the haunts of youth and age, the associations of a lifetime, are gone for ever. The Prussians made their home a target for their untried artillery, and the substance of their life recollections waa blown down to a mere blank.