SUMMARY OF EVENTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 744, 11 October 1870, Page 2

SUMMARY OF EVENTS.

The following clear summary of events is from the Argus of Sept 26 : — V^Three great armies have been overthrown, two rich provinces conquered and absorbed, a military dynasty shivered to atoms, an Emperor taken in captivity, his wife and child fugitives from France, a republic established in Paris, and a splendid army, flushed with an unbroken line of victories, is marching upon the capital of the vanquished country. These astounding incidents have been crowded into a single month ; for the first blow was struck at Saarbruck on the 2nd of August ; and before the 2nd of September the Emperor of the French had been deposed, and had surrendered himself to the King of Prussia, the Empress and the Prince Imperial had taken refuge in Belgium ; and Count Bismarck was accompanying the King of Prussia and the Crown Prince in their march to Paris, where that astute and ambitious statesman hopes to enjoy his coming hour of triumph, after having outwitted the Emperor Napoleon in diplomacy and defeated him in war. We are at length enabled to obtain something like a clear outline of the general plan of the campaign, although owing to the brevity and the elliptical character of the latest telegraphic messages, we cannot pledge ourselves to perfect accuracy with respect to some points of detail. When the war commenced the three wings of the Prussian army seem to have entered France from the following points : — The right wing, commanded by Prince Frederick Charles, from Treves ; the centre, led by General Steinmetz, from Homburg ; and the left under the command of the Crown Prince, from Landau. In the rear was the veteran strategist, General Moltke, directing the movements of the whole. The position of the enemy was this : — The French left wing, uuder the command of Marshal Bazaine, occupied Metz, and would of course have to hold the Prussian right wing iv check ; the centre, under Marshal Canrobert, was stationed at Nancy ; and the right, led by Marshal M'Mahon, rested on Saverne ; each of these posts being in railway communication with Paris. If the reader will follow the operations of these divisions on the map, he will perceive that the right wing of the Prussian army commenced moving on the sth of August from Treves in a southerly direction to Saarburg and Saarlouis, with the intention, probably, of supporting the centre wing, if necessary, at Saarbruck. The left wing moved simultaneously upon Bitsche ; so that, should occasion arise, the whole mass of the army might be precipitated on the enemy in a general engagement ; the three wings of the French army being so placed as to render a similar convergence on their part practicable in a few hours. Seeing, however, that there was no prospect of a conflict of this kind ; the right wing of the Prussian army moved towards Thionville, which it invested. The object appears to have been to get in the rear of Metz, and break the communication between that fortress and Nancy. Marshal Bazaine, with the left wing of the French army, endeavoured, but unsuccessfully, to cut his way through the enemy's lines. There was three days' hard fighting, from the 16th to the 1 8th of August, the principal scene of action being the village of Gravellotte, just outside of Metz, on the old high road to Paris ; but the French were driven back by the right and centre wings of the Prussian army, with a loss of 50,000 men, two eagles, and seven cannon of the Imperial Guard. The Emperor had left Metz for Chalons the day before the fighting commenced. Meanwhile Marshal M'Mahon, whose first army had been annihilated at Haguenau, on the 6th August, as we shall subsequently have occasion to mention, had been furnished with a second army for the purpose of relieving Marshal Bazaine at Metz. In this attempt he was unsuccessful. His march was intercepted by the Prussian right army at Buzancy, midway between Mezi&res and Verdun, and after two days' hard fighting, he was compelled to retreat upon Sedan ; out of which he bad heen driven, at the latest dates, leaving 90.000 prisoners in the hands of the enemy. We now turn to the operations of the centre wing of the Prussian army, a portion of which met with the only reverse of the campaign. This was at Saarbruck, on the 2nd of August, where 30,000 French were opposed to 6000 Prussians only. It was brilliantly retrieved, however, on that day week at the same place, when General Frossard's corps was dispersed, and the entire camp of one division became the booty of the Prussians. From thence, the centre wing proceeded to occupy Forbach, which waß won and laid in ashes, after a tremendous engagement ; and then advanced oa Metz, where it distinguished itself in the manner mentioned above. To the Prussian left wing, under the command of the Crown Prince, belongs the honour of a series of victories, commencing at Weissenburg on the 4th of August. Here two fortresses were captured, and General Douay's division' of Marsh il M'Mahon's wing was defeated, and the general killed. This was followed up b\ the de .isivo battle of Haguenau on the 6th, when the marshal himself, notwithstanding he hid been heavily reinforced from Marshal Canrobert's wing at Nancy, sustained «* crushing defeat, tbe conflict raging from 1) in (he norning until 9 at night. The remain* 0 th ihreu wings of the French army the

fell back upon Nancy and Metz; hotly pursued by the Prussians, who made themselves masters of Sarrebourg and Luneville. Nancy was evacuated by the French, and taken possession of by the enemy, who had advanced on the 2nd of September to Pont a Mousson, midway between Nancy and Metz. At that date the departments of tbe Meuse and the Marne were in the hands of the Prussians ; Marshal M'Mahon having abandoned both Chalons sur Marne and Bheims to the Crown Prince, who waa following him up through "Vouziers and Sedan. The right wing of the Prussian amiy was occupying Verdun, the scouts of the left wing were at Epernay, about 80 miles from Paris, for the occupation of which capital a fourth Prussian army had been brought into the field ; while the Republican Government , of France had declared its intention of laying the metropolis in ashes rather than see the Prussians once more water their horses in the Seine, and of emulating the patriotism of the Republican army of 1792. While these great events were being transacted by the military forces of North Germany, 60,000 volunteers from South Germany had laid siege to the fine old city of Strasburg. The military, commander of the place was inflexible ; and after a bombardment which commenced on the 19 th of August, and was continued until the 2nd of September, laying the city in ruins and driving the famished inhabitants for shelter to the noisome sewers, the gallant officer still refused to capitulate. It will be a misfortune to civilised mankind if the magnificent cathedral of Strasbourg should have been involved in the general destruction of the place. The King of . Prussia seems determined to treat tbe ancient provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which are pretty nearly coterminous with the Meuse, Moselle, Meurthe, Vosges, and the Upper and Lower Rhine, as German territory by right of conquest, and has appointed governors-gene-ral to take charge of them.