THE WAR AS VIEWED FROM GERMANY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 746, 13 October 1870, Page 4

THE WAR AS VIEWED FROM GERMANY.

The following is oy a correspondent of the Times, and is dated Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Aug. 10: — The spirit in. which the. German people have received the news of the brilliant victories of their armies contrasts favourably with that excited in the French by the ficthous tidings of McMahon's triumph. From the Sovereign who leads them to the poorest subject the cry pealed forth has been that of Luiher's grand old hjmn, "Nun dankt allt Gott" —Now let all thank God—nnngle^l with an honest pride in the fearless courage of their civilian army. The first natural imJpulsea of. joy have been succeeded by the tendereat and most thoughtful sympathy anp care for the succour of the wounded. In every town aijd village organisations are at work to lighten the pangs and sufferings of the sick and wounded, and the strain upon them has come early and sudden. The long trains which last week passed through Frankfort :loaded with their lusty living freight to the seat of war-are how returning filled with prisoners and wounded.^- Yesterday a train of 46 carriages of wounded passed through.

The soldiers lightly wounded and who can bear the transit are carried into the interior, to Gieasen, Cassell, Wiesbaden, and other places; those whose injuries are wore serious are left at Darmstadt, Heidelberg, Hanau, and Frankfort. Here 1750 beds have been commissioned, and, as the authorities and medical men protest against the establishment of lazarettos inside the city, wooden barrack hospitals are being hastily put up in the outskirts. The gardens and orangeries of the palace formerly belonging to the Grand Duke of Nassau lire devoted to the same purpose. The French commanders appear to leave their wounded on the hands of their victors. The latest tidings from Weissen bourg mention that besides 817 prisoners, not less than 600 wounded French soldiers have been left behind there in the retre «r. So far, it is remarked, the wouDds are principally on the head and neck. Of the brilliant victory of the Crown Prince all details are at present provokingly scarce, and it is conjectured they are being kept back for strategic considerations. Of the defeat of General Frossard's corps at Saarbrucken the accounts received are as yet imperfect and fragmentary. While the French newspapers are crediting Von Moltke with framing combinations of the most subtle character for the conduct of this engagement, reports from the scene report it as having been fought against his intention ; a collision of troops led to a general action, the area of which ke; t expanding until near the closeof the day. The fighting, which lasted from midday until dark, was of an obstinate character, positions being taken and retaken alternately. Many of the Prussian troops were brought up, weary with a six hours' march to carry the formidable fortified heights of the Spicherberg. The victory would have been more decisive had the Prussian supports arrived earlier on the scene. For want of these, captured guns and mitrailleuses had to be abandoned. No positive information of the killed and wounded, the prisoners, and the spoils of the victory has as yet been published A renewal of the engagement was expected by the troops the following morning, but the French continued their retreat during the night, and Forbach, with the baggage and camp equipage of two divisions, fell into the hands of the Prussian cavalry. A number of cavalry charges were made during the day, of which some interesting details may be expected. As the tide of battle rolled away, many instances occurred of that loving sympathy of the German people for their wounded kindred, which promises to be the bright redeeming spot of this most hateful and wicked war If aught were wanting to show the utter hopelessness of this attempt of France to trample Germany under foot this would alone suffice. A military correspondent writes : — "I saw whole waggons full of women and girls moving on the battlefield, heedless of the bullets still dropping around, busiei in refreshing the wounded and in assisting to help and to bind up their wounds." The news of the Crown Prince's victory arrived on the battle field, and greatly inspirited the attacking force. Weissenbourg, the scene of the Crown Prince's first victory has been the theatre of many military struggles between the Gaul and Teuton. The lines along the chain of heights, erected in 1705 by order of Marshal Villars, extended for upwarJs of nine miles in a continued series of trenches, walls, and redoubts. It is remarkable that its loss by General Beauharnais, the maternal grandfather of Napoleon 111., in 1793, was expiated by that unlucky servant of the Republic on the guillotine. It would appear that the French prisoners transported to the fortress of Spandau, via Berlin, were originally intended to be marched through the capital, and a crowd filling the entire route, and set down at 100.000, assembled to witness the spectacle. At the request of the Queen the intention was abandoned, and they were conveyed across Berlin by the connecting line of rails, where, as at Frankfort, which has shown a splendid daily and hourly hospitality to the immense bodies of troops, moving to the front, the prisoners met a friendly reception. Here, in the old Imperial city, which has no French proclivities, and ha 9 deeply engraved in its historic memory the military occupations and exactions of the armies of the Republic and the Empire, they were treated wi;h an extrame kindliness, and Frankfort beer, and Frankfort sausages, both what Major Dalgetty would have admitted to be famous " provaunt," were supplied without stint, and bundles of cigars were passed round to aid their digestion. The Turcos, to whom the epithet of " noble " savages cannot be fairly applied, came in naturally under the old adage of "omne ignotum pro magni/ico" for the greatest share of curiosity. Ugly, swarthy, slight in physique, they did not improve on acquaintance. Recently the rumour that they have been caught mutilating and massaoring the wounded on the battlefield has created a strong feeling of repulsion in Germany against them, and of indignation that the Emperor should employ in European warfare such missionaries of freedom and civilisation. Some.. of the prisoners barter away their buttons, epaulettes, and accoutrements to relic hunters in exchange for cigars, an act which has led to remarks about the poor morale of the French army — remarks which are probably invidious, as every military force has a full complement of black sheep. Prussia is the land of drill, vhich is here no respecter of persons, and the clergy are required to march in goose step along with the laity. The consistory of the province of Brandenberg are about to subject to clerical court-martial a number of preachers who, on the lately appointed day of penitence and supplication, "bo far forgot themselves " as to maunder in their sermons about the war being a judgment of God for the sins of the nation. ..;..- The brilliant military staff which attended the movements of the Crown Prince last

week in the old cities of the Rhine Pfalz recalled to the enthusiastic spectators visions of bygone splendid cavalcades bent on the self-same errand. But how great the difference since the days when " Marlbrook se va t guerre !" Here were none of the unwieldy gilded carriages, drawn by eight fat Flanders mares, of the Electoral Princes, no goldbetasselled lackeys, no long trains of cooks and valets and kitchen waggons, no fiddlers, singing men and women, no opera dancer?. Though it lacked all these, it contained elements more imposing. Behind the Crown Prince, the Princes of Weimar and Meiningen, Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern (the innocent pretext of the war), and Duke Krnest of Coburg Gotha, role also the staffs of the Wurtemburg and Bavarian armies. Beyond those of the Princes, the uniforms bore no external disp'ay. Everything about them was simple, solid, serviceable. An English colonel's uniform was remarked as the most showy. Behind these rode the embodied genius of modern warfare. In place of state carriages were the light waggons of the field telegraph and electr.'c batteries ; instead of the kitchen equipage came the waggons with the material for field railway. With these rode the representatives for modern science — telegraphists, railway chiefs, engineers, armed artisans for laying and repairing raila, pioneers. The accuracy with which the long train uncoiled itself and moved along, the practical look of the cortege all impressed the loD>ers-on with the conviction th it business and not pageantry was intended. Any of your readers curious in historic contrasts and parallels would read with interest at the present time Gothe's story of the campaign in France in 1792, one of his works least known to English readers. He accompanied his friend and sovere'gn, the Grand Duke of Saxe Weimar, in that ill-starred invasion of France undertaken by the German sovereigns to put down the revolution, and reinstate Louis XVI. No satire could be sharper than this unconscious narrative of feasting and ceremonial, in which we hear much of the grandees but see little of the soldiers. The unwieldy cumbrous army, overladen with cooks and sutlers, dragged its slow length along, through mire and mud, to the field of Valmy, where it was encountered and routed by the ragged, shoeless soldiers of the Republic under Kellermann. That night, as the discomfited and disheartened princes and their staff formed a silent circle round the fire, Gothe writes: — "Some one cried out to me, • What do you think of it ? ' Then I, who usually enlivened and roused up the company with smart sayings, this time replied, ' From this place, and to-3ay, begins a new epoch in the world's history, and you can cay you were there present.' "