THE BATTLE OF GRAVELLOTTE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 767, 7 November 1870, Page 4

THE BATTLE OF GRAVELLOTTE.

The following account is by the special correspondent of the New York Tribune. The battle was fought on Aug. 18-19 :— I witnessed the battle at head quarters, and stood by the side of Bismarck and the King. The first realisation they had at Pauchien, where they found themselves on the 17th, of the extent to which fighting had been going on on Tuesday and Sunday last at the front, was the coming in of the wounded. At first it was thought they had been wounded in skirmishes, but on the 16th there were signs of the work being warm. On that evening, soldiers with ghastly wounds walked about the market-place in Poncelles, surrounded by eager groups of their newly arrived comrades. This told a story of disaster. Poor fellows ! it was surely galling to them to be borne away, as they had been, from the field without having hardly any resnlt. I stood among these troops, and the narrations of the men all amounted to their having been to confront a much larger force than their own, and that their division had been cut up. I was struck by the fact that, though there was some dissatisfaction suggested by their tone of voice, I heard no word uttered, by the narrators or listeners, which accused anyone. They dwelt rather on the fact that they had dealt a heavy blow on the 14th, and that, though the Tenth Division had, as an available organisation, been demolished, it had sold its life dearly. On the 17th, the wounded from tbe preceding day began to pour into Pont-a-Mousson. They were brought in oa a long line of grain carts, lying upon hay. From my window, which overlooked the main street and commanded a view of tbe marketplace, I counted over nine carts, each holding an average of about 10 men. It was strange to see them as they passed amid files of French unable to conceal their joy, on one hand, and the Prussian soldiers on the other side. The streets began swarming with other wagons, all the wounded being the wearers of red trousera ; and now and then came a batch of un wounded prisoners. At length came a carriage with a French general. It was followed by a vast crowd of French, and for a little time it seemed as if there might ba a collision between the inhabitants and Prussians, so earnest were the demonstrations of the people. But it was now evident that the struggle was very serious at the front. At midnight or a little after on the 17th, all the trumpets for miles began to sound. This was the first time we had been startled by such wild music. Trumpet answered trumpet through the little city. For several days previously there had been almost perpetual marching of troops through the streets, but now they tramp through every street and byway, making between midnight and dawn a perpetual roar Hastily dressing I ran out into the dark, and managed to get a seat on a wagon going in the direction of the front, which was now understood to be one or two miles beyond the village of Gorze. On our way we met, some miles from Pont-a-Mousson, a considerable batch of French prisoners, who were looked upon with curiosity by the continuous line of German soldiers with whom we advanced; but only one or two offensive cries towards prisoners were heard. The way was so blockaded with waggons that I finally concluded... that. I could do the remaining six or seven miles on foot,' so I got off the carriage and began to walk and run swiftly a-head. At Montoientien, on the Moselle, about half way to Metz I found vast bodies of cavalry — Uhlans and hussars — crossing the river by a pontoon bridge, and hurrying at top of their speed towards Gorze. Hurrying my own. steps I heard the first thunder of cannon; seemingly coming from the heart of a range of hills on the right. Passing through the village arid ascending a high plain beyond, I found myself on a battlefield strewn, as far as the eye could reach, with dead bodies'. In 'one 'or two parts of the field compauies were still seen burying the dead, chiefly Prussian. The French, being necessarily buried last, were still lying in vast numbers on. the ground. A few of those were not dead. As I hurried on, a splendid regiment of cavalry came on behind, and when they reached the brow of the hill they all broke out with a wild hurrah and dashed forward. A few more steps, and I gained the summit, and saw the scene which had waked tbeir cry, and seemed to thrill even their horses. It would bs difficult to imagine a grander battlefield. From tho hill to which I was directed by good authority to come, the entire sweep of the Prussian and French- centres could be seen aud a considerable \ part of their wings. The spot where I stood was fearful. It was amid ghastly corpses, and burdened with the stench of the dead horses, of which there were great numbers. I was standing on the battlefield of the 16th. On the left, stre'ehed likea silver thread,lay the road to Verdun and to Paris. ' It ran between lines of poplars, which stood against the horizon. On my left, as far as the eye could reach towards Metz, with military regularity, stringing the road like beads were the pretty villages, each with its church tower, which, although they have separate names, are really only a few hundred feet apart.: They are Mars-la/Tour, Flavigdi, and, a little south of the road, Vionetti, Resonville, and Gravellotte, which is divided into Great arid Little Gravellotte. On my right were the thickly-wooded hills, behind, .which lids the most 'important village of the neighbourhood, the one I just left, viz. : Gorze and its environs — the foreground of tbe battle, which should not be called the battle of Gravellotte, for it' was mainly j over and beyond that town that it raged^- Owing tahaving-come on foot rather than along the road, I arrived just as the battle' waxed Z warm— that is, about noon of tlie 18th. At that time the King of Prussia was standing on the ground watching the conflict which had just begun! At this time the French were making the most desperate efforts to hold on to the last bit .of 'the Verdun

road that lies between Beson ville and Gravellotte, or that part of Gravellotte which in some. maps is called St. Mariol. Desperate but unavailing, for every man in the French ranks had two to cope with, and their line was beginning to waver. Soon it was plain that this wing of the French right was withdrawing to a new position. This was swiftly taken up under cover of a continuous fire of their artillery from the heights beyond the village. The movement was made in good order, and the position was reached at 1.30. I believe nine military out of ten would have pronounced it impregnable. When once this movement hid been effected, the French retreated from the pressure of the Prussian artillery fire, the Prussians as rapidly advancing. The battlefield was no longer at Resonville, but bad bean transferred and pushed forward to Gravellotte, the junction of the two branching oads to Verdun. The fields in front of that village were completely covered by Prussian eserves, and over it inte minable lines of soldiers were marching in the wood, disappearing into the village. This part of the battle-field was more extensive than the first, and brought the opposing forces into fearfully close quarters. A Jpeculinrity of it is that it consists of two heights intersected by a deep ravine ; this wood ravine is over one hundred feet deep, and at tbe top some three hundred yards wide. The side of the chasm next to Gravellotte where the Prussians stood is much lower than the other side, which gradually ascended to a great height. From the commanding eminence the French held their enemies fairly beneath them, and poured upon them a scorching fire. The French guns were in a position far up by the Metz road, hidden and covered among the trees. There was not an instant's cessation of the roar of artillery. Distinguishable among all was the curious grunting roll of the " mitrailleuse." The Prussian artillery waa posted up the north side, being necessarily raised for an awkward half-vertical fire. The hill where I stood commanded chiefly the conflict behind the village and to the south of it. The Prussian reinforcements, coming up on their right, filed out of the Bois d'Agneus, and it was at that point, as they marched on the field, that I could perhaps get the best idea of the magnitude of the invading army now in the heart of France. There was no break whatever for four hours in the march of the men out of that wood. It seemed almost as if the killed aud wounded revived and came back, and marched forth again. " Birnam Wood advancing to Dunsinane" was not a more ominous eight to Macbeth than these men of General Goebin's army, shielded as they were by the woods until they were fairly within range and reach of their enemies. So the French must have felt, for between four and five o'clock tbey concentrated upon that spot their heaviest fire, massing all their available guns, and shelling the woods which covered the Prussians unremittingly; their shots reached the Prussian lines, snd tore through them, and though the men were steidy it was a trial which no general could long submit his troops to. They presently swerved a little from tbat line of advance, and there was uo longer a continuous column of infantry pouring out of those woods. The attack of the Prussians in ths centre was clearly checked. About 5 o'clock, however, another brigade of fresh infantry was again formed in the wood, and emerged from ita cover. Once out from under the trees they advanced at quick time. I patched the movement, for the French guns had not lost the range of the wood nor of the ground in front. Seen at a distance through a powerful glass the brigade was like a huge serpent, beginning with the undulation of the field, btit it left a dark track behind it, and the glass resolved the dark track into falling and dying men. As the horrid significance of that path so traced came upon me, I gazed on more intently. Many of those who had fallen leaped up again and ran forward a little way, striving to go on with their comrades. Of those who fell backwards instead of forward there were a few, though many fell as they painfully endeavoured to follow. I do not know whether, after the vain movement of that brigade, another movement was attemp'.ed from the road, but, half an hour afterwards great numbers of troops began to march over the hill where I was standing, and moved toward the belt where so hard a struggle had been so long protracted. They were, I think, a portion of General Gceben's troops who bad been directed on a direct route. The conflict from this point on the Prussian lef c became so fierce it whs s on almost lost. Now and then a thick cloud would opsn a little and drift away on the wind, and then we could see the F-ench. I tried to "get a better view of thia part of the field, I went forward about half a mile, and from my new 6tand, found myself not far from Aloiazon. The French line was still unbroken, and to all appearances they were having the best of the battle ; but the appearance was' due, perhaps, to the fact that the French were visible on their broad height, and fighting with such obstinacy that they plainly silenced a Prussian battery now and then. But the Prussian line was also strengthened by degrees. On the northern point infantry and artillery were brought up, brid from far in the rear, away seemingly in the direction of Thionville, shot and shell reached the French ranks. These were the men and guns of Steinmetz, who formed a junction with the army of Prince Frederick Charles, and completed the investm-. Nt of Metz to the" northwest. With the reinforcemeuts that continually arrived on both sides, the battle grew more and more obstinate. There cojuld be no doubt the French understood the meaning of the new movement of the Prussians, and of the gradual development of the line to Metz, and they were able to extend, tbeir line gradually further arjd further, until the French were outflanked, aud began to be threatened, as it appeared, with an attack on tbe rear of their extreme right. So long as the smoke from the Prussian guns hovered only over thi. ir frjrat, the French clung to their position.

The distance from the headquarters where the Prussian flank attack stretched forward was great and, to add to the difficulty of seeing the progress of the battle, darkness came on. I know not how long the French held out, nor what precise moment the Prussian onset became irresistible. What I saw was: the puffs of smoke from the French guns, with flashes brightening as the darkness increased, receded as the very thick pillar of cloud and flame from the north gradually and steadily approached ; and with that advance the fire every moment became more slack. It was not till 9 o'clock when the ground was finally yielded on the north. The last shots fired on the terrible evening were heard in that direction.