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* OjNSTLTin iCXNALJST.
AUGUSTA. (*A.
SATURDAY MORNING. SEPT. 24, 1870
Notice.
From and after this date —June 1,1870
The terms for the Tri Weekly Constitu
tionalist will be at the rate of $8 per
annum. All papers will be discontinued at
the end of the time paid for.
NOTABLE ARTICLES.
We yield the greater part of our space,
this morning, to two notable articles, the
first and by far the more important being
Hon. A. H. Stephens’ reply to Attorney
General Akerman’s misrepresentations, the
second Dr. Wm. H. Russell’s splendid
sketch of the battle of Sedan.
Grant and Fisk.— President Grant ab
solutely denies that Jim Fisk paid his
(Grant’s) subscription to the Rawlins
Fund. The offer was made but indignant
ly refused.
The dispute is now whittled down to a
question of veracity between Fisk and
Grant. You pays your money and you
takes your choice.
Attorney General Akerman’s Speeches.
ANSWER TO HIS CHARGES
By Alexander H. Stephens.
Liberty Hall, Crawfordville, Ga., >
21st September, 1870. j
To the Editor of the Constitutionalist, Au
gusta, Georgia:
Dear Sir: You will, 1 trust, allow me
the use of your columns to take notice of
two speeches recently made by Hon. Amos
T. Akerman, Attorney General of the Unit
ed States, as I think due to myself, due to
him, and due to some, at least, of the very
grave matters referred to by him in both.
In the first of these speeches I am direct
ly charged and accused by him with hav
ing promulgated doctrines which he char
acterizes as “ pernicious," and which he
says “ must be suppressed."
In the other of these speeches, delivered
at Atlanta, Georgia, while my name is
omitted, yet his official denunciations, in
like spirit, are chiefly directed against the
same political heresies, according to his
standard.
These dangerous and “ pernicious doc
trines” he is pleased to say, are to be
found in the two volumes published by me
upon the “ late war between the States.”
This quasi public arraignment by the
Attorney General of the United States, and
would be, perhaps, “ Crown Officer ” of a
firmly established Empire, I am by no
means disposed to evade; and, therefore,
ask the favor, through the medium of the
Constitutionalist, to enter a traverse, and
to make known to him and to the world,
that I hold myself in readiness to meet him,
or any body el-e, upon the merits of his
“Bill of Informition,” thus filed; and
without any technical exceptions on my
part, as to the informality in which it has
been brought forward.
The only tribunal I desire is the bar of
an enlightened public opinion. The only
arena I wish, for the settlement of all the
questions involved, is the forum of reason,
wher6 no weapons or force are to be used,
but the power of truth and logic. So
armed on such a field, I do not shrink from
the fullest investigation of all matters dis
cussed in the work, to which he alludes,
nor from the judgment which may be ren
dered upon them, after such a hearing, by
the intelligent and unbiased of the present
or future generations.
What, then, are the errors in tact or
argument in either of the volumes referred
to, which, in the opinion of this high officer,
are so dangerous and “ pernicious ”•— so
pois mous and that they
ought not to be thus inqniredlnto, or even
tolerated by discussion, but ought to be
summarily and arbitrarily “ suppressed?"
Ist. Is it an erroneous, and “ pernicious
doctrine" to maintain, as the book does,
that the United States constitute, not a
single Republic, but a Federal Republic ;
and that the Union, about which Mr. At
torney General says so much, is a Federal
Union —a Union of separate, distinct States,
each State of the Union being a perfect
State, as known in Public Law ?
2d. Is it an error in fact or doctrine to
maintain, as the Book does, that these
States, upon entering into this Union, were
recognized by themselves, as well as other
Powers, as separate, independent, sovereign
States ?
3d. Is it au error in fact, or doctrine to
maintain, as the Book does, that the Con
stitution of 1787 is the basis of the present
Union; and that it was formed by the
States in their sovereign character, and for
them in their sovereign character; or in
other words, that, it is a Constitution "made
by States and (or States;” and that the
Sovereignty of the States was not parted
with by them in its ratification ?
4th. Is it an error in fact or doctrine to
maintain, as the Book does, that the Fede
ral Government is entirely Conventional
in its character—that it was created by
the States solely with a view to the better
regulation of their inter-State and foreign
affairs, and the greater security of their
perpetual existence as Sovereign States by
their mutual pledge and guaranty to this
end —and that the Federal Government, so
created, possesses uo inherent powers what
ever—that all the powers it rightfully
holds or can rightfully exercise are held
from the States and from them by delega
tion only ?
sth. Is it au error in fact or doctrine to
maintain, as the Book does, that all the
powers, so held by this Federal or Conven
tional Government, are particularly enu
merated and limited in the Constitution ;
anil that the exercise of any power outside
of these limitations is nothing but a usur
pation, and should be set aside by the
Courts as a nullity ?
6th. Is it an error in fact or doctrine to
maintain, aa the Book does, that the Con
stitution of the United States, so made,
was a compact, between the States rati flying
it—the States being the parties to it; ami
that it is binding between them, as all other
like compacts ny the laws of nations?
7th. Is it an error in fact or doctrine to
maintain, as the Book does, that all dele
gated powers by sovereign States can, by
the laws of nations, be righttnlly resumed
by the party delegating them, when the
purposes for which they were delegated
are not attained ?
Bth. Is it. an error in fact to assert, as the
Book does, that quite a number of the
Northern States of the Union, before the
secession of uny of its Southern members,
(under the influence of that faithless Fac
tion which now rules this country by
fraud and usurpation,) did openly and con
fessedly refuse to perform their covenanted
obligations under a clause of the Constitu
tion, without which that Compact never
would have been agreed to, or the Union,
under it, entered into by the Southern
States ?
9th. Is it an error in fact to state, as the
Book does, that the present Chief Justice
Chase fully admitted this breach of faith
on the part of these Northern States ; and
openly declared ia the Peace Congress in
February, 1861, that they never would per
form these admitted obligations on their
part ?
10th. Is it an error in fact to maintain,
as the Book does, that no one of the South
ern States which seceded or attempted to
secede from the Union, because of this
breach of faith, on the part of their Con
federates, was ever unirue to her covenants
in the Compact of Union ?
11th. Is it an error in fact or doctrine to
maintain, at the Book does, that this open
and confessed breach of faith on the part
of their Northern Confederates, according
to the laws of all nations, whether savage
or civilized, completely absolved the South
ern States from their obligations under the
Compact, and fully justified their with
drawal ?
12th. Is it an error in fact to maintain,
as the Book does, that the covenant-con
stitution breaking States did afterwards
bold that the Seceding States were still
bound to perform their part of the Com
pact, notwithstanding their own acknowl
edged breach of faith, and that they went
to war against them to compel them to
remain in the Union, and discharge their
obligations under the Constitution
13th Is it an error in fact or doctrine to
maintain, as the Book does, that the war,
thus inaugurated, was a “war between
States,” and in no proper or just sense a
Rebellion or Civil War ?
14th. Is it anerrorin fact to maintain,
as the Book does, that the only pretext on
the part of the Northern States, for waging
this war, thus inaugurated between the
States, was “the preservation of the Union
of the States, with all the dignity, equality
and rights of the several States unimpair
ed ?”
15th. Is it ail error in fact to maintain,
as the Book does, that when the seceding
States abandoned their struggle for a sepa
ration, and agreed to the terms of capltu
-1 ition which was substantially an ac
quiescence, so far as armed resistance was
concerned, in the declaration upon which
the war was waged against them; the oth
er States, the covenant breakers themselves
—under the rule of the aaibe-RevbnrtiiOiiary
faction—after the sacrifice of hundreds of
thousands of lives and thousands of millions
of dollars, changed their |>ositjpa in Con
gress, and said that %hey could not safely
permit that to be done for which they had
waged the war—that they could not safely
allow a Restoration of the nnlon of the
States under the Constitution for which
they had shed so much blood and expended
so much treasure! But that these ac
quiescing States should be shorn of their
“ dignity, equality and rights ” by a pro
cess of “ Reconstruction ” according to
their liking, though outside of the Consti
tution, before being allowed representation
in the Congress of the States ?
16th. Is it an error in fact or doctrine,
on the review of this conduct, to ask, as
the Book does, “ Is there to be found in the
annals of mankind a parallel of such un
blushing, doubled-faced, insolent, and in
famous iniquity ?”
These, Mr. Editor, are a few of the po
sitions and doctrines maintained in the
two volumes referred to by Mr. Attorney
General; and if they, founded, as they are,
upon indisputable facts, set forth irrefuta
ble truths, to what or whom, let me ask
him and the world, is their promulgation
either dangerous or “ pernicious?" Is it to
the cause of public liberty, or to the true
friends of the institutions of our ancestors,
or only to the policy and secret designs of
those who are aiming at their overthrow
anil subversion ?
Mr. Attorney General in his Bill of In
formation makes very few distinct specifi
cations touching the “ pernicious ” doc
trines of the two volumes which, he says,
“ must be suppressed." Two only of these
are deemed worthy of notice at this time.
The first is, that 1 have asserted that
“ the Reconstruction measures were mon
strous, and pronounced that ail the Gov
ernment had done for four years was mon
strous, and threatened the liberties of the
people.”
In answer to this I have simply to say,
that if the foregoing positions maintained
in the Book are unassailable, is it not un
deniably true that the whole of “ these Re
construction measures,” with all their con
comitants, are not only mondrous outrages,
but most deadly blows directed at the very
vitals of the Constitution, as well as the
liberties of the people ?
The other of these specifications is, that,
I have attempted to show that “ Marshall,”
and others named by him, “ were wrong,
and that Calhoun was right” in his views of
the Constitution.
In answer to this charge it is only neces
sary to refer to the Book itself, which Mr.
Attorney General may very well wish to
have suppressed, if for no other object than
to shield himself from the exposure of hav
ing made a very unfair statement, not to
siy palpable misrepresentation. In the
Book no opinion of Marshall is assailed ;
but, on the contrary, some of the most im
portant positions in it—those doubtless
deemed by the would-be “ Crown Officer,”
most “pernicious" to iiis own view-, aims,
and objects—are"not only fortified but in
contestably established by the authority of
this eminent Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States.
It was he who announced from the bench
of that court the most “pernicious doctrine,”
that the States composing this Union at
the time, formed their present Constitution
as sovereign States.
It was lie who held ami proclaimed front
the same bench, that all the legislative
powers of the Congress of States, under the
Constitution, depended upon the will of a
majority of the States.
It was he who held In the convention of
Virginia that ratified the Constitution, that
lhe powers conferred by that instrument
could be rightly resumed by those who
conferred them.
This, perhaps, is the most “ pernicious ”
of all the doctrines set forth in the Book,
which Mr. Attorney General is so anxious
1 o have "■suppressed " And perhaps moreover
the true solution of his unqualified denun
ciation of the whole work is that the array
of facts presented in the two volumes, and
the irresistible conclusions established bv
them, are so “ pernicious ” to the schemes of
the would-be “ Crown Officer ” and his co
workers in the erection of a centralized
Empire over the ruins of the principles of
that wonderful Fedora; Union, established
by the “Fathers,” that they cannot be tol
erated by them; and hence the official
mandate, that the doctrines therein set
forth “must be suppressed /” Potent words
these and of most ominous significance
coming from the quarter they do! They
express the unmistakable language of
tyrannical men in power in all ages and
countries, when they feel the force of truths
which are indeed dangerous and most “per
nicious” to their own guilty acts of usur
pation upon the rights of States as well as
the liberties of outraged peoples! This
language from the present Attorney Gen
eral smacks strongly of like cabluet anath
emas of the nationalists, centralists, and
eonsolldationists of this country in 1798-’99
which ended in the ever memorable Alien
and Sedition “Imcs, so-called," of that period.
The doctrine 6f the advocates of consti
tutional liberty under our Federative Sys
tem at that day, as promulgated, not by
Mr. Calhoun, as Mr. Attorney General most
adroitly attempts to make the people be
lieve, but by ' Mr. Jefferson and his asso
ciates, was, that these acts of usurpation
were not laws but nullities.
The doctrines Inculcated in the two
volumes referred to, Mr. Attorney General
well knows, are the doctrines of Mr. Jeffer
son, the great apostle of the American
Federative system for the maintenance and
preservation of free institutions by neigh
boring States. They are the doctrines
which in 1798- 99 were, as now, considered
exceedingly “ pernicious" to their schemes
by all the enemies of these institutions. By
the earnest promulgation of these doc
trines, and a firm maintenance of them, at
the polls, by the peoples of the several
States of this Union, the rights of the States,
as well as their owu, were rescued from the
bauds of usurpers at that time, and on a
like promulgation and maintenance of the
same doctrines at this time, rests the only
sure hope of the future rescue and preser
vation of the same rights and liberties from
the hands of the usurpers who now bear
sway. One of the most important as well
as saving of the principles of these doc
trines is that no danger need ever be feared
in a free country from any error of opinion
or doctrine however great, “ where reason
is left free to combat it.”
This Cabinet ukase of Mr. Attorney
General shows nothing more clearly than
the power of the truths "promulgated in the
two volumes thus denounced. He and his
associates know and feel, that, by nothing
short of a suppression of these truths di
rectly or indirectly, and the obliteration, if
possible, of all the great facts of our his
tory, can they bring the public mind
to receive the doctrine attempted to
be instilled by him in his Atlanta speech,
which amounts to this, that the States of
this Union have no higher position in the
scale of existence than mere legal corpora
tions.
Shades of Ames, Samuel Adams, Par
sons, Ellsworth, Hancock, Madison, Ham
ilton, Marshall, Jackson, Jefferson, and
Washington!
I will not say that such a doctrine ought
to be suppressed, but with ail the respect
for high official position which 1 can com
mand, I will say, that the Attorney General
of the United States, in putting forth such
sentiments ought to have blushed, if not
for his own reputation, at least, from a
proper sense of reverence for the memories
of the illustrious dead.
The Union of these States, nothing but a
Union of a sort of corporations to be fash
ioned, moulded, controlled, and shorn of
their rights by and at the will of the Cen
tral Government I
This “ Confederacy ”of States, as Mar
shall styled it on the bench of the Supreme
Court—this “Confederated Republic,” as
Washington styled it in his message to the
Senate —this “ Union of Sovereign mem
bers,” as Jackson spoke of it in his inau
gural address, according to the teachings
of the present Attorney General, is noth
ing but an aggregation of corporations!
Bare creatures of municipal law! This, in
substance, is my understanding of Almost
insidiously inculcated Imperlalizing doc
trine. P 1
If by the suppression of truth, this doc
trine can be established, then, indeed, will
be consummated that most lamentable re
‘ suit which Hamilton thought need never
be feared, even by the most vigilant and
zealous guardians of popular rights, when
he declared in the Convention of New
York, which ratified the Constitution, that
“ The States can never lose their powers till the
whole people of America are robbed of their
hoerties."
Yours, most respectfully,
Alexander H. Stephens.
The Battle of Sedan.
AN AUTHENTIC AND BRILLIANT DESCRIP
TION BY DR. W. H. RUSSELL.
Dr. W. H. Russell sends the following ac
count of the battle of Sedan, and the scenes
on the field, to the London limes. He
writes from Donchery on September 3 :
The greatest event of our time has oc
curred under the eyes of those who saw the
battle of Sedan. I think the British public
must have had enough of battle-field hor
rors and hospital scenes. There will lie
plenty of letters describing Kranken-tragers,
burial parties, wounded men, heaps of dead,
the hideous reverse of the medal on the
other side of which are the bright embla
zonments of glory and victory. I will not
dwell on the topic, but ask yonr readers to
be content with the assurance that no
tinman eye ever rested on such revolting
objects as were presented by the battle
fields around Sedan. Let them fapey mass
es of colored rags glued together with blood
and brains , and pinned into strange shapes by
fragments of bones. Let them conceive men’s
bodies without heads, legs without bodies,
heaps of human entrails attached to red
and blue cloth, and disembowelled corpses
in uniform; bodies lying about in ali atti
tudes,
WITH SKULLS SHATTERED, FACES BLOWN
OFF, HIPS SMASHED,
bones, flesh, and gay clothing all pounded
together as if brayed in a mortar, extend
ing for miles, not very thick iu any one
place, but recurring perpetually for weary
hours, and then they cannot, with the most
vivid imagination, come up to the sicken
ing reality of that butchery. No night
mare could be so frightful. ' Several times
I came on spots were there were two horses
lying dead together in harness, killed by
the same Iragment. Several times 1 saw
four, five, and six meu, four, five and six
horses, all killed by the explosion of one
projectile, and in one place there lav no
less than eight French soldiers who must
have been struck down by the bursting of
a shell over a company, for they lay all
round in a circle with their feet inwards,
each shattered in the head or chest by a
piece of shell and no other dead being
within a hundred yards of them. A curious
and to me unaccountable phenomenon was
the blackness of most of the faces of the
dead. Decomposition had not set in, for
they were killed only the day before.—
Another circumstance which struck me
was the expression of agony on many
faces. Death by the bayonet is agonizing,
and those who die by steel, open-eyed and
open-mouthed, have an expression of pain
on the features, with protruding tonaue.
A musket ball, which is at once vital, does
not seem to cause much pain, and the
features are composed and quiet, sometimes
with a sweet smile on the lips. But the
prevailing expression on this field of the
faces which were not mutilated was one of
terror and of agony unutterable. There
must have been a hell of torture raging
within that, semi-circle in which the earth
was torn asunder from all sides with a real
tempest of iron hissing, screeching, and
bursting into the heavy masses at the hands
of an unseen enemy. I cannot, imagine
anything so trying to the bravest man as
to meet death almost ingloriously in such
a scene as that—nothing so maddening to a
a soldier as to be annihilated without a chance
of vengeance —nothing so hwtul to the fugi
tive as to see his comrades blown to frag
ments all around him. It is well tiiat wives
and mothers and fond sisters were spared
the sight of their belov.ed ones, and it is
well that in France it is only mothers and
sisters who will have to deplore the slain.
Whether the Prussians buried their dead
early—the night of the battle itself—or not,
I cannot tell, but their losses were almost
nothing if they were to be estimated by the
number of bodies on the field. Soldiers
well know how deceptive is the appearance
of ground viewed from an elevated point;
and during the battle which raged for
fifteen miles before and around ns there
were outbursts of firing from valleys and
knolls which seemed purposeless, but which
were at once ex;*! lined when the positions
were gained. I was surprised, knowing the
French had capitulated, and that the Em
peror had surrendered, to see great columns
of the German army in motion towards the
heights over the Meuse, and the Sixth Corps
and the Bavaiian Corps, in reserve, hasten
tening up in the same direction. But it
seems that
GENERAL WIMPFFEN, WHEN HE HEARD
THE TERMS,
declared that he would die sooner than
sign them. lie could not think his situa
tion was so desperate. He was Informed
that if he preferred the destruction of his
army it was his own affair; but to show
him that such destruction was inevitable,
maps were produced, and the position and
force of the corps of the German army and
of its batteries indicated. If at noon the
capitulations weie not agreed to the attack
on Sedan would commence.
Gen. Wimpffen was in a deplorable con
dition, and one which his brave enemies
commiserated. He had arrived only two
days before from Algeria. He found an
army already beaten to his hands. Mar
shal McMahon was wonnded early in the
day, struck in the back and hip by a piece
of shell or ball, and Wimpffen had to take
command of the troops without knowing
the Marshal’s plans, or even the disposition
of the corps on the plateaux over Sedan,
except through others. “And now my
name will go down linked with a humiliat
ing capitulation for all time!" To make
assurance doably sure, and to show that
the gros bataillons were on the side of the
victors, this display of force was made all
around Sedan, and when l got to the
heights of Donchery the plains at our feet
were covered with the masses of the Prus
sian army. The Wurtembergers had come
up from the direction of Mezieres ; the Ba
varians were on the right of the second
army. The hill-tops were black with
troops, and all along them clustered the
batteries in position. It was not a bright
day, but the atmosphere was clear and the
position of the French admitted of their
further study. The Meuse twists in such
an extraordinary way that no one would
suspect its stream runs iu many places
right across what seems a continuous cham
pagne and undulating land, and thus it
was that the semi-circular bluff above the
village of Floing, on which the cavalry
charges and many most interesting epi
sodes of the fight went on, comes close to
the bluff over Donchery, although the road
to it must wind for six or seven miles by
the banks of the river, in a course which
cannot be seen from the bluff. North of
Floing stands a mamelon, or conical hill,
with a fenced patch of forest (firs) on the
summit. At each side ol this wood the
Prussian batteries, which brought such
ruin on the defenders of the intrenched
plateau over Floing, were established.—
This hill is about three-quarters of a mile
from the ridge over Floing, and inside
the ridge the French were intrenched—a
breastworking taking the natural line of
the slope, aud a series o t detached epaule
mentß being formed higher np. Now, It is
purely the old story of Chlum over again.
Generals ought to watch the weather. It may
be true that McMahon’s force did not per
mit him to occupy the mamelon. In that
case his position was very weak on the
northeast; byt it was worth making a
strenuous effort to do it. At all eventß, he
should have got a great strength of artil
lery to sweep it and check Prussian occu
pation.
BUT IT WAS A FOGGY MORNING.
The weather, as well as the gros bataillons,
helped the Prussians. Their advance and
their passage of the Meuse below Don
chery, by two pontoon bridges, weie un
noticed ; so, apparently, was their appjbach
to the wood. The force which Marshal
McMahon had at his disposal consisted of
the First, Fifth, Seventh, and Twelfth
Corps, with part of the Sixth Corps. \ It is
thought that they may have reacheqUO,-
000 men, with 400 guns, but I have nfc pre
cise information as to their strength in
either, nor will it be known for somedays.
It is almost ridiculous to supposi that
McMahon, witli an enormous army mder
his nose, and with a river between hi i and
them, should not have watched mos jeal
ously the Slightest indication of an inten
tion to throw pontoons across, and have
tned to vex and defeat it; but the Prus
sians believe he was not informed *f the
existence of the bridges, and that tlnir ap
perance before Floing was almost a sur
prise. Everything about the war is a surprise
from beginning to end. The prisonersisay it
was believed they could hold out fqr five
weeks iu the intrenched position they had
made. The batteries of the Fifth and
Eleventh Army Corps demolished their
confidence. From the plateau of Ploiug
the ground falls towards the Meuse, but
retains its elevation and bluff-like forma
tions towards the north, cut by several
deep ravines running generally nort'j aud
south. In one of these hollows, sweeping
in a semicircle towards Sedan, lie the vil
lages of La Chappelle, Illey, Givonne, &c.
Woods on the summits of the rid res or
sections formed by ravines conceal tie fea
tures of (he country from a general view.
Sedan itself screens a good deal of the
field from the eye. On the right, towards
Bezeilles and over the road by which the
Prince of Saxony advanced, the woods are
so thick as to look like a continuous forest.
THE POSITION.
Any one witli a good map (Reyman’s
Special Karte will do) can get an idea of
the position and natiire of the ground by
filling the line from Cazal by Floing. and
so on round by Givonne to Bazeilles, and
he can mark the effect by cutting up the
ground of the two little rivulets which
flow into the Meuse east of Sedan. There
were outposts in the villages towards Mou
zon, but generally the ground held bv the
French was Included within this semicir
cular line. The army of the Crown Prince
of Saxony, consisting of three corps and of
the Prussian Guards, came from the east
side, aud had to deal with the principal
force of tiie French. It was at one time
exposed to an offensive movement, ami had
to attack positions most savagely defended,
including those which covered the depots.
One division of this army was not engaged
at all, but the losses were severe. (One
battalion of the Queen’s Regiment, of the
Guards, the Augusta, lost 28 officers and
50ft men.) The Bavarians attacked Ba
zeilles and the works of Sedan. Os the
Crown Prince’s army on the west, only
the Fifth and Eleventh Corps attacked,
aud all the divisions of these were not
equally engaged. The Wurtembergers
watched Mezieres towards Donchery on
the left, covering the bridges. The Sixth
Army Corps was in reserve. Altogether,
there were about, 170,00 ft men engaged and
in reserve on the attacking force at the
very least, and if we take McMahon to
have had 110,000, and count the prisoners
and capitulated 90,000 off, there remains
20,000 to be accounted for as killed or
wounded. The disparity in force was,
however, more than compensated by the
position held by the Freueh as long as it
was not bulged in or contracted; but as
soon as they allowed their line to lie forced
they were exposed to a converging fire
from the semicircle closing in from east
and west and north, and put in desperate
straits. Then there only remained the
chance of breaking the fence and of
forcing back one or other army, and their
efforts were directed to repulse the Crown
Prince of Saxony, with the result known
by this time to ail the world. The Prus
sian guns were j.
AS SUPERIOR IN NUMBER jß^vO'f Eß i
in fact, if Marshal I. he
< with
an
ii-:,
of '
Ii , 1..
In',over
in :i r i,) ,'..
iJH • ii■
du res.
f|LTIMORR PH<JWF“ \
Beyond the torfn- a \
sented itself. tohie la jrsSld 3 s5, ar l “ ,!
railway station there tP P c^
prisoners, nn
of Win temburgers. aoont
2,000 in number, and we!% tte"seversf differ
ent regiments, comprising all arms drawn
up as if in military order, to receive ra
tions, their offldmM dowi their
names and tb#tr numbers.—
They were a rej^i'atelv tfflfc bodjyof men,
taking them alf w a F *r,ny were too
young—mere bovs—but&ibn in their de
pression, after a night of cold, affeP a day
of terrible trial, they had that, military as
distinguished from a warlike air which is
characteristic of the race,
A CONTRAST TO THE SLOUCHING, SHAMBLING
look of the men who were guarding them.
Turcos and zouaves, lancers, ChAsseurs
d’Afriqne, hussars, cuirassiers, artillery
men, chasseurs and line were there in
ranks, many lying down, others fast asleep
—let ns hope, happy in their dreams, poor
wretches 1 They had nearly all their great
coats and cloaks, but the miserable throng
looked as gay as a flower garden, owing to
the variety of kepis, turbans and shakos.
Further on lay a great spoil of the Prus
sian proper—a quadrangle filled with an
army without arms—as many men as we
can show royalty on a field-day atAlder
shott, probably twelve thousand men—
such a spectacle I have never seen yet in
my life. There seemed to be whole battal
ions of them—live hundred and six hun
dred of single regiments. It is very un
wise in a civilian to speak with prisoners
of war i>: he has not authority to do so.
Sentries are very jealous on that Score, so
I could not make inquiries. The men were
passive and quiet—no movement, no voices
in the multitude. Outside, here and there,
like sheep seeking ,o regain the flock, were
wounded men, limping in tivos, as if for
company's sake, quite free, as their cap
tors knew that a man wounded is too sen
sible to flee from his only chance of cure
and care and food. Streaming along the
road there was almost a procession of such
objects, now Prussians, now French, and
now a Prussian and a Frenchman togeth
er, with shattered hands or limping gait
or horrid face wounds. 1 made for Floing
in order to begin
THE REVIEW OF THE BATTLE FIELD.
Tiie road was crowded with regiments
and a nmunition wagons, and, to my won
der, 1 saw it winding for three of fotir miles
by the river bank towards the village or
little town, the steeple of which looks very
near from the Prince’s hill. About a mile
outside the village, on the road side, I came
upon dead horses, and then I remembered
the dust, the firingoi the Prussian infantry,
and the wild confusion of what 1 thought was
a rush of runaway steeds. And so it was,
but the riders lay further on—cuirassiers
and lancers, who had either attempted to
cut their way through or had fallen in pur
suit of the Prussians. I regret to say that
the sheets I sent from the field contained
rny notes of the times of the occurrences I
observed, as I cannot now remember them.
There were many cuirasses strewd in the
field and by the roadside outside Floing,
and here end there among the turnips,
wurzel, and potatoes, which the Prussians
were gathering, lay dead men—all French.
But there were pickel haubes ants needle
guns lying about also, and multitudes of
cowhide knapsacks. After a most irritat
ing ride, getting over useless ground, I got
into the village which lies directly under
the cliff-like side of the plateau. From the
south side there is a steep stony lane, a con
tinuation of it winding up north to if again,
a he side is in places scraped for pal dies of
vines and vegetables, fenced with stone
walls, and enclosures round small ealtins.
rloing was full of wounded mei. The
white flag and red cross floated all - ound;
but it needed not that to tell ther i were
victims of the fight here, for pal, faces
ani bandaged limbs were at every if orway
and window. The Place was ahnpst im
passable, owing to a wreck of arms, shasse
pots, needle-guns, helmets, swords, accou
trements, bayonets, knapsacks, litU'ed all
oyer with regimental accounts, tapers,
“ livrets ” —here and there wagons ai 1 com
missariat carts, ammunition boxes, ttmbrils
—things that had cost poor Frenchmen far
away a great deal of money, for wbU ti there
was a barren return indeed. I preeked my
horse up the steep, the beast sniffjSg and
starting at the dead chargers which lay
tumbled over in the fatal onset. Some
Prussians were lying in the little church
yard covered with blankets and wreaths of
flowers on the breasts till the grave diggers
came; rude crosses marked mounds which
showed whore they liad done their work; a
few hundred yards and there caiue in view
the epaulement; over the ridges inside were
rowsofFreuch. The ground Ireland was
rent in every direction and scarred by shell.
THE SEAMS AND FRAGMENTS AND FURROWS
told how they had met their death. Many
were bnried by the simple process of throw
ing down the bank. It Is very likely there
were many men there who had dug their
own graves, singing and laughing all the
while. These men had all been clean de
stroyed by the batteries on the mamelon,
and were thus rendered unable to prevent
the advance of the Prussian Infantry to the
village and up the slopes. The grouud on
the top is partly in cultivation—turnips,
carrots and potatoes, which the Prussians
were digging up; and the plateau was
dotted with burial parties, medical men
and idlers. The dead were generally boot
less, stockings and foot-gear gone, coats
were torn open, pockets turned inside out
by plunderers. About 12 o’clock, while I
was on the plateau, a squad of the gend
armerie swept off the stragglers and order
ed them to bury the dead. An irregular
line of dead horses almost at right angles to
the line of the epaulement indicated the po
sition of the French batteries, which made
a long and gallant but ineffectual attempt
to check the murderous Prussian guns,
flanking and raking it from the ridge be
yond, at the same time that it was torn to
pieces by the batteries posted on the marne
lou. Men of the Thirty-second French and
ot the Eighty-third Prussian, the Thirty
seventy and Eighty-ninth French, were
lying together. A few Prussians scattered
on the trampled earth indicated the site of
the first successful charge. Further on to
wards the river there was evidence of the
terrible retribution. Such heaps of horses,
gray and white! And here were the luck
less riders as they fell—Chasseurs d’Af
rique, in light blue; men with mi kepis,
marked “1.,” with bine band, and peaks
lined with green, whom I conjecture to
have been liussars; and men in light blue,
with white facings; the luckless Fourth
Regiment of Lancers, the Eighth Lancers,
not more fortunate, what, once belonged to
the life and beauty of the gallant brigade
which had tested the lance against the
needle gun. Atnond these bodies, which
were not thick, but scattered all over the
plain, iav men of the Sixth Artillery Regi
ment. Near them was a sort of eartiiwork,
very rude, with embrasures, six in number,
for mitrailleuses, witli a profusion of empty
cartridge cases all about it. The direction
of the two charges—the very formation of
the Prussian companies which met. them—
could be traced, and then the course of the
flying cavalry round the flanks in a vain
attempt, to escape and reform. On tills
field there were here and there wounded
men moving uneasily in the blankets
around them, and waiting for the arrival
of the cacoiets and ambulances. Prussian
and French medical officers were going
over the field together.
THE CAVALRY CHARGE.
Let us leave the scene of the cavalry
charge. Never can I forget the prelude.—
When I saw the French who had lined the
advanced trench on the Ist retiring to what
I no"/ see was another epaulement, where
they were again raked by the flanking bat
teries of the outer ridge and ponnded and
brayed by the mamelon guns, I did not
knowhow they had suffered, and could not
conceive why they retreated. The Prus
sians coming np from Floiug were invisible
to me. Never can I forget the sort, of agony
with which I witnessed those who first, came
out on the plateau raising their heads and
looking around for an enemy, while, hidden
from view, a thick blue band of French in
fantry was awaitiug them, and a brigade of
cavalry was ready on their flank below. I
did not know that Floing was filled with
advancing columns. There was bnt a wide,
extending, loose array of skirmishers, like
a flock of rooks, on the plateau. Now the
men began to Arc at T.lie heads over the
bank lined by the French. This drew such
a flash of musketry as tumbled over some
and staggered the others, but their com
rades came scrambling up from the rear,
when suddenly the first, block of horse in
the hollow shook itself up and the line, in
beautiful - order, rushed up the slope.—
The onnetwas not to be withstood. The Prus
sians were ckngfTt en ilngrdnt 'delit. ' Those
I nearest the ridge slipped over into the de
clivitous ground ; those in advance, run
ning in vain, were swept away. But the
impetuosity of the charge could not be stayed.
Men and horses came tumbling down into
the road, where they were disposed of by
the Prussians in the gardens, while the
troopers on the left of the line, who swept
down the lane in a cloud of dust, were
almost exterminated by the infantry in the
village. There was also a regul ir cavalry
encounter, I fancy, in the plains below,
but T cannot tell at what time; the
Cuirassiers, trying to cut. their way out,
where destroyed, and a charge of two
Prussian squadrons, which did not
quite equal expectations, occurred. The
feat of these unfortunate cavaliers only
cleared the plateau for a little time. In a
few minutes up came the spiked helmets
again over the French epaulement, crossing
their sabred comrades, and, therefore, all alive
to the danger of cavalry. They advanced in
closer order, but still skirmishing, and one
long, black parallelogram was maintained
to rallv on. As the skirmishers got to the
ridge they began to Are, but the French in
the second line of epaulement soon drove
them back by a rattling fusillade. The
French rushed out of the epaulement in
pursuit, still firing. At the same moment
a splendid charge was executed on the
Prussians, before which the skirmishers
rallied, on what seemed to me to be still a
long parallelogram. They did not form
square. Some Prussians too far on were
sabred. The troopers, brilliantly led, went
right onwards in a cloud of dust, but when
they were within a couple of hundred yards
of the Prussians one simultaneous volley
burst out of the black front and flank,
which enveloped all in smoke. They were
steady soldiers who palled trigger there.—
Down came horse and man ; the array was
utterly ruined. There was left in front of
that deadly infantry but a heap of white
and gray horses—a terrace of dead and
dying and dismounted men, and flying
troopers, who tumbled at every instant.
Afore toUd dissipation of a bright pageantry
could not be. There was another such scene
yet, to come. I could scarce keep the field
glass to my eyes as the second and last
body of cavalry—which was composed of
light horse also—came thundering up out
of the hollow. They were not so bold as
the men on the white horses, who fell,
many of them, at the very line of bayonets.
The horses of these swerved as they came
upon the ground covered with carcasses,
and their line was broken, but the squad
ron leaders rode straight to death. Once
again
THE CURLING SMOKE SPURTED
out from the Prussian front, and to the
rear aud right and left flew the survivors
of the squadrons. The brown field was
flecked with spots of many colors, and,
trampling on the remains of that mass of
strength and courage of man and horse, the
Prussians, to whom supports were fast
hastening up right and left and rear,
pressed on towards the inner epaulement
and became engaged with the French in
fantry, who maintained for some time a
steady rolling Are in reply to the volleys of
the Prussians. To me the French force
seemed there very much superior in num
ber. But they had lost courage, and what
was left of it was soon dissipated by the
advance of a Prussian battery, which gal->
loped up to the right flank of their infantry
and opened a very rapid Are, to which thepe
was no French battery to reply. The
French left the epaulement and made for a
belt of wood, dropping fast as they re
treated, but facing round and firing still.
In a few momenta more the plateau was
swarming with the battalions of the
Eleventh Corps, and the struggle there was
over. Only for a minute, however, because
from the flanks of the wood came out a line
of French infantry. The musketry Are was
renewed ; but it was evident the Prussians
were not to be galnsayed. Their advance
was only checked that they might let their
artillery play while their columns assisted
it hy incessant volleys. At the .time I
stated in my former letter the plateau over
Floiug was won. A, fierce onslaught by
tfie French, made after they had retired be
hind the wood, only added to their losses.
The Crown Prince’s army, notwithstand
ing the cavalry success at the outset, had
by 3 o’clock won they key of the position
of the French right with, comparatively
small loss. It was startling to be ad
dressed, just as I was about leaving this
part of the position, by an English voice.
There stood the speaker, not of the House of
Commons, but a member of it, Mr. Winterbo
tham, with the Johanniter badge upon his
arm, mnch.interested in’what he saw for the
first time—a battle field; and not able, I
fear, to do much in the way of aiding the
wounded, bnt full of zeal. I was about
going towards Kedan when a staff officer
informed me that the approach to the city
was dangerous, as the Turcos—everything
is laid to them—fired on officers in uniform.
It was necessary, therefore, to make a de
tour and turn inside the line of Prussian
sentries, bnt the deviation brought us more
immediately on the scene of other combats,
and to the ridge running in the direction
of Bt. Menges, where a French Cuirassier
charge is said to have been delivered,
though I saw no trace, of it. A French
soldier, one of several who were either
prisoners at large or who had ventured ont
of Sedan, gave me a direction to find Ba
zeilles, and within three hundred yards the
French sentries paced up and down the
green ramparts, but did not fire. Captain
von Girl assured us they had wounded a
son of Gen. Freyberg, and fired repeatedly
on the Prussians; others repeated the state
ment, adding that they had killed and
wounded some French prisoners, and had
wounded the Prussians who were guarding
them. The ground I crossed towards Gi
vonne gave a view of the Bois de dos du
Loup and of the Bois de Francheville, por
tions of the great Foret de Sedan through
which the Saxon Prince’s army had to
fight its way. Everywhere were the traces
of the terrible cross-fire of artillery which
rendered the battle so hopeless as the day
wore on. Near a field hospital south of La
Chappelle there- were great numbers of
dead French, further on the remains of a
reserve ammunition train—numbers of dead
so great that they explained the protracted
musketry from a large body of French in
fantry cut off by the rapid advance of the
Eleventh Corps at one side and the Fifth
Corps at the other, so t hat the only resource
left was to soil their lives as dearly as pos
sible. There was between this point and that
at which the right of the Saxon Prince’s
army beat back the French aiuj gained the
plateau only an interval which could be
covered by musketry fire at long ranges;
through this a lew thousand Frenchmen
fought their way into Belgium, but a strong
column which made an effort to get
through also was overcome by artil’ery tire,
and suffered fearfully in their retreat over
the brow of the hill, where they were also
exposed to a very destructive fire of mus
ketry. The trooosof the second army were
in force at, this point. A post of infantry
stopped us to pas- inspection in the oivll
ist possible manner, but then, as on other
occasions through the day, it was insisted
that I and my companions were “Franso
zen," though a Frenchman would not have
admitted it if lie hail heard us speak. The
village of Givoime lay at our feet, and as a
soldier led the vay, a “ cheerful ” but care
ful young officer came out from a cottage
and hailed ns. The production of papers
produced a most agreeable result. Our
young friend, as he proved himself in a
minute, was a descendant of a family of
Shetland, as I understood him, named Bar
ton, and belonged to the Queen Augusta
regiment of the Guards. He led ns to the
room in the hovel where dinner was laid in
camp for him and for the officers of the
company, who insisted on our taking “ the
Queen’s wine,” and partaking of their ra
tions ; but onr banquet was short,, for an
order arrived at 3:30 for the party to move,
and as they were hastily packing up I pro
ceeded onmy way, and ascended the ravine,
arriving at the ground where the Bavarians
touched the left of the second army as
soon as Iht latter had carried the positions
in front of them. It was always (lie same
story. Lines of dead Frenchmen mangled
hy artillery fire, some Prussians, some Ba
varians, principally killed by the chasse
pot. Now we arrived on the Bavarian’s
field of action, which extended from Ba
zeilles to Sedan. In their gallant and most,
injudicious attack they lost 3,000 men. It
is said there was a misunderstanding.
Their advance column seized the railway
station at Sedan. It is maintained at
headquarters that there were explicit or
ders given that, they were not, to develope
their attack till the Crown Prince ot Saxo
ny had come ont on t heir right,, but the au
thorities of their own corps declare the or
ders they received were not quite to be
thus understood.
THE BAVARIANS OE-yON D$R TANN’S CORPS,
on whom devolved the difficult task of car
rying the village or town of Bazeilles and
Balan (a suburb of Sedan, outside the for
tifications), suffered enormously. They
were exposed to a fire of infantry in the
houses, and to the guns of the woiks and
the musketry from the parapets. The in
habitants joined in the defense, and as
soon as the Bavarians had crossed the
Meuse by their pontoons ani by the rail
way bridge they could receive but Tittle
protection from their artillery placed on
the heights. The French made the most,
strenuous attempts to repulse them, in
. which the marines were particularly dis
tinguished; and three divisions of Bava
rians, which began to fight at 4 o’clock,
were exposed to three distinct onslaughts
from the town and from the corps under
the walls. Atone time it appeared as if
they would be overpowered, although it
seemed as if success against them would
scarcely have secured the French army
from its ultimate fate. It is believed by
the Bavarians that McMahon himself was
wonnded very early in the day, when di
recting his troops in an offensive move
ment against Bazeilles.
GENERAL DUCROS THEN TOOK COMMAND
of the whole army, but General de VVimpf--
fen producing a sealed letter, showed that
lie was authorized to assume the control of
the operations of the army in case of anv
accident to Marshal McMahon. The Mar
shal was wonnded early in the morning,
and according to the reports of Freuch
officers, prisoner to the Bavarians ; there
was adifference of opinion between General
Dueros and General Wimpffen respecting
the plan of attack which the French adopt
ed at one period of the day as the best
means of defense. Having beaten the Bi
varians out of Balan at onetime, the French
made a rnn in the direction of Illy, as if de
termined to cut their way through on the
flank of the Saxon army, and pass towards
Metz. But the Crown Prince of Saxony
had by that time resumed the offensive, and
had brought an overwhelming force to
block their way. They were driven back,
delivering the Bavarians from the stress t o
which they had been exposed. Their di
visions advanced once more, and Bazeilles,
or as much as remained of it, was firmly
occupied. But the fight about Balan lasted
much later. Here it was, according to Ba
varian reports,
THAT THE EMPEROR,
declaring that he only served as a private
soldier, went with the attacking column,
composed of the remnants of various re
giments, to drive out the Bavarians. But
the artillery on the heights above the road
were too much for troops shaken by inces
sant fighting and fearful losses. Shell and
shot rained fast about the Emperor , one of
them bursting dose to his person and envelop
ing him in smoke. The officers around en
treated him to retire, and the Bavarians
quickly following occupied Balan and en
gaged the French on the glacis of the fort.
I cannot say whether this was previous to
the period referred to by General Wimpffen
In his address to the army. He speaks
therein of a supreme moment, when it was
necessary to make a final effort and cut
their way through the masses of the' enemy
at any hazard. But of all that great host
of 90,000 men, there were only 2,000, he
says, left who answered to the appeal. Os
the remainder there were probably 20,000
in the hands of the Prussians, but 60,000
men, deducting killed and wounded, had
by this time become an utterly disorgan
ized mass, without cohesion, “willing to
wound but yet afraid to strike,” aud crush
ed out of all semblance of military vitality
by an overwhelming and most murderous
artillery, of which the moral effect was at
least as great as the physical. The bitter
ness of recrimination between officers and
men shows that long before the battle a
radical element of force wts wanting.—
There was not only a deficiency of cordial
relations in their kind between the officer
and the soldier ; but a worse evil still—an
actual apprehension on the part of the
officers of those whom they were to com
mand—a fear to enforce the ordinary rules of
discipline, lest the soldier should become un
manageable altogether. The scene cannot be
either imagined ordescribed which occured
when the armv, or that uniformed rabble,
had been fairly driven in by the beaters, to be
shot down at will. The French artillery had
practically ceased to exist as a protecting
arm. The guns on the works are ridicu
lous small ordnance of the date of 1815,
with a few heavy pieces here and there,
and Sedan, commanded completely from
the south bank of the Mense, was to all
intents and purposes an open town, with
the inconvenience of having a walled en
dente. to embarrass the movements of the
troops. The Emperor retired, I believe,
within the place, but not surely for safety,
but rather to escape from the surging mass of
impotent soldiery. There was a rain ~of
Prussian and Bavarian bombs upon the
town, filled with terrified citizens who had
no time to escape. The troops outside had
been fighting without food since the morn
ing, and there were no resources within the
city to meet their wants. They were in an
angry and terrible mood, upbraiding their
officers, mutinous, and every shell that fell
increased the evil of their spirit. To one
of many missiles was now reserved a great
mission. A shell fell into a warehouse or
manufactory in which was stored some in
flammable material. A vast volume of
flame rushed for a moment in the air, and
a volume of thick white smoke which tow
ered and spread out so as to overshadow
half the city gave rise to the apprehension
on one side and expectation on the other
that some central magazine had gone np
But no noise ensued. Still, at the moment
the resolve was taken that Sedan and all
that it contained should be placed in the
power of the victor, in the belief that it
was impossible do resist with any prospect
but that of ruin complete, however linger
ing.
THE EMPEROR COULD NOT OPPOSE COUNSELS
dictated by obvious prudence, nor could he
encourage the despair of brave men. A
white flag was called for, but none was
forthcoming. A lancer's fltg was raised
aloft. General Laurlston stood upon the
battlements aud waived it, while a trum
peter sounded, but in that infernal din
neither sight nor sound attracted the be
siegers, and it was only when the gate was
opened, after attempts in which officers
and men were killed and wonnded, that, the
Prussians recognized the first omen oftheir
stupendous victory. The firing suddenly
ceased after the discharge of a few drop
ping shots, and then, as all along the blood
stained hills and valleys in which the
smoke of. battle had been hanging, the news,
or rather the instinct, prevailed that the
enemy had asked for terms, there arose, 1
am told, cheers, such as only can be given by a
triumphant soldiery. Shakos and salrres rose
in the air. What an additional pang of
agony that must have been to the wounded
French, who felt that they had given their
blood in vain, while the Prussians beside
them, maimed as they were, tried to swell
with their feeble voices the chorus of joy !
An officer related to me that he saw a huge
Prussian .who had been lying with his hand
to his side in mortal agony, rise suddenly to
his feel as he comprehended (he reason of the
ringing voices, utter a loxul hurrah, wave Ms
hands on high, and then, as the blood rushed
from his wound, fall dead, across a French
man.
The officer who came out eventually and
met General Moltke in consultation was, I
believe, General Rcille, who was the officer
in attendance on the King wlien he was at
( ’ompeigne. He was the hearer of an auto
graph letter from the Emperor addressed
to his Majesty, and written in no agitated
hand. You already know the terms: “Mon
i’r ere—May ant pent movrir ala tele demon
ormee, Je depose inon epee an pied de, voire
Majeste .” This letter was immediately con
veyed to the King, who, with Count Bis
marck, Geucral Moltke, and his staff, were
looking down fiom a height about Wade
linconrt on the extinction of an empire.—
Ills Majesty’s answer was courteous and
firm, and meantime General Wimpffen was
informed that the term i offered to the army
was the surrender of the whole force, guns,
horses, and material to the Prussians. I
do not know whether the officers were then
exempted from general surrender, but, any
way, the French eotrfmander declared he
would sooner perish in the field than sign
such a disgraceful capitulation; and. so (the
sun went down in the west, lighting the path
of the King to Vendresse, through the most
enthusiastic ovation from all the soldiery along
the road, south of the Meuse. The Crown
Prince received a not less joyous reception
as he proceeded back to Ohimery. It was
known that the Emperor had absolutely
surrendered, and that the army was about
to capitulate. Asa German soldier ex
pressed it, “ Kaisercaptirt: amicecapitulirt."
The street, in the mean little village in which
♦he Prince lodged presented an I’strfcoiTli
nary spectacle. It was lined by soldiers
holding lighted candles, which did not,
flicker in the quiet air. It. was almost a
disappointment to them when the Crown
Prince came unattended by the Emperor.—
And what a people these good French are
to govern ! The cottagers feigned to par
take of the joy at the overthrown of their
Imperial m ister. They stuck lights in the
window. My host, an old soldier of Africa
in Louis Phillippe’s time, who had often
doubtless shouted “ Vive VEm.pere.nrf too,
begged of me to lend him a second candle
to put, in his window, for, said he, “ Cela
sera plus digne." It. was late
WHEN THE CROWN PRINCE SAT DOWN TO
DINNER,
and for the first time during the campaign
a toast was proposed by his Roy-il High
ness, “ The King and the Army.” Ir, was
drunk in champagne—-also an innovation
at the royal table—which was intended for
the Emperor Napoleon, aud was captured
with other stores by a Prussian dragoon
regiment, and presented to the ‘Crown
Prince. Although the army in general be
lieved that peace was now secured, those
around the Prince’s table discussed the
question with less security of the result.—
The hesitation to sign the capitulation did
not signify much, for a night’s reflection,
strengthened and matured by the sight of
the preparations for maintaining possession
of what remained ojf the French army by
force, would, it was felt, render a positive
refusal out of the question. The French
officers at the parley had admitted that the
demoralization of the troops was complete.
They were apprehensive even that the
Prussians who might return with the an
swer to ihe Emperor’s letter might be fired
at; and one of them, applying to his own
men, said, “ II tire sue nous leurs offkiers." —
Orders were sent to the various corps to
close up round the town, and when the
watch-fires were* alight Sedan seemed a
black spot in a broad belt of fire, which
lighted np the heavens. What a night it
must have been for the wounded cannot be
imagined by those who have not seen how
great the sufferings which kind nature,
however, appeases, generally as time wears
on and life ebbs away.”
Six Hundred Tons of Cotton, Rice,
*&c., in one Cargo for New York.— The
splendid iron steamship South Carolina,
Captain Adkins, not only has brought in
the heaviest cargo of general merolmndjse
ever entered at the Charleston Custom
House from New York, but takes out the
very largest quantity of cotton, &c., ever
cleared at this port, besides 151 barrels
rosin, 73 bales domestics, 35 casks rice, and
sundries. The South Carolina carries about
2,300 bales of large Western cotton, weigli
iug 1,114,647 pounds, and equivalent to
2,550 hales of 400 pound cotton. This es
tablishes the large capacity claimed for the
South Carolina by her owners, and will be
ol great benefit to our business community
this cotton year. —Charleston Courier, 23d.
A Rebuke for Sheridan, Butler,
Sherman, and Other Yankee Generals.
—Two Prussian regiments having commit
ted excesses in the little French towns of
Falkenberg and Remilly, such as pillaging
houses and destroying property, Count Bis
marck has ordered the names of these two
regiments, and those of thetr officers, to be
published in all German papers. The Ger
mans have reimbursed the French inhabit
ants as far as was in thpir power. A rig
orous examination has been instituted by
Bismarck, and the regiments sent to the
rear, being stripped of their banners and
all emblems of honor. The guilty regi
ments were the Second Hesse Darmstadt
Infantry aud the Twelfth Prussian Line.
Yankee Enterprise.— lt is reported
that a promiueut New York ship-owner
has offered to bet $50,000 that he has a
steamer which can beat by twenty-six
hours any steamer which has yet crossed
the Atlantic. Also, that the steamer is of
American build, and will be commanded by
an American; and that, if the bet should
be accepted, it would enable him to show
the world something new about American
•steamers.
New corn is selling at $1 per bushel in
Covington.
BY TELteGRArtL
I Special to the Con*tltutionall*t.
FROM ATLANTA.
Atlanta, September 23.
SENATE.
The Gainesville and Ellijay Railroad bill
was reconsidered, State aid stricken out,
and passed.
After a stirring and protracted debate,
the relief bid passed by about two ma
jority.
Bullock vetoes the Savannah bill, on the
ground that It conflicts with the constitu
tion, because it requires three mouths’
residence, and fails to provide an opportu
nity for the free exercise of the preference
of electors in the selection of municipal
officers. He thinks that concentrating
voters at the City Hall would result in se
rious disturbances, or the use of harsh and
unnecessary measures for the preservation
of order, as in the last Presidential election.
The measure was tabled.
The Senate adjourned to Monday.
HOUSE.
Scott moved to reconsider t.lie tax bill.
Lost by 51 yeas to 58 nays.
The House concurred in the Senate
amendment to the school bill, except in
striking out section 22.
The bill to make penal the sale of agri
cultural products after night in the coun
ties of Brooks, Stewart, Early, Thomas,
Butts, Sumter, Macon, Schley, Columbia,
Clay, Polk, Quitman and Webster, passed
by 47 yeas to 43 nays.
A resolution, offered by Darnell, to in
vite the President and Cabinet to the State
Fair, was adopted by yeas 60 to nays 34.
A resolution to adjourn to Monday was
adopted by yeas 53 to nays 51.
W. P. Price has been nominated for both
terms in Congress in the sixth district.
Many Democrats are absent. The Radi
cals propose to pass the Akennan-no-elec
tion-bill and adjourn until after the Fair.
The negroes in Troup county have nomi
nated two oftheir own race to the Legisla
ture.
Democrats uud Conservatives should at
once return to their posts.
Meetings should at once be called to
petition for a fair and free election In No
vember.
« ——
l Associate.! Proas Dispatches.
EVENING DISPATCxES.
London, September 23—6 o’clock, P. M.
—A Berlin telegram, to be receiv'd! with
caution, has the following startling intelli
gence: “Russia is in motion, to seize the
Black Sea and probably the Dardanelles.
War between the Czar and the Sultan is
Imminent-”
Lunette No. 5, at Strasbourg, became the
object, of a terrible fire. The Prussians lost
manv, Including Commander Quitzow.
Notwithstanding the blockade, forty
four ships entered Stvinemund since the
2d of September.
Count de Palikao is with the Emperor.
The Princess Mathlide and Count Bene
dettt are at Brussels, During the sessions
of the British Scientific Association, Major
Sanndries presented a paper on the physical
geography of American emigration and
increased cotton production. The paper
was highly appreciated, especially its re
commendation to establish branches of the
Supply Association in the Southern States.
The newspapers also strongly approve
this scheme.
Reports from Paris, via Berlin, state that
all discipline is vanishing from Paris. The
soldiers are mutinous, and iu some cases
shot their officers.
Tours, September 23. —La France, claim
ing to write from unerring authority, gives
the following as the Prussian plan: The
advance Parisward to be regulated to bring
several corps before Paris on the 14th of
September; then Paris was to be turned
on 1 lie south, cutting communication with
Tours; Rom Versailles, as the Prussian
nualdtfffdflffi*; TtThy Wetb'Til IWfflSft FaHS'
until surrendered. Metz, Strasbourg and
Ton I hold out, and present, at least, a fort
night’s task. Meanwhile, the Prussians
will detach two corps to Lyons, Havre
an I Cherbourg, and send flying columns
throughout the country for forage; 75,000
cavalry for this service is expected from
Germany. A portion of the programme is
already realized. The writer reaffirms that
Steinmetz is disgraced because of heavy
losses inflicted by Bazaine.
The Journal, of this city, states that M.
M Magne, formerly Minister of Finance,
writes privately that shortly before the
change of Government, he paid on receipts
for 1,000,000 chassepots and 300,000 other
gnus which were never delivered
Madrid, September 23,—There is intense
excitement along the Mediterranean Sea
regarding the voinitn, which is spreading in
all directions. One thousand cases were
reported in Barcelona alone, 400 fatal.
Seventy thousand people fled from the city
to avoid the pestilence. The disease was
brought from Cuba in the steamer Maria
Pia.
Florence, September 23 Rome is com
pletely occupied. The Pope was allowed
to retain a guard of his own troops, but
restricted to Italian birth. The rest of his
army was dismissed.
It is thought the plebiscitum will occur
Sunday.
The prisoners captirred by the Italians
upon occupying Rome number 93,000, of
whom 4,500 are foreigners.
New York, September 23.—Five hun
dred Oiiinese will be at work in a few days
grading a railroad in New Jersey.
The Telegram has the following from
Paris: “Rappell abuses England for re
fusing to participate in negotiations trans
ferring Rome to Italy.”
The limes says: ‘ “ Neither the Demo
cratic nor Republican party is sacrificing
the German vote through sympathy with
the French Republic.”
(Tribune special, Paris Tuesday evening.)
—Egress from Paris is positively prohibit
ed. The Prussians reluse passes to or fro.
Prussian’s advance pickets are near
Malinaison between St. Germaine and Paris.
No French troops in sight. All French
troops have retired behind the Paris de
fenses. The country around is deserted,
only Prussians occupy the surrounding
country.
The Prussians have pontooned the Seine
below St. Germaine, where the army of the
Crown Prince Is stationed.
The siege of Metz becomes a mere block
ade.
NIGHT DISPATCHES.
Tours, September 23.—Effective measures
have been taken for the protection ol Or
leans and Tours.
There is no news from Paris.
The Prussians are withdrawing their
forces from other points to concentrate
around Paris. Their cavalry is incessant
ly in motiou, patrolling the country for
miles around the capital. Their object is
to prevent communication.
Paris will surely hold out and proceed
with the elections.
A corps of Spanish guerillas is forming
at Toulouse to assist in the defense of
Paris.
Gambetta has sent anew Prefect to take
charge of Haut Rhin. The recently ap
pointed Prefect of Bas Rhin, M. Valentine,
succeeded in entering Strasbourg.
Souppies, September 23.—The Prussians
eutered Fontainblean, and made a requisi
tion of 150,000 francs. They are marching
on Nemours, and a detachment is moving
on Orleans.
Rambouillkt, September 23.—The enemy
lias disappeared from Dourdan.
The London telegrams, postal at the
news rooms, that the Strasbourg theatre,
with 200 refugees, mostly women, was
burned by shells, have not been confirmed.
The inhabitants of Sevres sent a deputa
tion to demand protection from approach
ing Prussians, partly from the Reds and
partly from the Imperial functionaries.
New York, September 23.—A Tribune
special, from Paris, 22d, says: “ Attacks
on the Government continue more bitter
than ever, now we are shut up. Trochu’s
forces, sent to the front, having fallal to
check the enemy, fall back upon the origi
nal idea of defending Paris by Itself,”