%^. >5# \ w. A.^ b^ a; %#^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) A ■4;s i 7 ^ :/, 1.0 I.I ^la iiM Ui IM IIIII22 1.8 ll!lli 1.25 U 1.6 ^*J 6" »>• V, CM %y w ^, ^F . -^ i? ^;. / ^ ^ ^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MA'N STREET WEbt.rER,N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 u L.>* ^ > f • < ' I ' , ^' 7 , . . /. > ? - I SEDA]S\ ft*;'^''■ -'/ ^i;?: .-A" Rv F. CRESWELL HEVVETT. < ; - Surgeon British Army. PRICE 95 CENTS. TIAUPAX, N. S. PRINTED BY 1). H. FOWLER & CO., 161 HOLI.IS STREET. 1877. .>.-■ ■ ,- V if 1 . - ■ '5 I ■" J ,"'%'•, «>■* ^ <- '*■■.. ♦, K/EOOLIiEOTiOIsrS OF" SEDAN, By F. CRESWELL HEWETT, SoBOEON British Army. PRICE Q5 CENTS. HALIFAX, N. S. PRINTED BY D. H. FOWLER & CO., 161 HOLLIS STREET. 1877. N ' ' .• . J, B.\s»ftSf,: ■s » .f-rf^'^ ,^1^ >■. ■.■ ■■ f t I OWE an apology to my readers for the imperfect manner this pamphlet has been presented to them. At best, the experiences narrated, are fragmentary, and crudely rendered ; but as delivered in a reading for the redemption ot the Debt of Christ's Church Dartmouth, I have published them with the hope of further lightening the burden. RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. ' ■^' L'St^> Past miseries drift so quickly from our recollection, and events since the Franco-German war, have followed each other with such frightful rapidity, that its scenes have become to us almost matters of history; and we are already iu some daugerof forgetting the many war lessons to be learnt from the sufferings of 1870 — the utter break-down of the centralised svatem ot Intendance, of which the French were so proud, and which we were beginning to im- itate in our own service — the fatal effects of the want ot sanitary precautions, in both German and French field-hospitals and ambu- lances alike ; even the intolerable misery among the peasants, in- flicted by an army whose discipline was stricter, and whose arrange- ments more civilized than any which ever took the field. War, however of itself is so brutalising a thing, that, as was once said by a Prussian officer of high rank, "it two armies of angels were set to fight with each other, in six weeks they would become devils." The English did their best, both for the wounded in hospital aad the peasant victims of the war. About £600,000 was received by the different societies in money subscriptions alone, and it is hardly possible to estimate the value of the goods contributed be- sides. Little gratitude has been felt or expressed abroad for our exertions, except in individual cases by those who have themselves seen the vrork or huve been benefited personally by them. The feel- ing that nationally we have indeed "done" what we could," and the experience which we ought to gain for our own use, in the manage- ment of our Wai Services, are the only rewards of our labours which vf e shall get, or indeed can expect. Our interest was at that period centred around Paris, "one of the eyes of the world," as she must always be, in spite of her errors and her crimes ; yet nothing has happened more remarkable than the sudden capitulation of 70,000 men, and the instantaneous 'all of their master from being one ot the greatest potentates on earth down to the "Man of Sedan ;" and the first days of September, 6 RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. now nearly seven years ago (u year indeed for the world to look back upon), must always preserve their painfully dramatic interest, culm- inating in the summary punishment of the chief offenders fbr bring- ing on the war. The following ''notes" were taken on the spot, and at the timoi I being actively engaged in the work described at and about Sedan and Bazeilles: — Sedan h a pleasant town in French Planders, situated on the Meuse, in the heart of the beautiful scenery of the Poorest of Ardennes. The town is surrounded by Ion' hills, covered with orchards, vineyards, tobacco-fields and corn, backed by the great woods of oak, beach and pine, which extend on the side of Luxem- burg and Belgium for forty or fifty miles continuously. There are scarcely any roads, only great ridings, through the forest, where wolves and hours are hunted every winter, and deaths from wild beasts are not uncommon. In July the town was an extremely well-doing community, of about 12,000 inhabitants, with several large manufactories of cloth, whose origin dates as far back as the sixteenth century. These have descended, as ancient family properties, from father to son, and a great deal of old friendly feeling exists between the masters a., d workmen, instead of the fierce class antagonism which has be- come so general at Paris, in the north of France and elsewhere. When the war broke out, the good people of Sedan were quite out of the probable line of attack and defence, and took things easily, wove their cloth, prepared to gather in their grain, and dry their great tobacco leaves ; and, iu spite of the pacific influence of trade, upon even the French mind, expected, "with light hearts,'^ news of the "promenade a Berlin." Even when the tremendous events at Worth and Gravellotte happened, it did not occur to them tnat their pleasant places could be wrecked and torn by becoming a battle-field. At length however, the great hordes of soldiers, pursuing and pursued, appearently on the direct road to Paris, doubled back suddenly from Chalons. The Emperor did not dare to return to the capital without a victory to back him ; "the lan- guage of reason was not understood there," be complained bitterly. The great arr v of MacMahon, supported by the defences of Paris, could scarce!} have been beaten, but strategic reasons were not al- lowed to hold go )d against the interests of the dynasty. Mac- Mahon, sorely against his will, an-'' against his better judgement. 1 (i RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. Was forced by direct orders trom the Empresa nnd Council of State, to attempt the relief of Hazaine, shut up in Mat/, — "a measure of the greatest imprudence," he declared, and that his "soldiers were discouraged and mutinous." An army of 100,000 men was thus marched into the small town of iSedaii, utterly unprovisioned and unprepared lor a siege. The food of the inhabitants had been al- ways procured from the surrounding districts, no stores had been laid in, when thousands of mouths wcri thus suddenly added to the consumers, while the usual scources ot supply fell nito the hands of the enemy,. Tor three days before the battle the shops had been completely cleared, not even a candle or a drop of oil was to be had. On the 30th and Slstof August there was fighting near the town, and the French, outnumbered from the first, found themsolveb pen- ned in close to the Belgian frontier, with no means of escape. On the Slst the Rmperor, Machamon, and the whole Etat major or staff entered the place, followed closely by the ambulances of the English Society for the relief of the Sick and Wounded. The suite of imperial carriages and servants was enormous. "All ^ the town, in about'twenty minutes. No measures were taken > ■> secure them, and in a few hours the train was seized by the Germans. Yet, even at that early period, there was already something like famine among the French troops ; hardly half a ration had been s «rved for four days, and it was in this condition, half-starved, dis- C(utented, and out of heart, having taken seven days to perform the fifty miles from Rheims, that they were called upon to resist two German armies, that of tho Prince of Saxony oa one side, and that of the Crown Prince on the other, who, by wonderful forced marches^the last of twenty-five miles in one day — had caught up uis retreating foe. "Scarcely ever, it was said, had such marching been seen as that of tho Prince and his men." 8 BECOLLECIIONS OF SEDAN. .V' A complete circle of fire gradually closed in round the town, as the differeui/ corps, composed of men representing most of the German States, came up. The great woods were so fitted for de- fence by sharpshooters that the Prussians could hardly believe in their own good fortune ar they made their way through the forests on the steep slopes, expecting a gun in ambush behind every tree, and positively reached tha crest of the hills, and looked down into the "kessel," or basin, in which lay the town, without having met with a single interruption. There had been a rumour among the Germans that Louis Napoleon himself had entered the place with the rest of the French army, but it was nob believed. "II a fait bien des fautes," said Bismark, "mais il ne sera jamais alle se fourrer dans cette souriciere " When, soon after reaching the summit, the news was known to be true, the army set up such a hurrah "that wo thought it must have been heard in Sedan itselt." "ISow we have him !" said the soldiers, j oyfuUy, The extraordinary discipline prevailing among the German troopsj from the King down .o the smallest drummer-boy, seems to ha^e struck the French most forcibly. A Prussian is no doubt hard and cold, said they, and makes himself wonderfully disagree- able ; but the power given their arms by this universal Lsnse of duty was marvellous in their eyes. "It was a great body with one soul, Molkte." Grand dukes, princes, generals; high and low, obeyed implicitly, whatever might be the order. "If we are told to go and look down a cannon's mouth, about to be fired, we go and look down it," said a young prince, an officer of high rank, while ^n the French army, every man was ad good as his neighbour, the "oldiers caring nothing for their officers, and showing them neither respect nor obedience. On the other side, the want of interest of the officers iu their men was painfully remarkable to observers be- longing to neutral nations. It was mentioned at Orleans later in the year, as a great advance in discipline that the "soldiers were really learning fco salut« their officers." At Worth, MacMahon, hard pr ,ssed, sont to De Failly for reinforcements. He is said to have replied that he was a marshal of France, as good as MacMahon any day, and had no orders to receive from him — no troops were sent. Nothing and nobody were in their place. At a critical moment in the same battle MacMahon's ammunition ran short. He sent in hot haste to the rea • for more — two large supply waggons galloped up — they where foi nd to contain boots andbi-ead. '9!' RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. » »" f The crowd of French soldiers in and about Sedan, after their first battle, was little more than an armed mob ; the fortress had 80 many defenders as to be indefensible. From the moment indeed that the French found themselves unable to carry the war into Germany, all their plans seemed to collapse. There was, more- over, no real head ; since even after the Emperor had nominally resigned the command, he kept up a sort of tacit control over everything, and the marshals felt that their orders were liable to be countermanded. All the maps possessed by the army were of Germany, and the ignorance of the oncers concerning their own territory was com- plete. The Emperor, on the 31st, had posted himself on a hili near Sedan overlooking the battle. As he lay on the ground smoking, with his favourite Zouave beside him, Macmahon, with two aides- de-camp, came riding violently up. "Sire, la jounee va mal, elle ne pent pas plus mal aller," said he, jumpiug oiF his horse. They then bflgan to discuss the question of whether or not there was a bridge across the Mouse higher up. No one of the party knew any- thing about the matter, when a bystander called out that they had better ask the proprietor of the ground on which they stood, who was present. He was summoned up to give the required informa- tion, and afterwards told the story. At that time there was scarcely a lieutenant in the Prussian army who had not a map of the ground, and a knowledge of the bridges in question. On the first of September the batteries were in position, and the bombardment began at 4 a. m. It was a veiy sultry day, and in the early morning the mist lay so thick as to interfere for some time with the firing. Every man and every officer in the Prussian army, from the King downwards, was at his post by three o'clock ; while the indiflference of the French generals to their dutv was such, that one of them was known to have continued tranquilly in his bed till seven, and another not to have sent for his only horse till twelve. The guns of the Germans, six hundred in number, were posted on the heights surrounding Sedan, from two to two and half miles away, and the fire went on increasing with fearful violence, a veritable /ew re there the same )ur, five ojectile ; lers who over a t RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. 19 oompany, for they lay all round in a circle witli their feet inwards, each shattered iii the head or chest by a piece of shell, and no other dead bein^ within a hundred yard^' of the'n. A curious, and to me unaccountable phenomena, wiis the blaikness 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. Dmith by the bayonet is agonising, and those by steel, open-eyed and open- inuuthed, have an expression of pain on the features, with pro- truding tongue. A musket ball that proves at once fatal, does not seem to cause much pain, and the features are composed and quiet, sometimes with a sweet smile on the lips, iiiit the prevail- ing expression, on this Jiekl, of the fiices uliuu werw nut much mutilated, was one of terror and of agcny unutterable There must have been a hell of torture within that semi-circle in which the earth was torn asunder from all sides with a real tempest of iron Idsainrf, ami screechim/, and bursting into the heavy masses at the hands of an unseen enemy. 'I he difficulty of guarding such an unexpected number of half- starvpd prisoners as had fallen into the hands of the Germans was immense. Seven hundred of them were confined on a peninsula surrounded by the Mense, the neck of land being commanded by a Prussian gun. Their sufferings from want of food were snd, and the Pasteur of Sedan, having collected what little was to be begged or bought (what could it be among so many '?) took it down to them ♦•Ton had bettar drive well into the midst, or you will bo pushed, into the river," said the German sentry. The carriage was literal- ly stormed, and he was in danger of his life before the distribution was over. Mr. Trench, who also attempted to supply the poor wretches, is loud in his blame of the German authorities ; but it must not be forgotten how suddenly and unexpectedly they were thus called on to feed a second army. The French had been for four days on the shortest of rations from the bad management of their own commissariat, one day almost without food of any kind ; they were thus thrown entirely upon the provisions ot their enemies, who were of course totally unpre- pared for such an unexpected addition to their mouths. The Ger- mans seem to have done their best, and their own men were stint- ed till fresh provisions came up. At the beginning of the war there is no doubt that their captives were treated with humanity, an^ RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. ^ the French" pensanis dreaded the Jinproach ofthoir own soldiers as much or more than that of the more disi-iplined (Germans ; but, as the struggle wont on, the bitterness on both sides increased to a frightful extent, and the war exactions around Parif. and in the north of I'Vanch have boen terribly severe. "I hardly recognize my good quiet Gorinans,'' said one of their own officers at Versailos towards the end of the time. After this frightful week the great wave of events roiled on far away from Sedan. The Emperor had boen taken to Wilhelmshiihe, the eigiity-six thousand unwouuded French prisoners "interned" in Germany, 1 he sick had boon disposed of in distant hospitals, or had disposed of themselves in quiet graveyards, tho great (xerman army had marched on Paris, and poor Sedan was left to itself and its miseries Everything had been swept away ; provisions, crops, fuel were gone ; the houies were shattered, whole villages ruined ; the "hope- less misery of the burnt Bazeilles, once a ilonrishing suburb of Sedan, with a population of about three thousand persons, now the most utter ruin that can be conceived, surrounded with the wrecks of beautiful little villas," was the most dismal of all. The cloth manufactories having boen bnilb within a walled town, and much cramped for space, were in the habit of distributing their looms among tho villages near, which were thus dependent for work upon Sedan itself. Such were the heavy contributions demanded by the Gennans that there was no money for wages, and no buy- ers for the cloth if it had been woven. Provisions were not to be bought, the autumn sowing could not take place, neither food nor work were to be had, and whole villages where on the brink of •'•vation. Great soup-kitchens, supported by money sent out . England, were organized by tho indefatigable sisters of the jeur, who arranged working parties of women to make up warm clothing, which was afterwards given away. Many of the sufTorers had been well off, — accustomed to give, nob receive charity. Often a portion of the food and clothing received was given back, with a kind word for others : 'Our neighbours are as poor as we are, may n(>t this be sent to them ?" The assis ance given by the different societies has done excellent service in kjeping body and soul together among these starving sufferers till peace could allow work to be resumed. Charity, how- ever, is a demoralising thing if it continue long enough to dis- V '/ .A I RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. 31 ■•'v courage men from exerting themselves (as we are now finding to our cost with the poor of London), and there has been some dif- ficulty in preventing the u^ual results of cheating and quarrelling amont,' the recipients of the releif from England. But the grain supplied for spring Howmg, and the idle looms which have been set to wook have, it is hoped, helped the'peasauts and artisans to help themselves. The men were thoroughly disheartened by the system of requisitions. Obliged as they wore to use their own little horses and carts — the pride of an industrious peasant — to drav' goods for the army of their enemies > they put no heart iuto their work, and got into habits of idleness. The German soldiers and horses pas- sing to the front had to be lodged and fed by those who had nothing left to seize, so that thev scarcely dared to put their houses or gardens in order. Although, however, thoro has been much talk of cruel exactions, true no doubt in individual instances, "in general there wan but little taken in the neighbourhood of Sedcn by the German army except accordi'ig to the bond of the fearful system of requisitions ; there hud been hardly any of the plundering ol bad old wars, and none of the still sadder outrages on women," says one eye-witness. "The German soldiers had in general geniali good faces, with square, heavy chins, and, keen, shrewd eyes, and almost all kind to children. I saw one day a big, stolid fellow seize a baby out of its terrified mother's arms, cover it with kisses, return it to her and silently go on his way." The villages, for two miles or more round Sedan, suftered much in the battles of September. J! t Givonne the branches of the trees had been carried away by cannon shot — the groups of houses "nestling in their sleeply hollows, which locked so happy last year, now lie grey and cheerless, the stone walls broken by shot and shell, the sides of the cottages peppered with bullets, hardly any smoke to be seen from the chimneys," while the forests were cut down and the timber sold to a great extent by the German authorities. At Mezieres, about twelve miles off, worse horrors took place. It gives some slight idea of the frightful proportions to which the war miseries attained, that its bombardment passed almost unnotic- ed amidst the great excitement of watching the movements of the army of the Loiro and the siege of Paris. Two lines or so in a telegram "Mezieres is besieged," "Mezieres has capitulated," was nearly all the notice which it received. Yet the de scription of its sufferings makes one's heart ache. The fury of the fire seemed 22 RECOLLECTIONS OF OEDAN. to have driren the people wild, the noise, the crumbling ot the houses under the bhelle," said one of the members of the relief committee. Men and Women, silent and dazed, were passing up and down the wretched str^^ets, which looked like nothing but a quarry or stones; out of five h- idred houses only a hundred and twenty were standing. A c^o A'd had collected round one pile of ruins on the bitter winter's day; the house had fallen in npon the cellar, where thirteen persons had taken refuge from the fire. They were all dead, irom the old grandmother to a baby. In another an unhappy woman had sheltered herself to give birth tj u sou ; the walls had, in like manner, crumbled, and she was found charred and burning, with the little one carefully'' wrapped in her petticoat. The help sent from England assisted numbers of these houseless^ starving people. The soup-kitchens have supplied hundreds oi fami]'«^« during the winter, and the work given out from the Daily Neivs and other funds to the woi>;?n, constituted pretty nearly all each household has had to live on. Many women came ten miles to fetch it, and refused all money help. " We have always work- ed," they say ; " all we want is work, not charity ! " Ttie stories of some of these poor creatures, given to " les dames de la soupe," are piteous. " A young woman, from Thelonne» came on Friday for the first timri. I never saw n face with such an expression. It was as if she had cried so much that there were no teara left. She was alone, she said, out of seven. ' Where are the others gone ? ' 'They have all died in the war. On the " Day of Bazeilles" my father-in-law was shot ; my mother-in-law died of the shock soon after. I had read in the papers that it was better not to forsake one's house in time of war, and we staid on, my husband and three children.* They came and set fire to the house. 1 don't know what happened then. All of a sudden I woke up in the cellar, and heard the cries of the soldiers, and savv an oflScer who was trying to protect us from them. I iurmed round and found my baby, eight months old, dead by my side ; and, wi.en I looked on the other side, the second child was dead too. Then they took my husband away to ehoot him. They carried him about from place to place ; but he got away at last, and hid him- self. I escaped to my parents, at TLolonne, with my little boy, • The Bavariana, w ^o burat the tr wn, believed that tl(e peasants had fired on them from their hoi ses ; The officers did their best to restrain their men, but the havoc was frigl tful, although the commandar. Van der Tann has of late denied the worst part of the outrages. I saw none but those incidental to war. RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. 23 r f' six years old, in mv arms. My husband came in a few days after ; but he fell sick, and died of his troubles, and the little one too.' and the tears fell slowly down her pale, thin cheeks. She was only twenty-seven years old, There was a dead silence in the room while she was telling her feariul story ; the other women looked at each other with terror. It is by details of such individual miseries as these that we realize the horrors endured by " war victims," and are made io feel greater sympathy than by any amount of general descriptions or bare lists of numbers and statistics of deathji. Such, ladies and gentlemen, were my experiences of Sedan ; placed before you in a fragmentary and imperfect manner, for after all, to those actively engaged amongst the wounded and dying, war presents a special feature difficulty to describe, and differently described by each participator in the action, each one's ex- perience is fragmentary. The blended narratives of many, not only show this, but more, they also ail 'tend to show to the peaceful citizen the hardships their defenders have to undergo, and to strike a chord in each heart, that while ready to defend our hearths and homes from the enemy, that we must be tender and womaiily in our care of the wounded and sick — not only of our countrymen,, but of our adversaries, and according to their means at the fitting moment to act the good Samaritan, each according to his power, for the alleviation of their sickness and distress.