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 Rv F. CRESWELL HEVVETT. 
 
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 Surgeon British Army. 
 
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 K/EOOLIiEOTiOIsrS 
 
 OF" 
 
 SEDAN, 
 
 By F. CRESWELL HEWETT, 
 
 SoBOEON British Army. 
 
 PRICE Q5 CENTS. 
 
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 PRINTED BY D. H. FOWLER & CO., 161 HOLLIS STREET. 
 
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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 ^<apoleou's pomp as if 
 he had been at St. Cloud" — britzkas, barouches, broughams and 
 coaches defiled, one after the other, and the progress ot the whole 
 army was stopped till they had passed along the road. 
 
 It perhaps made little difference in the end, for the disorganisa- 
 tion was by this time universal and complete. 1^'ood, ammunitiou , 
 everything, had run short, and the disheartened officials, civil and 
 military, had given up even the attempt to restore order, e, g., a 
 supply of provision* broke down on the railroad, within a few miles 
 of Sedan, and the military authorities were told that it a fresh 
 engine could be sent out, the trucks might easily be brought ip<-'> 
 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 <Venfer, while the two armies were soon 
 engaged all round the town, hemming it in from Bazeilles to 
 Donchery and Floing. 
 
 The great ^mbulance of the English Society for Sick and Wound- 
 ed had fortunately reached Sedan the night before the battle, anrl 
 
 i 
 
1 1 
 
 EECOLLECTIONS OP SEDAN. 
 
 I- 
 
 we were put in charge of a barrack, the Caserne d'Asfeldt, 300? 
 . feet long; which was converted into a hospital, and contained 384 
 beds. It stood on the highest ground within the fortifications, 
 sixty or seventy feet above the river, and had a splendid view over 
 the town and the neighbouring country; and the Prussian batallions 
 and guns could be seen coming into position on the hills around, 
 the bayonets and spiked helmets gleaming in the hot sun nbove 
 dense masses of dark blue. About ten o'clock the firing became 
 incessant and furious ; for six or seven hours the town was re- 
 gularly shelled ; shells struck the barnick several times, burst in 
 front, behind, above, and on each side ; fortunately none entered 
 the hospital, but one of the infirmiers just outside the door was 
 blown to pieces, and another wounded. All this time the wounded 
 were arriving in hundreds. Those who could walk were sent on 
 into the town, and only those most gravely injured were admitted. 
 Dpring the whole day, from early morning till dusk, vve performed 
 capital operations in the direct line oi fire ; and the continual whiz- 
 zing ©f the projectiles, and the noise of those bursting close at hand 
 was tremendous. Every moment it was expected indeed that a 
 bomb would burst in our midst, for though the barrack was very 
 strong, and the roof bomb-proof, there was nothing to pervent f^ 
 shell from entering by one of the targe windows facing the batteries 
 The sensation of relief when the fire slackened was delightful. 
 
 The operation cases did well on the whole, but the attempts at 
 conservative surg'^ry, and what is called resection, were hardly ever 
 
 successful. 
 
 » 
 
 The testimony by those who only saw a few cases, concerning 
 the nature of the wounds caused by different guns is very conflict- 
 ing. "Wounds from the chassepot are more serious than those 
 from the needle gun. The fractured bones were so commiuuted 
 that it seemed ns if one were handling a bag of nuts," says one wit- 
 ness. "The neddle guns had wrought dreadful havoc ; the bullet 
 is egg-shaped, and the external wound bears no proportion to the 
 injury it makes. It is heavier, and makes a worse wound than 
 does that of the chassepot." But the truth is thh-t the nature of 
 these wounds differs considerably according to the manner in which 
 the projectile strikes and its velocity. 
 
 The majority of patients brought in on the first day had been 
 injured by shells, us Sedan was .'he centre of the Artillery fire. A 
 wound from the mitrailleuses is rarely seen, as few of those struck 
 
 4 
 
nECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. 
 
 11 
 
 ever survive, thnr lateral range is small, tlie balls do not spread, 
 but eiich is 1| oz. in weight, tsventy-live to each discharge, and 
 troops within their murderou:^ rauge are completely riddled at four- 
 teen or even fifteen hundred yards distance. Between the villages 
 of Balan and Bazeilles, which were taken and retaken four times, 
 to which spot I had gone early in the day to assist Surgeon Major 
 Frank, a number of Bavarian soldiera were found lying literally 
 torn in pieces by discharges of mitrailleuses. Along this road Dr. 
 Frank (who had a separate commission from the English society^ 
 had established himself in the hottest part of the action, the wound- 
 ed (of both nations) were carried into houses so entirely under fire 
 that w? performed many operations lying on the floor beside the 
 patients, to avoid the bullets coming in through the windows. 
 
 The men were laid wherever shelter of any kind was to be found. 
 It was a curious commentary on Christian civilization to see a 
 large and beautiful church crowded with wounded and dying men, 
 some of them suffering great agony. 
 
 The difficulties from the want of surgical instruments were felt 
 both by the Germans and French almost as soon as the war began; 
 there were no means of mending or sharpening those which had 
 been spoiled or blunted by use, and they were often thrown away. 
 Birmingham and Sheffield had been stripped of them, and at one 
 time not even a pair of artery forceps was to be bought. Food 
 during the first three days of September was very scarce ; both 
 medical men and patients had to be content with bread and water, 
 with a little wine — trying enough in the face of the work to be done. 
 
 As the week went on a great number of men were brought in who 
 had been lying on the field for four or five days,* and untended for 
 two days in tents. Of those whose injuries dated back a week 
 scarcely one was saved, and it was striking how, in proportion to the 
 length of time before help was obtained after the wound had been 
 received, was the patient's chance of recovery. Tobacco was found 
 very uoeful in soothing the nervous system after the excitement of 
 
 a battle — particularly when defeat had rendered the reaction more 
 Intense it became almost invaluable. 
 
 After the battle of Sedan fourteen thousand French wounded were 
 brought into the town and the ambulances. Some of the cases 
 were fearful to see. A cavalry officer had had both legs and both 
 
 * It is interesting to compara Sir Che-les Bell's account of the fearful suflferings 
 of the .<*'ren«h wounded wliom he attended s.fter Waterloo, and sad to see how 
 little progress has been made after all in our war arrangements. 
 
KECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. 
 
 If 
 
 i 
 
 
 ■i ^' 
 
 I 
 
 arms amputated, and made a good rei'overy ; a ball had struck his 
 leg, passed through his horse, which it killed, to the leg on the 
 other s'de, while a second went through both his arms. The am- 
 putations were performed by his own surgeons, in spite of his 
 entreaties to be left to die- 
 All the cases admitted at the Caserne d'Asfeldt wore most severe:— 
 
 Wounded, registered 593 
 
 Sick and wounded, not registered 200 
 
 Extra patients during battles of 31 Aug. and Sep. 1 . . 400 
 
 ■ 1193 
 
 One hundred and seventeen deaths were from gunshot wounds, 30 
 at least from pyemia, out of 77 amputations 30 were tatal, 40 deaths 
 after other operations. The ventilation of the place was \ery 
 imperfect. 
 
 With regard to the success of the surgery of the two nations, 
 great things had been expected of the Germans, from the high posi- 
 tion held by the profession in the scientific world; but their practice 
 did not appear to be good ; and the wounded, hospital stores, aid 
 the like, are evidently looked upon by the military authorities as 
 mere impediments to operations. The French surgeons were 
 better, but the excessive centralisation of their medical service, and 
 the manner in which tne Intendance undertook a combination of 
 duties of all kinds made a break down at head-quarters fatal. The 
 dangers of the^hospitals were indeed such, from fever, gangrene, and 
 erysipelas, and the torture of transport so great, that the chances 
 of recovery for the poor fellows who crawled under the cover of the 
 hedgerows were greater than for those lying in the toul infectious 
 atmosphere of over-crowded surgical wards. There was little such 
 discease in the huts, field ambulances, or temporary edifices, which 
 admitted of the freest possible* ventilation, and a rope-walk in fine 
 weather was found to be the most healthy shelter of all. The 
 testimony to the value of fresh air is very remarkable. It is an 
 old experience. When the French army in Spain was retreating 
 on one occasion, they prepared to leave their wounded behind in 
 hospital ; the men, however, preferred to run their chance and ac- 
 company their comrades, and in spite of the suffering attendant on 
 the rapid travelling, the constant change of air had such virtue that 
 a larger proportion recovered than m hospital. But neither French 
 nor German authorities have as ye': realized this fact in sanitary 
 science. There are few subjects c n which the two nationalities 
 were agreed; but here, at least, was one point in common : "Fennez 
 
 if 
 
 ^i 
 
 i 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. 
 
 13 
 
 les fenotres," cried the French doctors whenever they entered wards 
 cared for by the English Staff. "Kein Englishes zug hier," said 
 the Germans sternly when they saw the open windows ; as if a 
 draught were p.n English manufacture, like flannel or cutlery. Ac- 
 cording (as we should say) the proportion of deaths in hospital was 
 very large. This however, is no new feature in the French medical 
 military annals. In the autumn of 1813 one-h^lf of the patients 
 perished in some of their hospitals, a third or fourth in the best. 
 "In the Crimea the failure of the French medical service was com- 
 plete. In a death-roll of 95,615, only 20,000 men died in the field 
 or of wounds, more than 75,000 "of disease. In the brief Italian 
 campaign, the deaths in hospital far out-numbered those in the field, 
 and the wounded were sometimes left for days uncared for after 
 the battle was over. There was an insufficient supply of surgeons 
 — not even one doctor to 1,000 men — and an utter neglect of 
 hygiene. Drainage, disinfection, good nurses and abundant food 
 were required to reduce the fearful mortality of the hospitals ; but 
 in all these the French administration, was utterly deficient ;" 
 and at Sedan the lutendance was hopelessly disorganized. 
 
 The absence of sound sanitary arrangements was generally still 
 greater among the Geimans ; except in rare instances, such f^s the 
 Crown Princess's admirable hospital at Homburg, almost all neces- 
 sary precautions wera entirely neglected ; typhus and low fevers 
 prevailed in their hospitals to a grievous extent from the dirt, the 
 sickening smells, and uiter want of care even thus early in the 
 campaign. " . 
 
 There has been great unwillingness on the part of the German 
 authorities to allow the full extent of their losses from sickness dur- 
 ing the war to be known — "the health of the army" was always 
 announced to be "excellent." A semi-official statement has how- 
 ever at last been made in Berlin, by which it appears that the 
 Central Bureau under the highest military authorities has authen- 
 ticated 633,000 cases of sick and wounded; of these 78,000 belonged 
 to the French, the remaining 555,000 to the German army. *'These 
 frightful figures," says the Volkstaat. "are far below the truth. It 
 the wounded are reckoned at 100,000 in round numbers, \a ' shall 
 be within the mark if we estimate the unwounded sick at half a 
 million. How many of these have died, how many will drag on 
 incurable sickly lives, we have as yet no means of judging — tli© 
 figure must be a terrible one." 
 
'4wi' 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. 
 
 The great field hospital for the Bavarians was the Chateau de 
 Bazeilles. Three thousand of them were collected there on the 2nd 
 of September, distributed in the buildings and under the trees and 
 sheds. The ground was literally saturated with wound secretions 
 while a great number ot men and horses had been buried in ex- . 
 
 treraely shallow graves about the gardens and immediate neigh- 
 bourhood. A second country house close by was nearly as over- 
 crowded, and as pestilential. 
 
 The Meuse was in a fearful state from the number of corpses of 
 men and horses drowned there, or thrown in to be got rid of. It 
 was indeed only wonderful that more disease was not engendered, *' 
 
 for the stench in the town and the neighbourhood was terrible and 
 dangerous. The Eugliah surgeons suggested the lighting of great 
 peat fires, but the authorities were paralysed, and nothing was done. 
 
 For days before and during the battle of Sedan the French 
 soldiers had been fearfully underfed, while enduring the greatest 
 physical strain in a prolonged fight, ending in a disastrous and most 
 depressing defeat, which told much upon the chance of cure. 
 Where amputation of the lower limbs took place, few patients 
 reco\ered ; "of thirty -four cases of operations of the knee-joint, all 
 were fatal." 
 
 Diarrhoea and dysentery were very- troublesome, causing directly 
 and indirectly many deaths. In the Caserne d'Asfeldt this was 
 increased by using the water of a well into which the dead bodies -v 
 
 of three Zouaves had been thrown. And it was curious what a 
 dislike we entertained for water for sometime after the discovery 
 of the bodies. Grievous loss of life was occasioned by the transport 
 of the wounded ; often in common country waggons without even 
 straw for the patients to lie on, "the system of the Prussians being 
 to order removal .;.s soon as possible, in many instances before any ,j^ 
 
 idea could be formed oi the case." Frightful hardships were some- ^ 
 
 times undergone from the want of horses to forward these long lines || 
 
 of miserable sufferers on their way. In one case four hundred 
 peasant waggons, filled with wounded, were left out all night, with- \ 
 
 out shelter, wet through, after travelling two days from the field 
 of battle near Metz. ^ J -. v 
 
 As at Sedan the number of wounded increased hour by hour, the 
 Protestant pasteur offered hi 5 church as shelter for twenty-five 
 men. He then sought up and tlown the town for bedding materials, 
 but scarcely anything could be either bought or borrowed. The state 
 of the streets Mas almost indescribable ; a perfoct hail of shot, shell, 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. 
 
 15 
 
 and bullets was falling, from which the soldiers were sheltering 
 themselves under the walls of the houses, swearing, half starved, 
 furious, and miserable — the variety of hideous noises, the hurtling 
 bomb of the cannon balls, the hissing of the shells, the peculiar und 
 terrible sounds of the mitrailleuses, — the dreadful smells, the bones 
 and entrails of dead horses lying about in every direction, the ribs 
 showing raw and bloody, their flesh having been, the instant they 
 fell, cut off by the soldiers — who could get no other food ; it they 
 could manage to cook it they considered themselves lucky, if not, 
 they ate it raw — the whole scene utterly wretched and h'^peless. 
 
 The wounded began to arrive at the church ; but the few mat- 
 tresses were soon exhausted, and they were laid on the floor, ou the 
 benches, almost on each other, with a little straw under them, aud 
 perhaps a hymn book under their heads ; some sat on the pulpit 
 stairs. Instead of the twenty-five patients prepared lor, one 
 hundred and seventy were sent in during the course of the day 
 and night, and were laid down in the schoolroom, the little yard, 
 the sheds ; the altar was seized as an operating table by the mili- 
 tary surgeons, of whom at first only one could be spared for the 
 work, and the three sisters of the pasteur dressed the wounds as 
 well as they could, and helped to pull off the shoes and wash the 
 teet of the men, which was some refreshment, but pretty nearly the 
 only relief which they could give. No food was to be had for them 
 except a few cases of chocolate and Liebig's extract until the next 
 day, when the Intendauce sent in the soldiers' meagre rations; tlv^se 
 were cooked in great caldrons in the open yard by the ladies aiid 
 distributed by them. Two shells burst one after the other over the 
 church and the presbytere, and the surgeon insisted on the wounded 
 being carried into the crypt, where the children of an orphanage 
 had, however, already been taken, and it was represented to him 
 that the men would be stifled. "Then," said he, "we will be buried 
 alive under the ruins, taut vase crever.'^ The prospect was not 
 reasuring, but there was nothing to be done. A white flag had just 
 been hung up as protection when a third shell struck the church ; 
 "Oh !" cried the women tumultuously crowding up from the houses 
 near, "pull it down, it draws the fire, it is a mark." It was, how- 
 ever, their best chance of escape, the pasteur held firm, and the 
 church was not again disturbed. ^ ^ 
 
 At first the French wounded were extremely depressed, but their 
 spirits soon revived. The Germans on the contrary, as the time 
 
16 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. 
 
 went on pined for home ; and the idea of being incapacitated for 
 Tature labour, with the extremely small pensions allowed by the 
 Prussian system, seemed to pray on their minds. Their superior 
 education was very striking ; the sick men were trying to learn 
 French, studying maps of the country, &c. One day an infirmier 
 besought me to come to a wounded German who he felt sure was 
 mad, or "communicating with spirits, for he was making cabbalistic 
 signs." I found a young fellow repeating his Euclid by heart, and 
 making the figures in the air as he went on. , ' 
 
 The extreme ignorance of their enemy shown by the French 
 people and army alike was such that the men were almost paralys- 
 ed at finding the Germans, whom they had been taught to despise, 
 were better soldiers than themselves. It is necessary to turn back 
 to the dismal tragi-comedy of the French newspapers after the 
 puerile attack upon Saarbriick to realize the state of feeling at the 
 beginning of uhe war. "The backs of the Prussians was all that 
 they allowed us to see of them." "They positively ran at the first 
 discharge oi the mitrailleuses," was repeated in ever) variety of 
 jubilant key. It was so self-evident a truth that a Frenchman 
 must beat a G -man, that when Paris heard of a battle it was taken 
 for graut^ed that it was a victory. After the engagement at Worth, 
 a friend of mine, a gentleman arriving from its beighbourhood, found 
 the Rue de la Paix dressed with flags, and a crowd marching about 
 with songs of triumph for "a great victory." "But," observed he, 
 "it was a grv3at defeat ; I was there." INo one would listen to him 
 and be was advised to hold his tongue, it was not safe to hint at 
 such an opinion, he would be taken up as a Prussian spy. The 
 system ot illusions and delusions was carried on from the highest 
 to the lowest ; things were "made pleasant" to the Emperor, but 
 they were equally "doctored" before being made known to the Paris 
 mob. "How can you put news in your paper which you know to 
 be perfiectly false ?" was said to a French editor. "II leur faut 
 absolument des victoires, il n'y en a pas, il faut que je leur en fasse," 
 was the answer, and accordingly they were manufactured to order 
 in every variety. ISothing was too wonderful to be believed. 
 "The Crown Prince had been taken with half his army !" "Two 
 corps d'armoes, 40,000 Prussians, had fallen into the quarries of 
 Jaumont, shot down and buried under stones hurled in by an in- 
 dignant peasantry," the veracious narrator declaring that "the 
 groans still filled his ears ;" a splendid coloured print was publish- 
 
 ^i? 
 
 m. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. 
 
 17 
 
 ed of the event, which continued to be sold till the end of the war 
 
 • 
 
 One paper told how "aheutenact-colonel wounded had just return- 
 ed to Paris, and rehited that such Imd been the slaughter of Prus- 
 sious that he was able to protect his guns behind a parapet of 
 Germans slain ; we repeat that the source froji which this account 
 was received rendered it perfectly authentic." Otiier writers ac- 
 cused the English papers of having ''invented not only b'rench de- 
 feats, but battles which had never taken place and places which did 
 not exist." The wife of a late English ambassador, writing from 
 Vichy three days after the news of the capitulation of Sedan 
 had been heard of at New York, observed tliat "as the French had 
 been successful everywhere, she should return by t^aris ad spend 
 some weeks there." 
 
 Under the necessity of a victory at all hazards, MacMahon and 
 his army had marched, as it were, into a trap ; crowded into a 
 town where it was impossible to stand a feiege, without supplies, 
 food, or amniunitio!]. The general w- j wounded early in the day, 
 and De Wimpfen, who "took command of an army already beaten,' 
 as he complained bitterly, proposed to the Emperor to cut his way 
 into Belgium. The slaughter, however, must have been tremend- 
 ous, and after the fearful losses of the previous weeks, Louis 
 Napoleon, sick and dispirited, seems to have felt that any end was 
 better than the continuance of such dreadful scenes^ and f&ncied 
 (we may give him at least the credit of believing) that his abdica- 
 tion w«uld end the war. 
 
 His interview with the ruler of kings, Bismarck, took place in 
 front of a labourer's cottage in a village near Sedan, The Emperor 
 in the undress uniform of a general and a hepi, the Chancellor in 
 his white cuirassier coat, fur cap, and ioug boots, sat on a stone 
 bench before the door on a slope close to the edge of the dusty 
 chatissee, which stretched far and straight into the distance, border- 
 ed with the inevitable poplars. One who was present described 
 how the Emperor went on pulling the vine leaves from the trellis 
 one by one, and scattering them on the ground as the interest of 
 the conversation increased, whence they were picked up by the by- 
 etander after the interview was over. « .^^.L:..',.'^' 
 
 The hard part of the bargaining having been done by Bismarck , 
 the meeting with the King of Prussia to receive the Emperor's ab- 
 dication took place at Belleville, a country-house in the neighbour- 
 hood. There is a certain dignity given by circumstances to per- 
 
18 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF SEDAN. 
 
 formers in reallv important events, if tbey do not strive after any 
 such effect; and the behaviour of both emperor and king is des- 
 cribed as having been cahn and "digne" on the occasion. Louis 
 Napoleon refused to pretend to be able to compromise the future 
 of France, though he and his army were compelled to surrender 
 uncon''iLionally, and next day he was forwarded to his place of 
 captivity. 
 
 But it is after the chief performers have removed off the scene 
 that some of the worst horrors ot war have to be faced. The 
 prisoners remained to be disposed of, the frightful hosts of wounded 
 still left on the battle-fields to be tended, the hideous remains of 
 those who had passed away to be put out of sight. "Three clear 
 days after the fighting was over T found eight or ten men lying 
 with both arms fixed in position, as if they were raising their guns 
 to the shoulder to fire, though the majority of the corpses lay ^^ 
 their backs with every muscle relaxed." "Here lay a group of 
 dead horses, there a lino of dead men with heaps of broken weapons, 
 the meadow on the hillside was full of mangled horses and dead 
 cuirassiers. For days these remained unburied, as the peasants 
 were either afraid to interfere, or too little accustomed to act 
 v'thout orders to volunteer service of any kind." 
 
 The scone on the battle-field was unusually terrible. " No 
 human eye ever rested on such revolting objects as were presented 
 by the battle fields around Sedan. Let them fancy masses of 
 coloured rags glued together with blood and brains, an^ pinned 
 into strange shapes by fragments of bones. Let them conceive 
 men's bodies without heads, legs without bodies, heaps of human 
 debris attached to red and blue cloth, and disemboweled corpses 
 in uniform, bodies lying about in all attitudes, ^vith skulls shat- 
 tered, faces blown off, hips smashed, bones, flesh, and gay clothing 
 all pounded together as if brayed in f\ marter, extending for miles, 
 not thick in any one place, but recurring perpetually for weary 
 "ours ; and then they cannot, with the most vivid imagination, 
 come up to the sickening reality of the butchery. JS'o nightmare 
 could be so frightful. Several times I came on spots whore there 
 w6ie,twG horses lying dead together in harness, killed by the same 
 frag nent. I several times saw four, five, and six men, four, five 
 and six horses, all killed by the explosion of the same projectile ; 
 and in one place there lay no less than eight French soldiers who 
 must have been struck down by the bursting ot a shell over a 
 
 i 
 
 A 
 
 'I 
 
er any 
 
 is des- 
 
 Louis 
 
 I future 
 
 rrender 
 »lace of 
 
 e scene 
 . The 
 ounded 
 ains of 
 36 clear 
 n lying 
 eir guns 
 lay on 
 ;roup 0^ 
 reapons, 
 ad dead 
 jeasants 
 i to act 
 
 " No 
 •esented 
 lasses of 
 
 pinned 
 onceive 
 
 human 
 corpses 
 Is shat- 
 clothing 
 3r miles, 
 r weary 
 ^nation, 
 ghtmare 
 >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.