Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1870 — Prussian Losses-OffIcial but Incomplete Statements. [ARTICLE]

Prussian Losses-OffIcial but Incomplete Statements.

The Berlin correspondent of the London Times, writing under date of August 22, says: “At length the first official losses in the field have been made public. They only flilflll, too completely, the melancholy anticipations with which we saw the troops going out to the war. Althtaigh restricted to officers, and referring only to a few introductory engagements, they oontain figures which will not easily be erased from the minds of men. I will give you a few examples. As you may be aware, a Prussian regiment on a war footing has 8,006 men, with 69 officers. Of these 69 officers, b the 74th regiment (Hanoverians) lost no less than 80 in killed and wounded at Weissenbourg. The 77th (also Hanoverians) on the same occasion lost 26 officers; the 89th (Rhinelanders), 26; the 82d (Hessians), 19; the 95th (Thuringians), 16; the 83d (Hessians), 14; the 53d (Westphalians), 11; the 88th (Nassauera), 9; the 80th (.Hessians), 8, etc. Still worse was it at Woerth, where the Prussians were for five mortal hours opposed to the, French who were stationed on the hillr, and could not be dislodged until taken in the flank by Wurtembergers and Bavarians. There the 68th regiment (Pcseners) had 82 dead and wounded officers; the 59th (Poseners), 23; the 7th (King’s frenadiers— Lower Silesians and German ’oseners), 85; the 47th (Lower Silesians), 29; the 46th (Lower Silesians),* 33; the 67th (Lower Silesians), 30; the 6th (Westphalians), 28: the 37th (Westphalians), 25, etc. What terrible conclusions must be derived from these statistics in respect of the higher grades as to the number of casualties among rank and file I need not say. But the most frightiul carnage of all in the earlier part of the campaign was at Spicheren, whose steep and precipitous heights, defended by a tearing Are from cannon, mitraiUeuses and chassepots, were thrice assaulted in vain, and at last carried at the point of the bayonet. On this spot 10,000 Prussians, gradually increased to 27,000, struggled against 40,000 French. Though the official list does not yet extend to this sanguinary encounter there can be no doubt as to the correctness of the private intelligence forwarded to me, which gives the total of the losses as 2,297, of whom 811 are dead, and 1,486 wounded. Accordingly, every twelfth man was killed or wounded. Some companies left nearly ’one-half their men on the spot, as, for instance, the sth company of the 48tl* (Rhinelanders), which went with 250 men into the fire and came out with 129, and the Ist company of the Bth (King’s Own—Brandenirarghers), which on the evening of the battle consigned 107 comrades either to the grave or the hospital. Passing on to tho tremendous three days’ battle near Metz, we have but private intelligence, and this only referring to individual detachments; yet we know already enough to imagine the rest. On the 14th, in the action named after Pange, or Courcelles, the 48th (Rhinelanders) lost 32 officers and 891 rank and file; in other words, about one-tliird its complement. A rifle ba’.talion in the same locality was, by the enemy’s Are, deprived of nine of its officers and 270 rank and file— i,«, of a third of the officers and a fourth of the men. On the 14th, as well as on the 16th—tho latter being the battle of Mars-la-Tour, Vionville —the losses of the" Prussians were comparatively greater than those oi the French, the former being on both oc asious greatly outnumbered, yet holding fast the enemy with the bull dog’s tenacity, to give their main force time to come up and engage him in right earnest. At Mars-la-Tour the beet blood of the country was spilt like water. Within a few minutes, by the unexpected unmasking of a mitrailleuse battery, Count Westarp, Count Wesdelen, Baron Kleist, Henry VII., Prince of Reuss, Baron Witzelben, and many other" noblemen of high rank and position wero killed. The grand finale at Rezonville, or Gravelotte, on thq 18th, where the Prussian hosts, at last assembled in strength, are said to have suffered a loss of 18,000 combatants, was worthy of tho beginning. Nor did the French suffer less. In the three actions near Metz they had nearly 15,000 dead, and 40,000 dead, wounded, and prisoners together. „