620 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



would have been able to return before the setting-in of 

 unfavourable weather, explains this double omission. Our 

 unfortunate soldiers marched along, wrapped up in every 

 kind of clothing saved from the flames at Moscow, without 

 being able to guard themselves against a temperature of 

 9° or io° (Reaumur); and at each ascending portion of 

 the road, the artillery horses, even when the usual number 

 required was doubled and trebled, were unable to drag 

 the guns of the smallest calibre. Flogged until they were 

 covered with blood, and their knees torn with frequent 

 falling, they were found incapable of overcoming ordinary 

 obstacles, through loss of strength and want of means to 

 prevent their slipping on the ice. The ammunition wag- 

 gons were abandoned, and scarcely any ammunition was 

 saved. Soon after, the guns had to be surrendered as 

 trophies to the Russians, but not without pain and shame 

 to our brave artillery. The carriages were thus greatly 

 diminished in number, and every day saw the losses 

 augmented, and the horses expiring on the road.' 



Another example — the most striking, perhaps, because 

 the most recent — is to be found in the Times Corre- 

 spondent's ' account of the Danish retreat from Schleswig 

 to Sonderburg, on the night of the 5th February, 1865. 

 Immediately after it had been determined that the Danes 

 should effect a hurried retrograde movement, bad weather 

 set in with great violence. 'The snow thickened and 

 hardened on the ground, the road became smooth and 

 bright as glass ; horses and men slipped dreadfully, 

 and fell at almost every step. Not one horse in the 

 whole Danish army was rough-shod that night ; on the 

 ' The Times, February i8th, 1865. 



