GERMAN MANOEUVRES. 
197 
changed front to the left and fired at it, while the infantry of the de¬ 
fence on this side was superior to it in numbers. 
The flank detachment had no Artillery with it, which appeared to 
be a mistake, as positions might have been found on the spurs of the 
hills, while in the direct advance there was not one. The Northern 
troops made a determined attack from the right of their position on 
the enemy, and it was adjudged that the attack of the South on 
Ottersweier failed, as must always be the case where a strongly held 
village is not at first subjected to a heavy and preponderating artillery 
fire. 
Sasbach forcibly reminded me of Marshal Turenne, the great De 
La Tour d*Auvergne, who was born at Sedan in 1611, and after daz¬ 
zling the world with his brilliant victories perished from a stray bullet 
in an insignificant skirmish at Sasbach, July 27, 1674, when fully 
prepared to crush his foe Montecuculli next day ; a monument is erected 
on a piece of ground which belongs to France, and is guarded jealously 
by an old French pensioner, and here rests “ le premier Tacticien d* 
Europe ” in the midst of Baden. His other memorial consists of a 
fine statue erected in the square at Sedan, whence two hundred years 
after his death, it looked upon the rapid crumbling away of the second 
empire of France under the iron hail from an encircling girdle of 540 
German guns. 
The 15th was a day of rest. On the 16th the Northern force re¬ 
treated before the Southern, and a succession of rear guard actions 
were fought; in all cases the time of withdrawal was well timed, the 
commander of the former force in each case forcing his enemy to 
deploy and so gained time. 
The troops went into close quarters in Oos and the surrounding 
villages, as very heavy rain fell, and the idea of bivouacs was aban¬ 
doned. 
On the evening of the 1 6th the Commander of the Southern force 
received information that a strong body of troops was arriving from 
the Murghthal to co-operate with him, which would be at Oberndorf 
at 6.20 a.m. and thence march on Kuppenheim, which was weakly 
held by the enemy. He was at 6 a.m. to press forward against 
Bastatt from the line Hugelsheim-Kartung. The Northern force 
has been reinforced from Bastatt, and directly the Southen force 
debouched from the Bannwald and attempted to advance be¬ 
yond the Oos-Jffezheim road, the whole of the Artillery of the 
enemy came into action in front of the wood north of Sand- 
weier, while the wood itself was lined with Infantry and it was clear 
that a serious stand was intended, the full strength of the Southern force 
being quite concealed owing to the wood. The Southern Artillery 
found an excellent position north of the Bannwald where the guns 
were completely concealed, while the Northern guns were in the open 
and close to the wood. The position of the latter, as was pointed out 
at once, was faulty. Not that they could have avoided going into 
action in the open, for the terrain was quite flat, but their position 
close to an object such as the edge of a wood, which was clearly de- 
