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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
tlie left wing was completely silenced.* Then the German infantry, 
prepared in the ravine between the two positions, were sent on, and 
tried in their steady determined manner to reach the French lines; 
but, exposed to the full effect of the Chassepot, were brought to a 
stand and driven back shattered, to be reinforced in the wood, to try 
again, and be again and again utterly overpowered by the fire: a 
corps which had been sent round farther on the right, under 
General Manteuffel, to try to turn or shake the French left was 
quite unable to get on, owing to the difficulty and defence of the 
narrow ground between that left and the Moselle: and towards 
4 p.m. the gloomy aspect presented itself to the Germans that their 
most costly efforts failed to make the slightest impression on the 
hostile infantry in their intrenchments. Some cavalry also, massed 
in the ravine below, had tried to get into effective action against the 
French position, ascending by a good road which led across the 
ravine, but the head of their narrow column was received with such 
a fire that they were immediately ordered down again. 
At 4 o’clock General Yon Zastrow ordered some batteries across 
to try the effect of case shot at 600 yards : the first that got up, a 
field battery, had so many men and horses struck down that it could 
only get two guns into action, to be withdrawn again as soon as 
practicable. The next battery, of horse artillery, getting some little 
advantage from inequalities of ground, opened fire at between 700 and 
800 yards from the French intrenchments and kept it up till 6 p.m., 
with great gallantry and loss to itself but with doubtful effect on the 
enemy: it was just in advance of some small quarries cut into the 
side of the hill which concealed its horses, and in the sudden advance 
of the French (hereafter described), two of its guns which could not 
be got away quickly enough, were thrown over into these quarries to 
prevent the French taking them. This was supposed by some of my 
informants to be the origin of the tragic history of German losses in 
the quarries of Jaumont. 
The result arrived at by the German right was, at 4 p.m., generally 
the same for all the rest of the line; and at St. Privat in particular 
(opposite to which the left had arrived after a very laborious march, 
being on the outer flank in this change of front of the whole line of 
battle, and having, by its arrival in position, given the signal for the 
others to engage), the long exposed slope of bare earth had proved 
insurmountable; and from 4 o’clock till nearly 6 there was generally 
silence except where, on the extreme left, the artillery still ham- 
* The guns about Gravelotte also silenced some artillery of the French centre posted rather 
strongly in the farm called Leipsic, at a range of from 8,000 to 3,200 yards ; this distance would 
have been considered too great, but that no nearer point afforded a satisfactory view, and that there 
was urgency to quell the artillery defence thereabouts by artillery. There were many very long 
ranges on that day; men and horses were killed by Chassepot bullets which must have travelled 
at least 1,400 yards ; but such hits were neither purposed nor perceived nor utilised by their 
authors: of all the far-ranging missiles, only the large percussion shells from the German guns, 
bursting with unmistakeable evidence, enabled their distant masters to recognise and to follow up 
or to adjust their action. 
