ACHIEVEMENTS OP FIELD ARTILLERY. 
667 
At four o’clock, General Steinmetz determined to make a renewed 
attack. Four German batteries, supported by the 1st Cavalry Division, 
hazarded their own safety in an attempt to cross the ravine opposite St. 
Hubert. As soon, however, as the long column came in sight, the 
French redoubled their fire both from guns and rifles. One of these 
brave batteries soon lost the detachments of four of its guns, and was 
with difficulty withdrawn ; a second never succeeded in getting into 
position at all, but two, those of Captains Hasse and Gniigge, held 
their ground in spite of the loss of 75 horses and the fire which assailed 
them, both from their front and the Quarries in their rear. 
But the infantry attack had not sufficiently progressed at this time, 
and the thrusting forward of cavalry and artillery was premature. 
The leading regiment of cavalry attempted to advance against Point 
du Jour, but the enemy were under cover and soon compelled it and 
the remainder of the division which followed it to beat a hasty retreat. 
Encouraged by their success the French in their turn now took the 
offensive and advanced from Point du Jour in swarms of skirmishers, 
whose fire forced the Prussians off the open ground and compelled 
them to seek the shelter of the wood. 
St. Hubert, however, which had been captured earlier, still remained 
in the hands of the Germans, and the fire of its garrison and the much 
maimed battery which supported it was so deadly that the French 
were unable to cross the open ground which the post commanded, and 
their counter efforts, therefore, could make no headway. The fire of 
the great artillery mass formed by the guns of the 1st Army had also 
meanwhile continued the contest whenever its fire was not masked by 
the advance of its own troops, and its effect was such that, although 
the German efforts against Point du Jour and Moscou were unavailing, 
the French could not drive back across the ravine the comparatively 
weak detachments which held their ground beyond it. About 5 o’clock 
hostilities ceased in this part of the field also. Both sides were sore 
and weary and were glad of breathing time, so, as if by mutual con¬ 
sent, the firing gradually died away. 
Although the general account of the fighting at this extremity of 
the battle-field may thus briefly be dismissed in paragraphs such as 
these, it is due to the batteries led by Hasse and Gniigge to dwell 
longer on performances which will be remembered amongst the most 
splendid of artillery achievements, as far at least as the pluck displayed 
by them is concerned. Captain Hasse’s Horse Artillery Battery, on 
emerging from the ravine in the attack which General Steinmetz ordered 
at 4 o’clock, wheeled to his right, and came into action on the left of the 
battery commanded by Captain Trautman which preceded it. Captain 
Gniigge, not finding sufficient space beside the others, got into position 
rather in front of them. The enemy’s skirmishers from Point du Jour, 
Moscou, and the Quarries poured such a fire on the front, rear, and 
flanks of the three batteries, which thus succeeded in getting into 
position on the east of the ravine, that their situation soon became 
desperate. Trautman’s battery had just succeeded in opening an 
effective fire on Moscou, distant about 1000 paces, when the teams of 
four limbers, most of the horses being wounded, bolted down Die defile 
