718 
ACHIEVEMENTS OP FIELD ARTILLERY. 
advanced to meet our troops, crying f Mercy ! mercy ! we can do 
nothing; we are crushed by the fire of your artillery/ Only in 
the interior of the forest did they try to fight at certain points, and 
even there the resistance was not stubborn. Unless I am mistaken, 
the Guard Corps at this place captured from 11,000 to 14,000 un¬ 
wounded prisoners. The whole of the infantry of the Corps lost in 
this battle only 120 officers and 320 men killed and wounded.” 
Since Prince Kraft was an enthusiastic gunner it may be thought 
that his testimony may be tinged with, partiality, and is to be accepted 
with caution. Fortunately, however, it may be corroborated by the 
evidence of those who had no special interest in artillery, and in 
the first place by an Englishman. The correspondent, who wrote 
those letters in the Daily News which attracted so much admiration 
more than 20 years ago, was riding over the field the next day and 
wrote :—“ The ghastly wounds inflicted on most of the French dead 
whom I saw upon the hill, showed that they had fallen under an artillery 
fire ; and the ground was in many places so ploughed up that a blanket 
could scarcely have been laid on it without covering some spot where a 
shell had exploded.” 
We have already quoted the eloquent cry “ Mercy! Mercy !” of the 
French soldiers ; it is thus that their leaders have spoken :—Le Brun, 
commanding the 12th Corps on the right, says 1 —“ The troops under 
my command on this unhappy day did not yield before the enemy, they 
were crushed by a formidable artillery.” Douay, commanding the 7th 
Corps on the left, reports—“ Our adversaries reduced us, so to speak, by 
their artillery fire alone, for it was only towards the end of the battle, 
when their guns had crushed and partly disorganised our batteries, 
our infantry, and our cavalry, that their troops advanced in consider¬ 
able numbers.” Ducrot, commanding the 1st Corps in the centre, has 
only the same tale to tell :—“ Shells came from all parts of the horizon, 
and united to destroy our unfortunate troops. The situation so dis¬ 
advantageous to our artillery, was further aggravated by the numerical 
superiority and the very great accuracy of the enemy’s guns. The 
French batteries were swept away, and literally pulverised in a few 
minutes.” 
Yon Moltke, in words to be noted later, has also given his gains full 
credit, and, lastly, in the often quoted official account, where praise 
and censure are bestowed with cold impartiality on friend and foe alike, 
the performances of the German artillery at this battle are thus 
reviewed :— 
“ The German artillery in the battle of Sedan produces an especially 
grand and decisive effect. Only the surprise undertaken during the 
morning mist towards Bazeilles, as demanded by this sort of attack, is 
made by the infantry alone; but at all parts of the extensive battle¬ 
field the whole strength of the batteries was from the first brought 
into play. Inserting themselves in the columns of route in a position 
favourable to early deployment, they hastened forward to the battle- 
1 Quoted in an essay :—“ Has the adaptation of the rifle principle to fire-arms diminished the 
relative importance of Field Artillery,” by First Lieutenant W. E. Birkhimer, U.S.A. Vol. 
XIV., “Proceedings,” R.A. Institution. 
