What we observed during a visit to the seat of war in 1870 / by Charles Orton and William Dunnett Spanton.

  • Orton, Charles.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: What we observed during a visit to the seat of war in 1870 / by Charles Orton and William Dunnett Spanton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tvncl tliG nearest railway town, a distance of twenty-six miles. The wounded were conveyed generally in the long narrow carts of the country, filled with straw; sometimes in field ambulances, several long convoys of which we passed on the road. Food was scarce, owing to the immense number of soldiers and wounded who had passed through the place during the previous three weeks, the latter alone having averaged over 700 a day. A ride of eight miles next morning, through a very beautiful country, in the heart of the forest of Ardennes, brought us to the descent towards Sedan, and in the villages, for the last two miles, we noticed numerous red-cross flags flying from the churches and most of the large buildings—sure evidence of suffering within. The marks of fighting along this part of the road were painfully evident, and the numerous graves on each side told their own sad tale. On one field the surface was literally covered with loose papers, the contents of the soldiers’ pockets; and this we found always the case where the engagement had been severe. It is said that the men, in anticipating a desperate struggle, invariably empty out all their papers, so that they may have a chance of being picked up. Knapsacks, helmets, straps, and broken weapons of all kinds, were almost as numerous as the pieces of paper, and, in some places, literally covered the ground in heaps. After the battle of Sedan no less than 14,000 French wounded were brought into the town; and although