would have been able to return before the setting-in of unfavourable weather, explains this double omission. Our unfortunate soldiers marched along, wrapped up in every kind of clothing saved from the flames at Moscow, without being able to guard themselves against a temperature of 9° or 10° (Reaumur); and at each ascending portion of the road, the artillery horses, even when the usual number required was doubled and trebled, were unable to drag the guns of the smallest calibre. Flogged until they were covered with blood, and their knees torn with frequent falling, they were found incapable of overcoming ordinary obstacles, through loss of strength and want of means to prevent their slipping on the ice. The ammunition waggons were abandoned, and scarcely any ammunition was saved. Soon after, the guns had to be surrendered as trophies to the Russians, but not without pain and shame to our brave artillery. The carriages were thus greatly diminished in number, and every day saw the losses augmented, and the horses expiring on the road.'
Another example—the most striking, perhaps, because the most recent—is to be found in the Times' Correspondent's[1] account of the Danish retreat from Schleswig to Sonderburg, on the night of the 5th February, 1865. Immediately after it had been determined that the Danes should effect a hurried retrograde movement, bad weather set in with great violence. 'The snow thickened and hardened on the ground, the road became smooth and bright as glass; horses and men slipped dreadfully, and fell at almost every step. Not one horse in the whole Danish army was rough-shod that night; on the
- ↑ The Times, February 18th, 1865.
