3-011-431 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The War in Schleswig: the 9th regiment of hussars (Prince Liechtenstein's) bivouacking on the battlefield of Over-Selk after the fight - from a sketch by our special artist, 1864.'Far as the eye could reach we saw...the smoke of camp fires. Since Monday 15,000 Austrians and as many more Prussians have had to bivouac in the open air. The country between Breckendorf and Over-Selk was of the bleakest and most inhospitable description...Hedges there were none, as the Danes had cut down what few there existed previously to their retreat...The snow lay an inch and a half deep on the ground when we arrived, and the temperature was not a degree above zero. As we afterwards learnt from the officers and men themselves, the privations they had undergone from Tuesday to Thursday were fearful in the extreme. By Tuesday night there was not a crumb of broad or a glass of drink in any of the few villages in the neighbourhood for miles round. On Wednesday and Thursday the majority of the troops had nothing beyond a slice of black bread to eat and cold water to drink...The army had brought not a single tent with it, and in this wintry weather the men had had to pass three nights in the open air while it was constantly snowing, raining, or freezing'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.