3-038-965 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

French prisoners on the road between Etampes and Orleans, 1871. The Franco-Prussian War. 'Our Special Artist contributes the sketch of a party of French prisoners of war met by him along the road between Etampes and Orleans, whom he found in a most wretched plight, half starved, worn out by fatigue, and very scantily clothed...The victory won by the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg last week, terminating a series of obstinate conflicts along the road to Le Mans and upon the banks of the river Huisne, seems to have been most complete. The number of French prisoners taken in the fighting from the 6th to the 12th January is reckoned at 20,000, including the wounded, besides twelve guns and mitrailleuses, locomotive-engines, waggons, and stores'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.