Details of a terrific battle in Upper Alsace have been received by the
London _Daily Chronicle_ in special messages from Basel.
“The battle was attended by great loss of life on both sides. The
fortunes of battle varied during two days. At first all seemed to go
well with the French, and on the second day the tide turned in favor of
the Germans, who had about one hundred guns on the hills, some eight
miles from Basel. They wrought havoc among the French infantry, who made
brilliant bayonet charges in their efforts to carry the hills.
“The French batteries at Altkirch vainly strove to silence the German
guns. The slaughter was very heavy. The French fought desperately to
frustrate the Germans’ attempt to cut them off from communication with
Belfort and succeeded in their effort to reach a frontier village.
“On the third day the French forces, summoning all their energies in
incomparable general assaults at the point of the bayonet, drove the
Germans from all their advanced positions, and ten minutes after the
last Bavarian battalion had beaten a retreat a brigade of French
Lancers, with several companies of Colonial Turcos, re-entered
Muelhausen singing the ‘Marseillaise.’ The French army, intrenching
itself, occupied a strong front, to which it dragged a large number of
cannon and stores and ammunition from Belfort.”