[page 83]

59.

59.

The bullets and cannon balls struck here and there, soon there, it was a bleak sight.

Bald schlugen die Karthatschen und Kuglen hier bald dort ein so daß es gantz erbärmlich ware.

On October 2nd, we supplied 700 sappers and that day we had 1 dead and 6 wounded men. As soon as some redoubts and tunnels were finished, 2 regiments always had to keep watch, for 24 hours; the sappers were accompanied day and night by a rather large picket that kept by their sides in order to evacuate the dead and wounded.

Den 2ten 8br gaben wir wiedrum Arbeiter 700 Mann wir bekamen diesen Tag und Nacht an Todten 1 Mann, Plessirten 6 Mann. Sobald einig Schantzen und Laufgräben ver-fertiget waren mußten allezeit 2 Regimenter die Wacht darinen versehen welche 24 Stund tauerte ; auch alle Tag und Nacht wurden die Arbeiter mit einem starcken Piquet versehen welche sich nahe bey ihnen aufhielten um die Todten und Plessirten hinweg zu tragen.

The sappers as well as the detachment groups who were supposed to evacuate the wounded were well paid and received 30 S. for the night or the day.

Diese Arbeiter und auch die Taschementer welche die Todten und Plessierten hinweg tragen mußten wurden alle gut bezahlet mit 30 S. vor die Nacht oder des Tags.

A soldier paying his way out of taking his turn or exchanging it was not tolerated, everyone had to go and take his turn[168].

Alda wurde es auch nicht gelitten daß ein Soldat sein Arbeitsthur bezahlen oder schanschiren thätte, sondern jeder mußte selber gehen seine Thuren zu verichten.

On October 2nd[169] we supplied 800 sappers and that day we had 2 dead and 4 wounded men. Even though we had completed a large number of redoubts and we had drawn closer to the town, we had no artillery to equip these redoubts other than the regiment’s small artillery.

Den 2ten 8br gaben wir Arbeiter 800 Mann wir bekamen den Tag an Todten 2 Mann und an Plessierten 4 Mann. Weillen wir jetzt schon viele Schantzen verfertigt hatten und etwas näher zu der Stadt gekomen, hatten wir als dann kein Geschütz diese Schantzen zu garnieren als die kleine Regimentsstücke.

[réclame]

[rogné]

https://gallica.bnf.fr/iiif/ark:/12148/btv1b10110846m/f42/pct:50,0,100,100/,700/0/native.jpg

Strasbourg, Médiathèque André Malraux, ms f 15, p. 83.

[agrandir]

 Notes

168. The different companies took turns in the trenches to be sure the same men were not always exposed to gunfire. Additionally, mixed contingents were formed, with each company sending a few men. Flohr mentions the practice of exemption, combated by the military authorities. Since work in the trenches was particularly dangerous, the soldiers not wanting to be too exposed could indeed be tempted to pay their way out. Since they established a second hierarchy parallel to the military hierarchy and were founded upon cowardice, these practices were rather poorly tolerated by officers.
169. , A curious error on the part of the author can be spotted here: he refers twice to October 2 in his account of the Siege of Yorktown. The chart recapitulating the number of the dead and wounded copied on page 93 takes up the figures of the “second” October 2, that is to say 2 dead and 4 wounded men. The account of this first October 2 contains no special event that could allow it to be identified as a real date.