Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 41689-h.htm or 41689-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41689/41689-h/41689-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41689/41689-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://archive.org/details/withambulancedur00ryan Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). A carat character is used to denote superscription. A single character following the carat is superscripted (example: Sept^r). Multiple superscripted characters are enclosed by curly brackets (example: 1^{st}). [Illustration: James Robinson & Sons Dublin, Photo. Walker & Boutall Ph. Sc. Charles E Ryan] WITH AN AMBULANCE DURING THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR Personal Experiences and Adventures with Both Armies 1870-1871 by CHARLES E. RYAN, F.R.C.S.I., M.R.C.P.I. Knight of the Order of Louis II, of Bavaria With Portrait and Maps New York Charles Scribner's Sons 153-157 Fifth Avenue 1896 Aberdeen University Press. TO JAMES TALBOT POWER, MY OLD FRIEND AND SCHOOLFELLOW, I DEDICATE THE FOLLOWING PAGES. PREFACE. Ere I attempt to set before the public this slight record of my experiences during the Franco-German War, I must first disclaim all pretence to literary merit. It was written in 1873, and is simply an embodiment of a series of notes or jottings, taken during the war in my spare moments, together with the contents of a number of descriptive letters to my friends. They were written solely for them, and nothing was farther from my mind at the time than the idea of publication. Thus, they remained in a recess of my study for nearly a quarter of a century, until a new generation had grown up around me; and doubtless, but for their friendly importunity, there they would have lain until the memory of their author, like the ink in which they were written, had faded to a blank. I would ask my readers to bear in their kindly recollection that the scope of such a work as the following must of necessity be limited. As a medical man, I had at all times and in all places my duties to perform; hence I have been unable to be as elaborate as other circumstances might warrant. I would also remind them (and every one who has been through a campaign will know) how vague and uncertain is the information which subordinates possess of the general movements of the army with which they are serving. It happens occasionally that they are wholly ignorant of events occurring around them, the news of which may have already reached the other side of the world.