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Transcriber's Note
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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 slightrecord of my experiences during the Franco-GermanWar, I must first disclaim all pretenceto literary merit.
It was written in 1873, and is simply an embodimentof a series of notes or jottings, takenduring the war in my spare moments, togetherwith the contents of a number of descriptiveletters to my friends. They were written solelyfor them, and nothing was farther from my mindat the time than the idea of publication.
Thus, they remained in a recess of my studyfor nearly a quarter of a century, until a newgeneration had grown up around me; and doubtless,but for their friendly importunity, there theywould have lain until the memory of their author,like the ink in which they were written, hadfaded to a blank.
I would ask my readers to bear in theirkindly recollection that the scope of such a workas the following must of necessity be limited.
As a medical man, I had at all times and in[vi]all places my duties to perform; hence I havebeen unable to be as elaborate as other circumstancesmight warrant.
I would also remind them (and every onewho has been through a campaign will know)how vague and uncertain is the information whichsubordinates possess of the general movementsof the