The Placer herald., 1858-12-04
The Beauties of War.

1t appears from authenticated documents.
that from the commencement to the close of
the revolutionary wars the evies Of soldiers
in France exceeded four millions and that
not less than three millions of these, on the
lowest calculation, pershed in the field, the
hospital, or the bivouac. If to these we add, ,
as we unqueslionably must, at least an equal
number out of tie ranks of their antagonists,
it is clear that not less than sac millions of
human beings perished in warfare in the
course of twenty years, in the very heart Of
civilized Europe, at the commencement Of
the nineteenth century of the Christian era.
But even these stupendous numbers give us
no adequate conception of the destruction
Of human life directly consequent on the
wars Of the revolution and the empire. We
must add the thousands who perished from
want, outrage and exposure, and the hundreds
of thousands who were subsequently swept
away by the ravages Of that pestilence which
and the crowded garrisons of the campaign
Of 1913, and for several years afterwards
desolated in succession every country of
Europe And even when we have summed
up and laid before us, in all the magnitude
of figures, the appalling destruction of life
here exhibited, we can still gather only a
faint and remote conception of the sutferings
and tie evils inflicted by this awful scourge
Death in the field is among the smalless of
the miseries of war; the burned villages
the devastated harvests-the ruined com
merce-the towns carried by assault-the
feeble and the lovel y massacred and outrag-
ed-grief despair and desolaton, carried
into nnumerable famlies,-these are among
the more terrific vsitations of military con-
hcts.
Historians have seldom given full and
fair analysis of what acar is. They have de-
scribed the marches, the sieges, the able
man@uvers, the ingenious stratagems, the
gallant enterprises, the desperate conflicts,
the mastery combinations, the acts of heroic
daring, with which war abounds; and they
have summed up those descriptions of battles
which we read with breathess interest, by
informing us that the victory was gained
with a loss Of so many thousands killed and
wounded-so many thousands made prison
ers-and so many standards and pieces of
artillery taken from the enemy. But all
this is only the outside coloring of war, and
goes little way towards making US acquaint
ed with its real character. Historians rarely
tell us of the privations suffered, the d'5ases
engendered, the tortures undergone during
a campaign; still less of the vices ripened,
the selisl ness confirmed, the hearts hardened
by this temporary repeal of all the princi-
pies of virtue" They do not speak of the
ties broken-the hearths made desolate-of
grief never to be comforted- shame never
to be wiped away-of the burden of abiding
afflction brought upon many happy house
hold-of all the naneless atrocities, one of
which, in peaceful times would make our
blood run cold, but which in war are com
mitted daily, by thousands, with impunity.
Historians rarely ever presented us with such
pictures as tie following; and yet these are
the inevitable Accomplishments of war:
'6uch was the terrible battle of Ey'au,
fought in the depth of winter, amidst ice and
snow, under circumstances of nnexampled
horror. The loss on both sides was immense;
and never in modern times had field of bat
tie been strewn with such multitude of
slain. On the side of the Russians, $4,000
had fallen, of whom 1000 were already no
more; on that of the French, upwards of
Sc, 900 were killed or wounded, and nearly