Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-07-22
The Significant Phases OF the Battle
Sol
rFrom the Iondon Times Julv41

devoured the dinner which had be n prepar-
ed for Francis Joseph at Solferi. o. This
little incident, however is only tyne of
things. Francis Joseph has been II on ybout
this Italian policy only oven war; er bis
French Imperial brother If he had en a
man of his age and time. he would n yer
have allowed Louis Napoleon to play before
/ the world the andacious part of a liberator
of oppressed nationalities. But he has been
fixed in fossil system, and he has petrified
into part al the mass. As ne prepared the
way in Piedmont and at Lombardy, and at
Aneona. and even in Rome. for others whose
| only excuse for coming after him was that he
and bis bad been there before. so it appears
| likely to happen that Preschiera and Verona,
Mantua and Leganoa have been fortified,
| strengthened. stored and armed. only 10 be
| garrisoned by Frenchmen, and ultimately, as
we must in courtesy to recorded promises
! believe. obe occupied 10y Italians. Already
"the hole French army has passed the
| Mincio" already 1.-The Sardinians have in
vested Preschiera;" already Napoleon, aided
| by his reinforc ment of $4,000 men. has APP
! preached Verona and watches Mantua, al
ready the whole Austrian army has, for
| strategic reasons"-whicb. pushed to their
| logical consequences, may some day perhaps
require the abandonment of Vienna, or ever
Prague-retired from the banks of the Mincio;
| already the French have carefully and cauti-
4
! Austrian, still obstinate in resistance, al
though no longer confident of victory, is
| probably. untaught and unteachable, again
fixing some definite honor of some definite day
whereon he will make all his arrangements
| for another pitched battle.
This battle of Solferino illustrates upon
| great scale the character OF the two antagon-
| lists. Its phases and its facts are all recorded
| Its indelible picture is craven upon all our
| minds. Aided by the experience of cores
| pondents in either camp-these heralds OF
sacred aud peaceful missiOn-we have follow
ed the Austrian Emperor to and from the
| fight. and the French Emperor throughout his
| advance. We have twice seen the field from
| the I" Spy of Italy" and have surveyed it al
| ternately through French and Austrian glass
es. To day the battle of Solferino takes It's
| place in history in the shape in which it will
| be known for eyermore. 1t was great aud
| sanguinary battle, fereely contested by near
| ly four hundred thousand men from sunrise
| to sunset Of summer day; and it was
battle in which the Austrians were defeated,
| hut not broken, by an enemy inferior in num-
bers, but superior in intelligence and arms.
| While the mind of Europe is yet excited Dy
| the details of this mighty carnage, and is
| growing familiar with the events of the battle,
it is time for US to point the moral of the ca
tastrophe. Why did the Austrians lose this
great battle? Why have they lost every
is not that they are less brave than the
French. In this very engagement, according
10 the official accounts of each army, the
Austrians killed and wounded II 900 French
| men, with loss to themselves of but 5000
killed and wounded. There could have have
no flight when the numbers stand thus at thu
end of the day. Nor are the Austrians in
ferior as marksmen. Their ritemen hit 720
French officers, whereof one hundred and
twenty were shot dead, while the French
succeeded in killing and wOuuding only two
hundred and thirty of the Austrians officers.
They certainly not inferior to the French
in discipline. Their uis MertiB is magnificent,
and they retreat invariably with a bold,
steady front to the foe. Why is it, then, that
Because, unfortunately for them, present
knowledge is present power, and their
knowledge is not Of the present, but of The
past. They stagnsting responsibility.
They are governed and directed by old rules,
old men, and old routine. They have an
enemy who does not care a Genuine for anti
uuity and il not above taking the mort ir-
regular methods to win victory,
The Emperor of Austria makes up his
mind to do u remarkably fine piece of Louis
| Quatorzc strategy. He executes an elabor
ATE piece OF old fashioned deception, cross
| ing the Mincio with his whole force. and then
recrossing it with his two hundred thousand
men, and fixing the contemplated surprise of
the enemy at clock in the morning The
Emperor of the French, representing the ju-
venile Irregular school, in the most ungen-
| tIrmanlike manner refuses to be surprised.
| Having recourse to new tangled eXpedient
| which no trustworthy veteran who can count
| his seventy years would condescend to use,
he sends man up in a balloon; and, at the
! expense of Nfew yards of silk and a few
| feet of gas. IS told the exact position of all
|
tifcaly out o. his sight with the intention of
surprising him at the comfortable. leisurely
| hour of 9 A NJ. The man of his time--the
| clever, shrewd, nothing Conforming adven-
turer of the nineteenth century--by dint of
this small contrivance. becomes master OF
the position. He knows what IL going 10
! happen and where his enemy is. and how
many he is: and while the heavy, selfcom-
| placent Austrian is chuckling at the formal
| surprise that is to come off at 8 A. NJ he at
tacks at day break, chooses his own time and
point of attack. and remains master of the
field. SO. again, the Austrian, coming by
very respectable means, in no respect sullied
| by any inveutiveness or breach OF prece-
| dent, into possession OF fine body of sharp
shooters. dealt tremendous disaster against
the French. The French opposed artificial 10
the Austrian natural advantage, but not 50
| as TO equaliZe the two armies in the rife
There was another point, however, in " hch
the two nations were equal. The Austrian
mountaineers do not use cannon in their
Sunday games. Here France went ahead
and Austria marched 0u pas.
| The consequences have been obvious enough
The battle of Solferino has been won by the
superiority OF The French artillery. The
shells from the French rified cannon fell at
distances whence the old guns could not reply.
| Every reader can work out the result. The
| enemy's artillery was silenced before it could
come within effective distance. Mans thews
aud flesh are today as they were thousand
years ago, but machinery is not thus immuta-
| BILE Mere pluck and courage, and stand
ing still in squares. aud coming forward in
lines. is of no use if there is an engine two
miles off which will NOV down your lines
and reap death harvest in your squares be-
| fore Won can reach your living enemy. All
that is left in such case to a gentleman of
the old school is to die with dignity and con-
stancy. scorning. il he should so please, with
| his last breath the foe that seeks victory by
such plebeian and irregular means.
We follow with an interest much more in
innate and earnest than could he excited by
Il sympathy for any mere principle the tao
| tics and the defeats of these Austrian armies.
1t is vain to disguise from ourselves the fact
that what they are we are. The solidity. the
bravery, the old fashioned routine, all of
which yield so sulkly before the science and
| intelligence OF an army leu auu ORGANIZED Dy
men in their active vigour, are like our own
solidiiy, our own bravery. and our own
routine. So far as we are i'll advance OF this
Austrian army, whi,h loses town after town
/ and district after district, and has the secret
| Of sufft ring the most hreproachable defeats.
| is due not 10 our dear old reverend doing
Horse Guards system,
| - Quod res omnes Iimde geideque ministrat;
nilator spc longus, iuers avtdusque fuiuri.
| Difficilis, querulus, laudator Iemporis act.
but to the House of Commons, the press and
the people. How coldly would the represen-
tatives of this good old system have laughed