The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1859-06-14
1A,A.sveesrsssA.1,5l11a,..I,sI1 80.

ple have oousolod thomsolvss with the BE-
lief that, beeassa VA, has bean nlAae dead
her and SsaliG by - advaaee q sciencs
duriik ysals Of peace battle By ssahnd land
ifthsy ars 70 b. fought q a, must hence.
hsvard b yfpught under new conditions,
The ara Of battlefield, extended By the
use Of gun-powder, has been again vastly
extsidSa 81 invsstioes which assure 4
maryellous increase Of it, effective power.
Oassnlid srOunl, new forms Of battle ar
MVfil eoou IS demanded. At sea,
there il an end 10 the old line Of engage
ment. The admiral yh0 hAs steam fri
gates 10 command and q attack. should
ks attempt to repeat Nelson's feat at Ira
falgar, in Nelson's way, would bring
about the absolute destruction Of his own
feet and the easy triumph of the enemy.
A certain distinctness in our notion Of
the history Of war, - ~ art, win help NJ
to understand some of the forthcoming
changes in its aspect. Only, when We
talk Of generabhip, let ~ mot forget that,
in enr own country and our own time,
sush things are possible - soldiers victo.
ries, in which the fortituds- Of the mass
though badly gensgaled, can 6sl in battle
the best tactics at the adversary. There
is something in brave men, with q good
eause, that Is always greater, and not sci.
dom stzUngse, than the subtlest military
skill. -.
In the very old time when our tale be.
gins-and We are chiefly helped in telling
itby Col. Gnham's recent book upon the
Art Of WARM the very old time, there
was NO skill supreme even over a mere
bodily strength: .ss.
Manb earliest arns we're Angera teeth and nails,
49, ssssss end hagnenss. ffon The branching woods
The hardest hitter with fist, or club,
or stone, was the best man in battle, and,
BY right Of his fist, commonly the chief.
When tribes of men fought for supremacy
they butted at and wrestled with each 9TH
or. They threw stones and darts, and
they soon found that . stone flies best
frcm sling, and dart when it is twang-
cd from stiff bow. Ishmael, We learn
from the Oldest Of books, "grew and
dwslt in the wilderness, and became an
H@say.s. men sarn; GU. in mas. T.
fight their quarreL between tribe and
tribe. From the days when the whole
abls-bodied male population rose in a
crowd 70 represent Its lighting power, we
pass through the centuries to our own
time. The complex system of civilized
society, compels nations to fight by train
ed armies, while the mass Of their popula-
ton lAbors on in trades, and arts, and sci
ences. It is now calculated that one man
in . hundred may be spared to military
service without hurt to other interests by
the removal. In some of the small States
of Greece twenty men in hundred used
to be employed as soldiers.
These also we're the best men. The
magistrates of Greece and Rome, in their
ripe days, recruited the army with their
picked citizens. In the later aud worse
days Of Rome, when large armies we're
earning little honor, slaves and criminals
were added to the ranks; desertion was
% frequent that recruits were branded
when enrolled; and the service was SO
hateful that men cut their thumbs of, to
disqualify themselves. Thus it is that
from the Latin for amputated thumb VIC
get the word poltroon.
Before the time of Phillip of Macedon,
father of Alexander the Great, the forces
used throughout Greece, were in fact
militia. Phillip perceiving the use of a |
standing army, did not disband his, if |
there occurred during his reign an inter-
val Of peace. His army was in this way |
made very competent to conquer the mi
litias of the Greek Republics and of Per-
sia.
Alexander, on landing in Asia, increas
ed the proportion of cavalry in his army.
Half-barbarous tribes, who know nothing
of the order and discipline on which the
strength Of infantry depends, have prefer
red fighting on horseback Scipio learnt
from Hannibal the good use to which cav
airy might be put in ancient war and the
invention Of gunpowder, by charging the
space Of battle grounds, created new
want Of horses on the field.
During the first five hundred years of
Roman history, the constant was were con-
fined within the limits of Italy there was
much fighting, but no art in war.
The contest between Rome and Car
thage first began to call forth military
kill. The successes of the Carthaginians
On the sea-coast compelled Rome to Gre
ate navy. The generalship of Hannibal
who was, as . strategist, far greater than
instructed Roman chiefs and
1t last Hannibal was matched with
Scipio who carried war into the enemy's
quarters, fought and won scientific battles,
parted his adversaries that he might beat
them in detail, foiled their diplomacies,
understood as we'll as Hannibal the pow
sr that lies in rapidity Of movement, and
got Roman soldiers to march, each man
carrying fifty or sixty pounds weight,
sight leagues in FIVE hours.
There was then, and had been a gener-
Il form Of Roman battle array that has
been preserved among armies of Europe
o the present time. 1t was drawing up
If troops in three distinct lines-a front
inc, to commence the action: a second
not more than three hundred yards be-
hiad it, to support the 6rst third be-
7ond the range Of battle, as the reserve,
which the general held in hand to let
Dose at decisive moment, and secure if
possible, the fortune of the day. Many
'attles have been decided by reserves, and
7ictory is often with the general who is
asst to bring his reserve into action.
Marius abolished the three lines of the
Roman army and divided it into cohorts,
which gave to his force some of the mobil-
ty of modern troops.
The artillery Of old consisted Of arrows, OF
machines for firing great stones, or for for
ling enormous weights in battery against
own walls. Towns were defended by walls
Ind towers with an outside ditch, wet if pos
'ible. Besiegers built movable towers to
advance against them, overlapping them that
hey might pour their missiles down on the
or level with them that they might
,rapple, throw across q bridge, and pour
heir Sighting men over the ramparts They
made, BY trenching, their approaches to the
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