Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-07-16
Letter from Russell, the Correspond
emit ofthe London Times.

Russell. writing 10 the London Times, from
Castelnedolo, which is on the high road to
Montechiara, and about midway between
Brescia and the Chiese, on an isolated ridge.
which commands the surrounding country,
gives an item OF news and of special interest
in this country just now. In order to i'm
prove all these advantages, an expcdient was
adopted, which is not new indeed. but which
appears now under quite different circum-
stances.
The brothers Goddard, of eronaut repute,
who came out some time ago provided with
their apparatus. made yesterday in the al
ternoon their frstexperiment at Castelnedolo
One of them made an ascent in small bal
loon to explore the position of the enemy be-
yond the Chiese. Having first mounted
en- the campanile 10 take the bearings and
make himself somewhat acquainted with the
country, be entered his little skif and went
up in the air with the regularity which. ac-
cording to those who saw the ascent showed
he was master of his eccentric conveyance.
He rose to height of 500 to 700 yards,
stopped a minute or so, and then descended
again, with as much regularity as in ascend
ing. As you remember, under Napoleon L..
attempts were made to acquire information
of the enemy's position by these means, but
in the then state of aronaut experience, not
much could be made of this means. Now
lating the movements Of balloons with toll
cradle accuracy, and certainly in many sue
cessful ascents seem proof of d certain pro-
ficiency.
There will be opportunities TO put this to
the test, and if the result should be satsfac-
tory. it will become formidable weapon in
the hands of those who know how to use it
best. The greatest difficulty in warfare is,
that the movement of your adversary are
known imperfectly, for each army is surround
ed by outposts which hide all that is going on
behind. And many General who is blamed
as imbecile, would be judged quite different
iy if it was known on what Information of
the enemy movements he based his plans. A
military genius who knows his adversary well,
can, even on imperfect information, more or
less devise his movements, but in nine cases
out of ten, the ordinary run of generals make
their blunders from want of information.
What, for instance, would not the Austrian
General at Mortara have given had he been
able to peep over the Pc and see those bat
talions aud squadrons hurry off to the Sesia,
or if be could have seen them passing this
latter river.
While the fight at Palestro was going on
he might have brought up his whole army
within twelve hours, and attacked the allies
on their march, while half their army was on
one, and the other on the opposite bank OF
the Sesia. II, then, the experiment of Messrs
Goddard are successful the intelligence de-
partment of allied armies will acquire most
| fruitful source of information. There are, OF
course, cannon balls which may stop up this
| course in second, but artillery has consid-
cradle difficulty in touching bodies that move
| slowly or not at all, and there is very little
chance of its being able to hurt an object fly
ing through the air.