New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-03-17
THE MOORISH WAR.


a,a, Art, and possibly atthe sameHme the last
-, ~ the Spanish war in Morocco has now been
s~..sht 70 close, and as all the detailed Official
...o,ts have arrived, we may once more return
q the subject
ON the first of January the Spanish army left the
lines Of Ceuta, in order to advanceupon fetuan,
which is only 81 miles distant. Though never at
any time seriously attacked, or stopped by the
apemy il took Marshal 0'DOnnen not less than
month to bring his troops to within sight Of that
tevn. The absence of roads, and the necessary
caution are not sufficient motives for this un-
paralleled slowness of march; and it is plain
that the command of the sea possessed by the
Spaniards, was not utilized to the full ex-
cent. Nor is il an excuse that a road had 70 Dc
made for heavy guns and provisions. Both should
have been principally carried BY the ships "hhe
The army provided with a weeks provision anu
no other guns than the mountain artillery (carneo
on the backs of mules) could have reached tue
nights above Tetuan in five days at the utmost
and waited with the Rios division, which then as
well as three weeks afterward could not be pre-
vented from landing at the mouth ofthe Wahad ell
Jem. The battle of the 4th Of February might
have been fought, and probably under still more
favorable aspects for the Spaniards, on the
9th or 9TH of January; thus thousands of men
lost through sickness would have been spared
and by the 9Th Of January Tetuan might have been
taken.
This seems a bold assertion. Surely, O'DOnnell
was as eager TO get to Teuan any of hs soldiers;
he has shown bravery, circumsPectiOn, GOODNESS,
aud other soldierly qualities. II it took him a
month TO arrive before il, how could he
have done the same thing in a, week
O'Donnell had two ways before him to bring
up his troops. First, he might rely chiefly on
the communication by land, and use the ships
merely as auxiliaries. This is what he did. He
organized regular land transport for his pro-
visions and ammunition, and took with the army q
numerous fied-artileIy of l2-pOunders. His army
was to be entirely independent Of the ships in case
of need; the ships were to serve merely as
second line of communication with Ceuta
useful but anything but indispensable. Thi
plan, of course, entailed the organization of a.
immense train of carriages, and this train neces
STATED the construction Of road. Thus wee
was lost until the road from the lines to the beac
had been constructed; and almost at every step
the whole column, army train and all, was halted
until another piece of road had been made for The
next DAVIS advance. Thus, the duration of the
march was measured by the miles of road which
the Spanish engineers could construct from day to
Say; and this appears to have been done at the
rate Of about half mile per day. Thus the very
means selected to transport the provisions neces-
STATED an immense increase of the train, for the
longer the army remained on the road the more, OF
course, it must consume. Still, when, about the
18th January, gale drove the steamers from the
coast, the army was starving, and that within sight
Of their depot at Ceuta another stormy day, and
one-third Of the army would have had to march
back to fetch provision for the other two. Thus II
was that Marshal O'Donnell managed TO promenade
$4,000 Spaniards along the coast of Africa for {
whole month at the rate of two-thirds of mile {
day. This system of provisioning the army once
adopted no power in the world could have verJ
materially shortened the length of this unpara
leled march; but was it not mistake to adopt il
at all
If Tetuan had been inland town, situated
twenty-one miles from the coast instead of four
miles, no doubt there would have been no other
choice. The French in those expeditions to the
interior OF Algeria f0unQ In6 same OlHlcuilltb anu
overcame them in the same way, though with
greater energy and quickness. The English IN
India and Afghanistan were saved this trouble by
the comparative facility of finding beasts Of burden
and proyender for them in those countries; their
artillery was light and required no good roads, as
the campaigns were carried on in the dry season
only, when armies can march straight across the
country. But il was left to the Spaniards and to
Marshal ODonnell to march an army along the
sea-sbore for whole month"; and to accomplish in
this time the immense distance of twentyOne
miles.
tits evident from this that both appliances and
ideas in the Spanish army are of very old-fasb-
toned character With a feet Of steamers and
sailing transports always within sight this march is
perfectly ridiculous and the men disabled during 1t
by cholera and dysentery, were sacrificed to
prejudice and ncapacity The road built by the
engineers was no real communication with Ceuta, for
it belonged to the Spaniards nowhere except
where they happened to encamp. To the rear,
the MoOrs might any day render it mpracticable.
To carry message, escort convoy back to
Ceuta, a division of 5000 men at least was re-
auired. During the whole of the march, the COM
nunication with that place was carried on by the
steamers alone. And with all that, the provisions
accompanying the army were so insufficient that
before twenty days had passed the army was on
the point Of starvation, and saved only by the