Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1861-11-29
What is a Battle :?


match on large scale. The side which
can best stand being beaten has the best
chance of beating.
We would not say that the General that
is most brave wins tn. day, but he that
fears least; nor is the distinction a mere
tri1e about words The normal state of
two armies marching to battle is tie state
OF fear the general is trembling for his
reputation, the drummer boy for the lass
that he left behind, and the lips he kissed
so fondly when drawn for conscript a
few days before. To all that mighty host
there is the awful alternative, death or VIC
tory 1t may not be pecrage or West
minister Abbey to all, but the prize is
proportioned to the stake. The COM
mander in chief stakes his all on the
issue, and SO does the drummer boy. The
one cannot hazard more than life and hon
or, the other cannot hazard less. In such
lottery as this the boldest may hold his
breath, as the ball whizzes in the roulette
of battle, and fortune hangs in suspense
between the combattants.
That men are not afraid while the bat
tie is raging around them, and comrades
falling on every side is very true but
that ls not because they are too brave not
to know what fear means, Which is only
an absurd way of saying that they are too
Irrational to know what their danger; ut
because passive emotion Of fear is iucom-
patlble with the active cxeYtion re-
quired ef head, legs and arms The COM
mander i'll chief has to think, and the pri
vate has to act during action, and both
thinking and acting are states which put
an end for the time present to the svmpa-
thetic emotions, The surgeon, amputa-
ting patients limb, is conscious of moth
ing but the operation itself If he were
to give way for an instant he would be un-
nerved and unnamed. During the try
ing quarter of an hour he is a being of pure
intellect, devoid of feeling or emotion of
any kind. And unless he were capable of
that act of pure abstraction, be might
give up surgery, and had better adopt the
study of some branch of the fine arts in
stead.
This is why many excellent and able men
have been unable to qualify themselves for
the profession of a surgeon. They were
unable to master their passive emotions in
the operating room their nerves were too
fine strung. and consequently their intel
lect never had fair play; they could never
rise to the perfection of the beauty of an
operation, and forget the screams and suf-
ferings of a patient A surgeon is not
heartless as some suppose, because he for
gets the one class of emotions and can
even induce new train of emotions.
IF the patient were dear relative be
would not attempt the operation, because
he could not trust his resolution. A look
might unnerve HIM, and the more the feel
ings are compressed, the greater the gush
when once the self command is lost, and
like waters breaking through dam, they
sweep all before them.
To apply these remarks to field of
battle. Men there screw their courage to
the sticking place. They do hot talk nom
sense about not knowing what fear means,
but like Macbeth, they can do all that
does become man-who dares do moro is
none. Sir Alexander Ball, than whom
braver man never walked the quarter deck,
confessed that when as boy he was1 put
into the ships launch, on cutting out ex-
pedition, he felt the tears ise in his ewes,
and he would have given worlds to choke
down his emotions. But kind word from
an old boat-swain soon fet him all right
again, and once the first natural gush of
fear was got under he felt no more return
Of it, and got on in action as well as the
oldest seaman. This is the real state of
armies going into action: at first the
strong sense Of danger is uppermost in
their minds, but as soon as this is con-
quered by the sense of duty there is then
no return Of these qualms, unless, as it
sametimes hapF ems, the army finds itself in
trap, or in a cM de sae; with cannon on
all sides, and then the sensation of fear re-
turns with overwhelming strength in pro-
portion as it has been kept under so long.
Dublin University Magazine,