The weekly Butte record., 1861-09-21

The Panic.

The recent panic in our army, so similar III
character to the panic which seized the French
and Sardinians at Sollerino, reminds US of that
still more renowned panic which took posses
sion Of both the Russian troops and their enc
mics the Tartar hordes, four hundred years
ago, on the banks of the Okla. This extraor.
dnary event is we'll authenticated and is
| probably unparalleled in the history of war
A vast army of Tartars, some three hundred
thousand in number, under their chieftain
Akhmet, marched for the invasion of Russia.
They passed from the Volga to the Don, and
ascended the valley of this river, spreading
ruin along path many miles In width. About
the middle Of October they reached the banks
Of the Okla, where they found Russian army,
two hundred thousand strong, under the Empe-
ror Ivan III, prepared to resist them. These
two immense armies thus met, face to face,
with only the waters of that narrow stream to
separate them.
The formidable weapons Of modern warfare
were then unknown. Swords, arrows, iavalins,
clubs. axes, battering rams and catapults were
then the most potent instruments which men
used for the destruction of their fellow-men
For fortnight the two armies fought on the
opposite banks of that stream, hurting at each
other all their missiles of war, and each fearing
greatly lest the antagonist army should effect
passage.
A cold night in November came, and the
stream was covered with ice. Some movement
which was made in the Tartar ranks led the
Russians to think that the foe, at midnight,
were about TO cross the stream The panic
spread from rank to rank. The night was
dark. The tumult in the camp indicated that
the enemy was already upon them, and the
whole Russian army, in state Of indiscribablc
confusion, commenced its fight
The Tartars heard the commotion, and sup
posed that the Russians were coming upon them
in midnight assault Terror spread also
through their ranks. The widest uproar
arose, and forsakng tents and baggage, they
commenced their fight. Two hundred thou
sand men fed in one direction, and three hun
dred thousand in the other. Such vast armies
cover leagues Of country-and those in the van
supposed the terror-stricken fugitiYes in the
rear to be pursuing foes Thus was presented
the unprecedented aspect of two armies, horse
men, and footmen, numbering in the aggregate
FIVE hundred thousand men flying in indescri-
bable dsmay from each other
1t was a semibarbaric age, and there were
no facilities for the Transmission of intelligence
The Russians did not venture to stop to breathe
until they had retrcated two hundred miles, and
had taken refuge behind the walls of Moscow
The fight of the Tartars was not arrested un-
til they had reached their strongholds, three
hundred miles distant, On the banks Of the
Volga
The Russians, instead of being ashamed of
their panic, have ever attributed this, their
singular escape from Tartar invasion, to the
direct interposition of God in answer to the
prayers of the clergy. Karumsin, the most
illustrious Of the historians of the empire, writes
in reference to it:
Shall men, vain and feeble, celebrate the
terror of their arms? No it is not to the
might of earth's warriors-it is not human
wisdom that Russia owes her safety but only
to the goodness of God."