The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-08-30
MOVEMENTS OF UUEAN STEAMERS.
From Az the Ytar Found.

THE FIERCE REALITIES OF WAR.
Think only fthe common hackney ed expressions
which pass so lightly between the lips when speak
ing of great battle. We talk exultingly, and
with certain fire, of "a magnificent charged of
ga splendid charged vet very few will think of the
hdeous particulars these two airy words stand for
The "splendd charge" is a headlong rush of men
strong horses, urged to their fullest speed riding
down overw whelming and opposing mass of men
on foot. The readers mind goes no further, being
content with the information that the enemy's line
was "broken" and "gave way" 1t does not fill in
the picture. To do so effectively, must think
first of an ordinary individual run down in the
public street by horseman moving at an easy
pace The result is, usually, fracture and violent
confusion.
We may strengthen the tones of the picture by
setting this horseman at full gallop and joining to
him company of other flying horsemen. How will
it then be with the unhappy pedestrian? So when
the "splendid charge" has done its work, and
passed by there will be found sight very much
like the of a frightful railway accident
There wilhbe the full complement of backs broken
in two; of arms twisted wholly off; of men impaled
upon their own bayonets; of legs smashed up like
bits of irewood; of heads sliced open like apples
of other heads crunched into soft jelly by iron
hoofs of horses; of faces trampled out of all like
ness to anything human. This is what skuks be-
hind ga splendid charge!' This s what follows,
a matter of course, when "our fellows rode at them
in style" and "cut them up famnusly."
Again, how often does the comman Ter, writing
home in his official dispatches, dwell particularly
on the gallant conduct of Captain Smith, who
finding the enemy were "annoying our right lit
tie, got his gun into position. and efectually held
them in check" Both expressions fair draw
ing:room phrases, to be mentioned cheerfully by
ladies' lips. 1t is, as it were, few flies buzzing
about "our right wing" teasing and fretting"our"
men. And yet, properly translated, it signifies
this: that stray men of that right wing are now
and then leaping with convulsive start into the
air, Mimic bullet flies with sharp sting through
their hearts; that stray men, suddenly struck,
rolling on the ground; that man, here and there,
is dropping down quite suddenly with shrek, his
| freock tumbling from his hand. In short, that
there is a series OF violent death-scenes being
acted up and down the long line.
Then come the bayonet wounds, Jagged, perpex-
| ing and painful. Now has it been thrust violently
through the chest and lungs and out at the back,
and is viOeatly withdrawn with peculiar twist,
| whence comes suppuration, painful gasping for
breath, and all manner of .horrid Accomplishments
Now it has impaled the intestines, producing strange
| complication. Now it has pierced the lower ex-
tremty of the heart, and, curious to say, the vic
tim has lived five days. The spine comes in, teo
| for its share of injury. bullet skins through the
body, smashes the lower vertebra of the column,
makes its escape the other side. The bones come
away in little pieces The new Mimic ball has, we
are told the useful property of shivering the bone
into numberless spnters and fragments. The con-
zeal point acts as wedge, and the scattering of The
| splnters adds much to the Inflammation. So the
| dismal catalogue runs on
The real horrors of war are played out to the ut.
most on the hospital pallet when the theatrical bus
| iness is all over.
DARING FRENCH ENGINEERING ExpER1NEsr.-The
| Straits of Messina destined to undergo an ope-
ration (on the part of a French engineer( some
what akin to the daring experiment of the Meuai
bridge, but of different character. There are no
| projecting cliffs that would enable Chary bds to
\ communicate with Scylla athwart tubular shaft
hung in mid air, over "the masts of some tall ad.
| miral;" besides, as line OF railway across the
Channel is the object in view, artificial ascent
| and incline is out of the question, but gigantic
pair of swivel pontoons nearly on level with high
water is held to be perfectly practicable, and the
engineer, NJ. Oudry, has already demonstrated tha
J in his lately achieved bridge over an arm of the
. . at Brest Between that naval arsenal and tht
opposite point at Recouvrance there rolls the tida
estuary, called Penfed Inlet, across which he ha
thrown two sheet-iron tubes, each 254 feet long
5 resting for support each on a central fulcrum OF
swVei, sustained by two piles of granite, in diane
yer measuring SO cubic feet, the weight OF eact
lolnt OF tne movable bridge being about three mil
r non pouhas, yet such is the well poised and accu
; rate mechanism OF this enormous structure, that
/. bridge, as if it were mere watcbwork on tn
8 principle of horizontalmovement.- PARIS Letter.
5 Nearly Ii, 600 stand Of arms are e1neeted 10 sr
rive in New York city from Europe this week
= Another large invoice h expected next month,