The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-04-24

"a NJ ashore are superior to guns ano""
that naval expeditions are utterly iiipo"
asainsta well fortified coast
In 17s5 a British expedition was n.'eu
AZ an expense of eight millions u "o1'
against O uiberon u port of the French coast
ri. h,, ~ q p,heron Is prom ounced by Bren-
,,r IN h,s British Naval History, "the hhes'
=. ,,. eo,.t of France, or perhaps In the
world. fo7 landing an army. moreover .''e
-. ..,i,.,ta of the country were in open IN
= ,rroc,,on and eager TO cooperate with the
,nan-. Ten thousand soldiers were landed |
. "A ar m. furnished to as many more royalist
.ro,r. but the com bned forces failed In their |
.t,ack upon the fortifications, and General |
uocap. from his entertainments, with seven |
,hou sand men, held in check Il body Of eigh- |
teen thousand, penned up, without defences,
in the narrow peninsula.
In 1899, the English and Russians made a |
descent upon Holland with fourteen ships Of
the line and ten frigates, carrying about
eleven hundred guns and great number OF
transports, with an army of thirty six thou
sand men The defensive army consisted OF
only twenty eight thousand men. Besides
their immense moral and military superiority,
the invaders had the cooperation of the
Orange party in assisting the landing Of their
troops, yet they failed to get possession OF a
single strong place, and after loss OF SIX
thousand men were compelled 10 captulate.
"Such," says ALLISON, e" was the disas trous
issue OF the grea expedition which had yet
sailed from the British harbor during the
war" Can the United States raise such
naval expedition against the South as that
against Holland, and if SO, is it likely to DO
more successful against united, than that
was against divided people 7
In 1901, the illustrous Lord Nelson, the
Napoleon of the Seas, with three ships oil the
line, two frigates, and thirty-hve smaller yes
sells made desperate at tack upon the harbor
of Bologne, but was repu lsed with severe loss.
In 1909, the English fitted out an immense
naval expedition to seize upon the French de-
fences of the Scheldt. Flushing, at the
mouth of the river, was but i'll secured, and
Antwerp, sixty or seventy miles further up,
was entirely defenceless al the time when the
British arrived at Flushing. The British at
tacking force consisted of thirty-seven ships
Of the line TWEEN ty three frgates, thirty three
sloops of war, twenty eight gun, mortar and
bomb vessels, thirty-siN smaller vessels,
eighty-two gun boats, innumerable trans
ports, with over forty Thousand troops
and an immense artillery train, making
in all, says the English historian, "an
hundred thousand combatants." Yet the
feeble defences at Finishing resisted
successfully fire from the fleet, compared
with which French officers, who had been a
| Austerltz and Jena, declared that the can
| nonade at those battles was mere jeu den
| fans and were only reduced by the land forces
! after Il siege of eighteen days. In the mean
| time the Notifications al Antwerp had been
repaired, and after fruitless operation OF
whole month in. the river. the English were
| gradually forced to retreat to the mouth oil the
| Scheldt and finally to evacuate their entire
| conquest. Such was the result OF an eXpedi-
| ton comprising naval force more than three
times the number of all the ships In the Navy
| of the United States, and having more than
| fl We times the combatants OF the whole United
| States Army
| In 1892 a large French squadron attacked
! Cagliari, whose defences were so dilapidated
AS scarcely TO deserve the name, but, after a
| bombardment of three days, was signally de-
| lated and obliged TO retire. In 1894 two Brit
| ish ships, the Forttude of seventy-four, and
| the Juno frgate of thirty two guns attacked
| a small town in the Bay of Mortello, Corsica,
which was armed with one gun in barbette,
| and a garrison of thirty men. After a bonn
| bardment of two hours and half the ships
were forced to haul off with considerable
damage and loss of life, whilst the fortiftca-
tons and the garrison were unharmed. Here
were one hundred and six guns afioat against
one on shore, and yet the latter was success
full.
In 1897, Nelson attacked the little, inefficient
batteries of Santa Crux, in Teneriffe, with
eight vessels, carrying four hundred guns
He was repeiied with the loss OF two hundred
and fifty men, while the garrison received lit
tie or no damage. A single ball from the land
battery, striking the side of one OF his vessels
|
| the French, with three frigate and six thou
| sand men, We're beaten Off from the poorly
! constructed works of Porto Ferrairo, which
had a garrison OF only fifteen hundred. III
July of the same year, an English fleet, car
ryipg five hundred and two guns, attacked TIT
, French land battery of Algesiros, OF only
twelve guns, and was compelled TO retrea
with great loss. In 1868, the English garrison
of Diamond Rock, near Port Royal Bay, viii
) only one hundred men and fifteen guns, re
PEELED, without the loss of Il single man,
> French squadron of two seventy tours,
frigate and brig, assisted by q land attack O
r two hundred troops. The French lost fifty
t men. In 1906, French battery on Cape Ii
7 cosa, of only one gun ana garrison OF TWEEN
y-five men, resisted, without the loss OF
man, the attack OF a British eighty gun shil
e and two frigates, carryingin all over one hun
dred and fifty guns and about 300 men. Tn
assailants lost 81 men killed and wounded
and the eighty gun ship was much disabled
In 1905 a French land battery OF only thre
guns, near Fort Trinidad, drove off an I'm
: giish seventy four gunship and a bomb YES
f sci. In 1913 Leg horn, with weak defences ant
garrison, drove off English squadron O
six ships, carrying over three hundred gun
and one thousand troops. In fac', the who'll
e history of the wars of the French Rev olutio
Y is one continued proof of the superiority O
Notifications as a MARITIME frontier Defence
: The sea-coast of France is only eighteen and
d half miles from England at the narrowes
= ! place of the Channel il was dotted with rc
f commercial towns, offering dazzling booty
| the French navy was inCom petent TO their de
Il fence; the English navy was supported a
!, an annual expense of ninety millions c
a dollars, was continually cruising within sig b
q of French seaports, and, from long practice
e had AGO uired intimate knowledge of IN
i French harbors, bays and creeks the Frenc
VI harbors and towns, stripped OF their garrison
q BY necessities of dlsta wars, were left Wi
| no other defence than their fortif cations an
militia, and yet, though they were freQuentl
attacked, and the most des perate efforts mad
to effect permanent Judgment, they escape
!, unframed during the entire contest.
% Tho history of naval attacks on our ow
n forts In the wars of the Revolution and of Isl
. teaches us the same lesson. Ia 1910 Sir Pete
- Parker, with nine vessels, carrying TWO hur
s. dred and seventy guns, was repnised by FOL
., Moultrie, armed with only twenty-six gun
d and garrisoned by three hundred and seyent,
:, five regulars and q few militia. The BIRTHS
were entirely defeated, and lost, in killed an
I'd wounded, two hundred and five men, viii
70 the same loss in the forts was only thirty -tw
A | General Moultrie said that only thirty rount
from the battery were fired, and the want
20 powder alone prevented the Americans fro
Is destroying the whole fleet. In 1914 Fort Boye
a. a small redoubt near M obile, 0srrisoned by oil
4, hundred and twenty men, and having TWEEN
=, small pieces of cannon, some OF them almo
"a entirely useless, completely repuleed a Britis
| feet of four vessels, carrying ninety two gun
! and five hundred and ninety men, aided by
land force of twenty artillerists with two ca
At non and seven hundred and thirty infantr
N Notwithstanding this immense disparity
force, the enemy was com pie tely foilsd, one
ne his iargest ships entirely destroyed, and
re five men killed and wounded, W hilst the Anne
n lean loss was only eight or nine.
a. Again, in 1914, a battery of one four- POM
;, er and two eighteen pounder guns, at Sto
II ington, Connecticut, repealed a British ffe
of one hundred and thirty four guns.
81 ,In,~ -