Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1861-05-30

ment of the point in hand, you are
brought to the fifth Illustration, which
is one that should commend itself to
every mind and heart
5. 1t IS that the .tavor Of God, ana
the experience Of a Christian, do alone
prepare the soldier for the fearful havoc
Of life to achich he IS exposed. The
warrior is so conversant with the rava-
ges of disease, death in the camp, and
destruction of life upon the battlefield,
that his sensibilities are made callous,
and hence the peril menacing his own
life, excites no alarm. But still there
are terrors about it, that should not be
suppressed or forgotten. The destruc-
tion of human life is the avowed object
of war, or, at least, a necessary con-
comitant of all wars. To this end the
soldier is summoned, armed, drilled and
led to the field. The more successful
an army is in inAicting loss of life upon
the enemy, the more nearly do they
perfect the mission upon which they are
sent. And that this result has been a.
chieved, upon grand scale, is clearly
evinced by the history of some of the
noted battles and campaigns whose sta
tistics are before us. The siege of an
cient Troy destroyed one million and
eight hundred thousand liyes that of
Jerusalem one million and one hundred
thousand. The whole number of souls
that followed Xerxes into Greece, was
more than FIVE millions, of whom only
three thousand escaped Instruction.
At the battle of Austerlitz 10000 fell ;
at Jena and Lutzen $4,000 each; at
Eylau, 10000; at Waterloo, 10000 !;
at Borodino, 80, 900; at Fontenoy, 100,-
900; at Chalous, 100000 of single
army. By the wars of Napoleon, six
millions perished; and, even in his BUS
sian campaign, which lasted less than
six months, million of lives were sac
rifced. In the late Crimean war the
total loss of life is estimated at 450,-
900, and this during a period of one
year. In the siege of Silistria, as an
example, $4,000 Russians fell; and in
the siege oSaSebastopol, more than 10O,-
900 were destroyed, excluding the num-
bers who were swept away by disease.
And in the late contest in Sardinia, it
is said that at the single battle of SOL
ferino, 10000 wome9u were made wild
ows. This dark ARA of statistics only
shows what fatality has attended the
wars of the past, where such immense
armies were engaged. The probability
is, that in proportion to the number on
the field, the number destroyed was not
larger than the average where less ar
mics are collected. When the modern
improvements in the weapons of war
fare, the perfection of military drill,
and the courage of soldiers battling for
inalieEable rights, are all remembered,
the Inference is irresistible, that very
man. must fall upon the field of earn
age. But besides the liability to death
in this way, the dangers from accident
and disease must, also, be brought into
view. What proportion of men are
injured, and even loose their lives, by
weapons in their own, or hands of their
friends, no estimate can be made. In
South Carolina, within few months,
at least, xhave been thus shot or pier
ced with bayonet, and half of these
fatally injured; and in Virginia fully
ten have thus suffered, and part of
them have died, within few weeks.
AS to mortality from disease, tits GER
tain that on all average, many more
thus perish, than fall in battle, where
the campaign is protracted. As speci-
mems: 1t is said that in the Peninsular
war in Spain, only 40,OO0 soldiers were
killed, or died of wounds, while 120,-
900 died of disease. In the Crimea, it
is highly probable that, where one per-
ished on the field, at least three died in
camp, of Cholera, Typhus Fever and
other diseases. In the war between the
United States and Mexico, there were
to every one of the United States SOL
diers killed in battle, more than FIVE who
died from diseases incident to the cli-
mate and camp. The soldier then must
be regarded as actually environed by
the footballs of death he meets it in it's
most ghastly and terrific forms at every
point. To die, as the soldier dies, is no
ordinary fate. Gloomy as the monster
death usually is, he puts on his blackest
habiliments when he approaches the
warrior. If the man falls in the crisis
of battle, he is either hurried into eter-
nifty without moment of time for
thought or preparation, and with re-
vengeful purposes in his heart; Or he
is compelled to agonize for hours or days
with some frightful wound, and under
circumstances which are by no means
favorable to repentance of sins, or e.
quipping the soul for its eternal flight.
0rif he dies in camp, there will be no
soft hand of love to wipe the death damp
from his brow, or voice to cheer his last
hour with words of affection. Neglect
ed by comrades, far from home and
friends, and perhaps, alone, except his
surgeon be present, he passes to the
unseen world, and without, in most ca,
ses, single opportunity of having the
Gospel provisions presented to him.
Thus to die is wretched, is awful, is hor'
rifle to the soul. This shocking picture
and it is not dark enough even to bt
natural-is too frequently melancholy
reality. How then, can the soldier wht
is not at peace with his God, who is no
a true Christian, meet death, which as