Litchfield enquirer., 1862-01-02
SUCCESS AND DEFEAT.
HOW soLD1Ers FIGHT,

A late number of the Dublin University Ma. gazine has an article which contains some excel lent and interesting suggestions on the organiza- ton of armies and the training of soldiers, as these bear on the success of a campaign. The writer strongly urges that it is not bravery but discipline that carried the day, and that an army cannot be trusted in the field till men have con- hdence in each other. We copy:
 A battle is, after all. only pummeling match on large scale, the side which can best stand being beaten has the best chance of beating. We must not say that the General that IS most brave will win the day, but he that fears ieast ; nor is the distinction mere trltiing aoout woros' The normal state o. two armies marching to pat tie is the state of fear; the General IS tremon for his reputation, the drummer-boy for the lass that he left behind, and the lips that he kissed so tondly when drawn for conscript few days before. To all that mighty host there is the awful alternative, death or victory; it may not be peerage or Westminster Abbey to all, but the prize is proportioned to the stake. The Commander-in. Chief stakes his all on the issue, and SO does the drummer-boy, The one cannot hazard more than life and honor, the other can- not 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 combatants.
 That men are not afraid while the battle is raging around them, and comrades falling fast on all sides, is very true but that is not because a passive emotion of fear is incompatible with the active exertion required of head, legs and arms The commander-in-chef has to Mink and the full private to act during action are states which put an end, for the first time present, to the sym pathic emotions. The surgeon, amputatirg a 1 patients limb is conscious of nothing but the operation itself. If he were to give way for an I instant, he would be unnerved and unnamed During the trying quarter of an hour he is a be. ing of pure intellect, devoid of feeling or emo. ton of any kind. And unless he were capable of that act of pure abstraction-unless he could put his understanding under an exhausted receiv. CT, and work it for the time in racuo, he might give up surgery and had better adopt the study of some of the fine arts instead.
 This is why many excellent and able men have been unable to qualify themselves for the profes- sion of surgeon. They were unable to master their passive emotions in the operating room their nerves were too fine strung. and consequent ly their intellect never had fair play they could never rise to the perception of the beauty of all operation, and forget the screams and sufferings of the patient. A surgeon is not heartless, as some suppose because he forgets the one class of emotions, and can even induce new train of emotions If the patient were dear relative he would not attempt the operation because he could not trust his resolution.
 A look might unnerve him, and the more the feelings are compressed, the greater the gush when once the self command is lost, and like wa ters breaking through dam, they sweep all be- fore them.
 To apply th"se remarks to a field of battle.-- Men there screw their courage to the sticking place. They do not talk Macbeth, they can do all that does become man--who dares do more is none, Sir Alexander Ball, than whom a braver man never walked the quarter deck, confessed that when as boy he was put into the ships launch, on cutting out expedition, he felt the tears rise in his eyes, and he would have given worlds to choke down his emotions. But kind word from an old boatswain soon set him all right again, and once the first natural gust of fear WIS 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 conquered by the sense of duty there is then no return of these qualns, unless, as sometimes happen, the army finds itself in trap, or a cut de sac; with cannon on all sides, and then the sensation of fear returns with overwhelming strength, in pro- portion as it has been kept under so long,