The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1862-08-09

y AhS SOuhs NuiONS Shi HAS puoiiSIeu an ar
ticle entitled "War," in which he contend
that it has one cardinal, absolute rule Rap
id:ty of Movement" This has been illus
trated by the success of Burnside, Curtis
Pope and Mitchell, on our side, and by tha
of Price and Jackson Ito say nothing of Ash
byl on the other. The deepest humiliations
we have suffered have resulted from an op.
posite policy, witness Bowling Green, Cor.
inth, Manassas, Yorktown and Richmond
Says the Count =. ass
"To rapidity of movement all the great
captains owe their fame, their vict cries and
conquests, recorded in history. From Cyrus
down to Stonewall Jackson, rapidity of move
ment and its result, surprise of the enemy,
assured all the victories. business of eye,
quickness in appreciating the exigencies on
a given field of battle, rapidity to profit by
the eventful faults of the enemy, insight in
to the enemy's aims, and finally, the inspir.
alton of the moment, this highest gift and
attribute of a military genius, all are corolla-
ries to the above-named golden rule. Always
all-deciding, all powerful, it remained the
same with the various tactics. II was deci-
sive for the Macedonian phalanx, for the Ro-
man legions, and for our modern regiments,
brigades and divisions.
"To his lightning like rapidity of move
ments Alexander the Great was indebted,
not only for his victories on the Granious
and on the plains of Arbela, but also those
conquests from the Nile to Bactria and In
dus. Hannibal surprised the Romans by
the rapidity of his march from Spain to TIA
ly, and by that otherwith which he pounced
upon them on the Ticino, at Trasimene, at
Canna. Any one familiar with Caesars an
nails admires the almost unsurpassed rapidi=
ty with which he moved his iegons in Gal.
liza country then without roads-and af-
terward in all parts of the world or the Ro-
man Empire.
"Gus.avus of Sweden, with force of about
10000 men, moved in all directions of Ger
many. between the Rhine and the Elbe, deal
ing blow after blow at bis panic stricken
enemies.
"Charles XII. for years owed his success
to his restless military mobility. Frederick
the Great, sovereign of about 400, 900 of
subjects, had at one time on his hands,
France, Austria, Russia and Saxony, with
an aggregate of about $4,000, 900 of inhabi-
tants. With his little army he moved, shut
tle.like from Braneenburg to Silesia, Rohe-
mia and Saxony boarding and whipping his
numerous enemies.
Napoleon terrified the Old World by the
torrent-like rapidity with which he rushed
from the Alps, flying rather than marching
from the frontiers of France to those of Is
tria and Tyrol. His campaigns of Marengo,
Ulm, Austerlitz and Jena are one uninter-
rupted conservation Of the golden rule
When Napoleon's rapid movements were
crowned by taking Mack and his army pris-
oners at Ulm, the French soldiers taunted
their leader by saying that hitherto he had
won battles with their arms, but now he
won them with their legs. Our only sue
oesses are won by the rapid movements Of
Pope, Grant, Mitchell and Morgan Gin Ten
Ressee), and our disasters are inflicted by
the ubiquitous Stopewall jackson.
"Military history teaches that the great
and rapidly moving commanders seldom, if
ever, have the choice of field of battle pre-
pared, selected for weeks, nay, even days be-
fore nor do they mature their plans during
weeks and weeks for battle, to be fought
when they reach the enemy. Reason sho rs
that such far-reaching routine is impossible
Those who attack an enemy do it rather on
field selected and prepared by the enemy
this being the logical consequence of their
rapid, bold, truly military tactics. Napoleon
scarcely ever had the choice ofa field Of bat
tie; certainly not in the beginning of his
career in italy :; not in the plains under the
Pyramids; not in the great plains Of Maren-
go, when he rather by an accident came in
contact with the Austrian army, nearly twice
as numerous as his, and, above all, outnum-
berig him by numerous and excellent cav
airy, Of which he (Napoleon) had scarcely
handful. Napoleon selected not the immor-
tai field Of battle of Austerlitz, but his ene-
mics At Austerlitz Gen. Weihroter, the
military adviser of Alexander of Russia, in.
augurated strategy. Austerlitz was select
ed by the allied Austria4s and Russians as
the most favorable strategical point, and by
strategy Napoleon and his army were to be
annihilated. Napoleon, who despised STRAIT
egy, oyerthrew st Austerltz the allied armies
and the Austrian Empire to boot Napoleon
had not the choice of the fields Of Jena or
Eylan, but found at Jena the Prussians-at
Eylan the Russians--foqght. won and over
threw Prussia. Napoleon had not the choice
Of Wagram, where his army was cut in two
by the Danube, then extraordinarily swollen.
But he won that day, and for the second
time Austria lay at his feet. He selected not
Smoensk or Rorodino.
"Any student of the Napoieonic campaigns
will end that even he handled with greater
ease smaller than larger numbers. So in his
first Italian campaign, so at Marengo, so at
Austerlitz. Reason and logic establish that
it must be so, as the longer the line, the
larger the numbers, the more difficult to-
make them move ss one man. the more nu-
merous the physical and the intellectual i'm
pediments.Y