The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1862-04-04
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IN. v.lue Of sxpsrisnoe, h N azticls hssdsd
.,Wh,s Coessiautss = Gsassal, !, publiahed by
Il week or more sinsss We certainly never
intended any such thing. W. underworld to
show that military sshoea codd mot make
great General, and that nobody bat God him.
ELF could do r. Horace tells ~ that . poet
must be born mch. and cannot BE- mAds % BY
any process known TO man. He might have
saN the sahs Of painter, sculptor, and
0sneraL rhAy must b. born paipseEs, spaip,
tsss, and Generals, iof the ample reason that
sspsnority 10 their several arts Implies Tie
possssstos Of gsaius, snd geuins can be be.
e.owsd by the Almighty alone. Still cultisa'
ton OF the particular talent each possesses
improves the natural powers. and saeh Guilt
walton is experience by another mama. The fret
attempts Of Ill grsat poets are comparatively
fesbls, The progress even Of Shakespeare. In
his art, can be sssily detected No man who
had ssvsr hsAfd Of him, could expect Macbeth
end I.sar from the snthor Of the two gen.
tismsn Of Verona. Who could guess, from
reading the "Hours Of Idlensss.' that the
author would eve write 'sChilds Harold p.
The first attempts Of Raphael ere said 70 have
been very crude performances, and Michael
Angelo memory would not have survived
his own times, had he done nothing more than
ne attempted for ths Msdici, when hs genius.
was irss discovered
We hold that experience 10 everything 70
gsnessl; bat we hold, likewise. that the
experience which youth obt.ins at mill
tary school il not sufficient of itself to make a
man general Prince Eugene, himself, who
preferred for a General q man who had not
risen BY the rsGul ar steps, could have had no
objection to experience. But 1t must be OBJ
tanned on the field, and cannot be gathered
from books There are two cases of great
Generals having failed at the outset of their
career, aud having been taught by experience.
Frederic the Great ran away early in the &C
ton from Molwitz, and isfs Msrshal Schwerin
to gain the victory for him The Duke Of
Wellington, In his first battle In India, being
then Colonel, was ordered to storm q certain
outwork Of strong town, Che time being
nigh.,) failed. was beaten, and fed from the
field to his tent. Afterwards, in Spain, he
made the movement which brought ON the
battle of Talavera, always spoken of by mill
tary writers az q very rash mannuvre. Yet,
these men, ~ their subsequent. exploits mani.
tested, both possessed great talents for war;
Frederic Acknowledged that be had been
taught by misfortune, and Wellington was,
doubtless, instructed by the risk which his ran
Gro Ttolto Il
Bonaparte was certainly the most extraor-
binary krss campaign Of which we have any
account. hut 8 great military critic. Colonel
Napier express sed the opinion that he would
not have been able In 1876 this date Of the
firet Italian campaign to have executed the
manauyres which he performed just before
the battle Of Fckmuhl, in 1909. These ma
neuvres he himself said, were superior to any
| he ever executed; and Napier says Of them,
that never since troops first trod the earth
| was ANYTHING seen which could be compared
| with them We cannot but think that sn ao
| caGaie description Of these maIeuSres, &C
| companisd with maps and plans, would go tar
to. supply the place of all the "systems OF
| wsr" that ever were written in instracting
the military student.
l The grea. objection which We have 10 the
| system Of putting whole arnies--and large
| armies, too--bshiud oarthworks, is that II fen
| tors them stationary, hike the guns oi the
Turks al the battle of Aboukir, upon which
Bonapsrte took care 10 make No attack, be
cause he found that they could not be moved
He beat the rect of the army, and then the
men around the guns abandoned them. SO
| the enemy 10 around our earthworks, and
operate in our rear. compelling their evacua-
ton. without attacking them. In the mean
| time, cur armies not having been heretofore
modified, they allow the enemy to go where
he pleasss, and do as he thinks proper. We
know not whence this sy stem ia derived, but
| We suspect from Jonini He tells ua that, in
| the campaign of 1885, after the capture Of the
| fra. Austrian army at Vem, Napoleon ought
" have got himself down in Bavaria, and cast
l ap entertainments. In commenting on this pas
sage at St Helena Napoleon says "yss that
the Anstrians and Russians might unit e, that
Prussia might declare war; that all Germany
might rise, and come down upon him in Il
body" That wac the very thing We did at
ter Manassas We sat down entrenched, and
waited for the Yankees 10 raise an army Of
700 mo- men. and now they are coming down
upon ns with vengeance.