The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1862-08-22

vRr,eee y Z centemporasy journal, VINO sP
.eovna a. ~ pr>stdent's Message In that par 70
hssne 10 10 eonscsipslon, saya In substance 'naa
- Aave already men snoush--shaa large sfm's
- unvseldly. ed therefore not apt 10 rsnoss -
80 unrvtos = small ooss-4hat - proct. Ast.ss
f.,lsA 4 0rseee, and Napoleon IN RUSSIA ans
se1,., s.fsrence n that we shall do better wan
e.ea army shan With large one. The pnl'oso'
-. "a m.iuRsiusd that half was sseesef
-. - whole h not. u seems without u'.caP'e~
Y~xee eallsd with great army. and Napoleon
a..,.a -s.A \ sreat army. 1nnume!able small ar-
,.,.s ~, destroyed duriug the twenty-five centa'
-. ,A.s elapssd between the death of the one and
-. hsr.h at The other Why the fate Of these last
,hou,a have been wholly overlooked In the con
.sruetlou Of . general rule deduced from example,
Of military failare, We ere at loss to imasin'
rat n,ors we sive our assent to the startling pro
uoeitton that The larger the army the more certain
The faIlurs, Il would b well TO inquire little Into
eaesa How were the Northern barba,isns enabled
10 break shs Roman Empire into Fragments By
,heir numbers unquestionably. Alaxic marched a
the hssd Of halt million Of men. and Alta los
$4,000 In angle. battle What enabled the sars
cans ARA, end tho Ottoman Turks Afterwards ~
ovtrun Asaa and Africa. plant the Crescent on she
,overs Of st. Sophia, and shake Chrissendom to
sss centre Their numbers, beyond ali doubt. II
v>a hv their numbers again that the Tartars, un
DIR C,enehis Khan, In the thirteenth. and I1mour
- he fourteenth century, swept over half the
world.
Nm. let M come down to that period in modem
A,,.orv which ai3ords the best illustration OF on
.,n,.c4 - mean the wars of the French Revoir
,;or. Tho Republic successfully withstood the AZ
Rv yiftuN of
hsr numbers. She had. at one time. nearly mia
Non Of men under arms. Under the kmpire, tn
military force was always enormouA In lsVs' wneh
,he canpsien Of AusterlitE took place. 1t was com
puted At 65l 900 men, In the campaign OF jena
flso6) Il was somewhat larger. In the campaign o.
Fr,sdland (ls07) the military strength OF the I'm
plrv approached 100000 men, and In the campaign
Of Wagram Qs09) it quite came up to that figure
An these campaigns were eminentiy successful
That of Russia Q8l2) was a failure, from caases
NOT as Ill dependent ON the strength OF the invading
army. The distance from home. the climate tn
ruseed resistance Of the Russians. the difficulty g
procuring supplies-and other causes might be elu.
merated Charles XII, one century before, failed
quite badly a. Napoleon did in 1872 and his army
vas little more than one.tenth part as large as that
of the latter.
Decisive battles are usually fought by a very
small proportion Of the entire force. At Austerlitz
the French numbered 80 0G0 men, while the strength
of the Empire was C5l 600. At Jena. 1876 900 French
only were engaged. At Friedland s00C0 French
decided the fate of the although there were in
Poland nearly 3Oe 900 French soldiers, while the
strength Of the EMPIRE WAS double that figure, and
more. Al Wagram. $4,000 or 10000 men fought
while Napoleon had certainly at least 100000 men
under arms On the whole. So difficult is the prob.
lem Of concentration, even in the hands of tie
greatest genius.
enormous forces they broughs to bear on him. Such
mighty armies a took the field in 1913 had never
been ssea in Europe Besides the forces which
maeehed directly on Paris in 1914, Wellington was
ON one frontier with 10000 men, and much
larger force ready to advance from Italy. 1t is
probable that France was occupied by at least a
million Of men at that time, and there were count
Less reserves ready to march in Germany, in Rus
sia IN Sweden. in Holland, &c. After the battle
Of Waterloo, France was q second time occupied
by 10000 men. Poland was overwhelmed In
1881 entirely by dint Of numbers. There il Q case
directly In point. The Poles fought as CALAMITY as
It VA possible for men to fight, but their army YVES
comparatively small, and they were conquered. II
II extremely difficult to conquer people thoroughly
united and resolved to do their utmost To con.
qasr such Q people as ours we hold to be inpossi.
ble Still it B best, we take it, to have az many
troops In the field az can be maintained. II we
can beat the present force of the enemy, with the
100000 addsd. very well. Still, we do not that
force doubly - large a. that we now possess
would do NJ any harm. Had We had such force
last year We should not now be lamenting the ra-
wages Of the enemy in Virginia and elsewhere
Physical strength, let 1t be moderated az it may is
agrsat thing in all wars-more especially in such
. war - that n which we are engaged.
- TO TaE soLD7TRs AND CITIZENS OF