The Ohio Democrat. [volume] (Canal Dover, Ohio) 1840-1900, 1863-07-10
decisive. Battles Of the world. /

with less than half Lees army, and con-
quered all Asia, after, defeating in two
battles the Persian hosts led by King
Darius The Greeks, on their own soil
at Marathon, eighty years before, had.
under the lead of brilliant general,
Miltiades, broken the prestige Of the
Persian arms-till that time regarded as
less than twenty-five
thousand drove back to their ships one
hundred thousand invaders. 1t was
now the turn of the Greeks to invade
Persia, with Alexander at their head
At that time Persia threatened all the
nations of the earth with Snbjugation.-
The Macedonian conqueror, with bis
phalanx.. defeated Darius at the head Of
sixty thousand men, near Tarsus, on the
Issus. The result was the possession of
Syria and all the riches of Damascus. -
After overrnnning Asia Minor, the coast
of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea
and Egypt, Alexander returned west,
ward and crossed the Euphrates, to
again encounter Darius, at the head of
far larger army than before. He met
him at Arabia, in AsSyria, and again de-
feated him-this time the defeat being
decisive of the fate of the Persian en-
pire. A few days after the battle AL
exander entered Babylon, "the Oldest
seat of earthly empire" "'and thence
spread the Greek civilization over the
whole Of Asia. He penetrated even
into India, and conquered AffghaniStan,
which England has failed to do in our
own times Alexander did not depend
for supplies upon his ewn country, but
on the countries which his arms sub
dued. .. ........ ..
Similar to this, on asmaller scale, was
the career of Hannibal, the Carthage
nian general, who, crossing the Straits
of Gibraltar, subdued all the nations o
Spain, and aftel wards crossed the Alps
hitherto deemed .impassable, and inva.
ded Italy. He defeated the Roman
General Scipio, on the Ticinus, and az
terwards both Scipio and Sempronius
on the Trebia. He afterwards, will
fifty thousand men, met at Canine Ter
eentius and Emilius, the two chief mag
istratos of the Roman republic, (callet
consuls,) and defeated their army witt
such slaughter that forty thousand la,
dead on the field. Had be rapidly fol
lowed up this victory Rome itself woult
have easily fallen into his hands. B,
giving his soldiers too much repoSe a
Capua, where they became enervated b.
pleasure and luxury, he lost his oppor
tunity. Meantime q naval expedition
was fitted out by the Romans agains
Carthage, which induced the Carthage
) nian government to call their genera
home to repel the invasion. This wa
a fatal blunder Hannibal was defeat
ed on his own soil, in decisive battl
at Zama, near Carthage, by the younge
Scipio, son of the first Roman genert
,, he had defeated Haughty Carthag
was compelled to sue for peace, whic
, was granted; but she never recovere
the blow, and the Romans in futur
war blotted their rival out of existence
In the case of Julius Caesar we hav
another example of bold invasion lik
I that of Lee. With a comparativel
> small army Caesar penetrated Gal
(France,) and subdued it from th
Rhine and Mount Jura to the ocean,
: Subsequently he invaded and conquere
. his own country with still smaller fore,
Without any certain base of supplies, b
a., passed from the Roman province, {
] which he was military governor, owe
the the boundary of the Roman rcput
1 lie proper, on pretence Of redreSSing tn
q wrongs of q tribune of the people, II
subdued, all Italy in sixty days, and puj
? sued Pompey, the general of the reput
lie, into Thessaly, where, with less tina
25,090 veterans, he defeated his oppc
: neut at the head Of an army of 44,09
men. Thus Lee, with an army Of abol
Q 100, 900 men, enters the Northern State
with no secure base Of supplies benin
Q him, and his communication with Ricl
IL mond liable obe cut off at any momen
8 He calculates upon living upon tt
country and of establishing temporal
bases of operations as he proceeds.
n he wins he comes out all right; butif
. is badly beaten he is lost
In like manner William the Conque
= or crossed the narrow channel which q
- vides France from England, conquer'
the army Of the reigning king in the d
. cisive battle Of Hastings, and thus foun
= ed a new dyhasty, which has endured
a this day, completely changing the ins
y y tutiohs of England, and making b
IN what otherwise she never would ha
~ been-a great Power on the earth.
r. 1t is worthy Of remark with what sm,
4 forces these great achievements we're 9
~ complshed. The AtheniaGs, at Mar
thon, with less than $4,000 men, ov'
throw the Persian host, 100000 Stron
Alexander crossed into Asia with Ii
n. than 10000 men. Hannibal conquer
a. nearly all Italy withthe same nOmber.
N Caesar, with little more than half t
- number, conquered the whole count
" and permanently overthrew the republ
D ! William of Normandy had only si'
b" thousand in his expedition. The t
armies now about to come into dead
collision exceed the forces at Waterlt
l. which changed the destiny of Europe.
e Generalship isimore important th
numbers. Napoleon Bonaparte, wi
thirty Thousand ragged troops, cross
be- thefAlps, flung himselfinto the midst
ha tho largo arnniea of natria and Sard