Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-03-22
~ Aueient warfare vs.. Modern.


.=Aueient Warfare vs.. Modern.
OnsOf the earliest arts that man &C.
CURED was the art Of taking human life,
and'there Is none TO which he hae clung
with more tenaeity. Ia the beginnings Of
society art precsdes soienoeJ hence some
time elapsed before the art Of destroying
life became the foundation Of the science
Of var. Since that early time immeasurs-
bic progress has been made in all arts and
sciences, and in none more than in the art
and science Of war.
While 6 higher civilization and Purer
religion. have done much to prevent the
frequency Of wars, to mitigate their ter
rors and soften their eruelties, they have
not made their absolute prevention posi-
ble. VITA individuals, there is another
tribunal, but with nations, the last, the
highest, is force. No man can look for
ward to & time near at hand when it will
be otherwise.
Eoone can have resd lhe history Of the
earlier nations WithouthsviDg been struck
by thelow estimate then placed upon hu-
man 'fife-the perfect contempt in which
The individual was held. History two
thousand years sgo was little else than
history Of war; we are, therefore, better
acquainted with the wsrs Of antiquity than
any other department Of their public life.
Il does not appear that there was, CON
nested with the armies Of the nations then
existing, anything corresponding to the
"nedicsl department Of modern armies.
But slight care was taken Of the wounded
snd sick, and the former especially we're
generally obliged to rely upon the inhab-
itaRts Of the country for such as they re-
ceiVsd What this csre would be in our
enemy's country, can readily be imagined.
These statements apply to the civilized
nations as well as the savage; to the ar
mics Of refined and polished Greece and
Rome as well as to the hordes that marched
under the banners of Alsric and TheodOric.
The evidence is negative but is, there
fere, none the less conclusive; it is rather
what the historian O1lis to say than what
he says. In all Of the classic historians
We have ever read, we do not recall one
parsgraph-not one Understanding any
thing corresponding to modern hospital.
In the elaborate account GibbOn has given
Of the organisation and equipment OF the
Roman armies, there is no mention of hos
pitfalls, Of surgeons nor Of sanitary regu-
lations. It is not asserted that the diss-
bled soldier was left entirely without care,
but that the silence of the authorities
proves the absence Of any medical system.
But those were the days when human life
wss cheap; twenty centuries have taught
man higher ideas Of his own value. The
introduction Of gun powder into war ne
cessitsted the employment Of more surgie-
81 skill, for the reason that gun-shet
wounds are more dangerous than those in
fictsd by spear and sword, but even then
the wounded were often abandoned to the
sueeOr and sympathy of the inhabitants of
the district where the battle had been
fought. A competent authority says there
Is g no mention of regularly organized
system Of military hospitals, moving with
the army, until the time Of Henry " of
France lin the sixteenth century, Am
balances, now necessity to all armies in
the field, are modern invention, introduced |
into the French armies in the years Of Ma
pOleon.
In our time, when a oivilised nation
goes to war the talent and science, the
wealth and benevOlence of the nation are
laid under contribution to make the lot Of
the soldier IS tolersble as is consistent
with his profession. The result is vast
improvement in the condition of the SOL
der.
The contrast we have set forth, is one
Of the most striking, SIS it is one Of the
most pleasing, in the whole history Of war.