Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1865-08-10
The Horrors OF War.

The suffering and desolation occa-
stoned by the four years contest just
closed have been terrible enough
but they after all were slight com
pared with the horrors Of some pre-
cedlng wars. Yet the wars last named,
though generally of longer duration,
We're inferior to that from which we
have Just emerged in magnitude OF
armies and intensity of fighting. The
effect of modern improvements in the
military art and in warlike engines of
destruction, is to render wars "short,
sharp and decisive,"- intensity the
struggle between the armies engaged,
while it is comparatively less disastrous
to the non combatants. Compare the
war just ended in this country with the
Thirty Years War in Germany. Towards
the close Of that war, an Imperial army
of forty thousand men was found to be
attended by one hundred and forty thou
sand camp followers, the most wicked
in the land, ever striving to be first
where spoil was to be had or havoc
made. Archbishop Trench says in
"Hours at Home"
"The conflict in fact by this time
lasted so long that the soldiery had be-
come as q distinct nation, camping in
the midst of another; and the march of
an army like that of some wild nomad
horde, moving with wives and children
through the land. Bear in mind that
there was seldom in these armies any
attempt whatever at regular commits
rariat rations were never issued except
to the actual soldiers, and most irregu-
larly to them and then it will be posi-
BILE remotely to conceive what a weller
ing mass Of misery endured and misery
inflicted must have ever loated round
such camp as it moved"
Whenever an army, whether friends or
foes--for all plundered alike-approach-
ed a village, the entire population would
take flight, with whatever they could
carry away, and hide themselves in the
depths of the forests, in inaccessible
morasses, in deserted Quarries, or where
ever they could conceal themselves, and
wait, often for weeks or months, till the
devouring and destroying host had
passed on.
"When the danger was for the mo-
ment over and they ventured to return,
it would be oftenest to black and smok-
ing ruins always to houses stripped Of
every thing which could be carried
away, trodden under foot, and so far as
possible destroyed; for it was rule to
leave nothing to an after conner, who
might be an enemy. In vain had the
most artful places of concealment been
devised for the hiding of some precious
objects, if any such still remained to
hide; though when we read, as in Lord
Arundel's Travels, of villages which had
been plundered eight-and-twenty times,
and some twice in one day, there must
soon have been very little to conceal.
The skill Of the finders was more than
match for that Of the hiders. Water
was poured everywhere on the ground
wherever it sunk rapidly into the earth,
there something had recently been
buried. Every wall was tapped with
the butt end of musket, that any hol-
ow sound might betray the cunningly
,ntrived recess, with the little hoard
hieh had there been lodged. The
urch-vaults had been burst open, the
Inns broken in pieces, for in such
hsome receptacles, among the very
!. s of the dead, it was sometimes
=, hi to conceal little remnant of
2 AL had been discovered, and
So, ept away"
Tba, e outrages naturally created an
ansn hatred between the peasantry
4 the soldiers, and the Doors, lurking
tbe y voods, hanging on the skirts of
,,,;oa a b9Ee all of armies defeated and
lraat;no watched for stragglers,
,rondeTs for sick and wounded who
nnned he hind, and put them to death
IA borr BILE tortures. The soldiers
'toi,afed earfally, and the poor pea
,nts as m light have been expected, |
nly suffered Inc worse When all IN
, 10 wasted armed bands, in various
,sgr,ses. as N eFchants, gipseys, travel |
arc or sonnet mes as women, would
,a,o4rate far in 10 the land; then by aid |
: treacherous Intelligence which they |
:, ! before obtained, would surprise and |
y. off the richer inhabitants of the
ia towns and villages, and compel |
bs s, 70 ransom misunderstanding,
' -stn IS to death, those who refused
:. zero II, able to produce the sums de-
,nded of them. Nor was the condi-
Il of the !, 9rge towns much better.
On .,Se Archb. shop: r..
a ffya "a conditlL ms like these, it is not
,on uhusn hat the fields were left near
o or altogstb, y until, dior WAC would
NV what he con d never hope to reap
=. or that that famine, thus in vited, should sd
,eiors long have arrived. In , lsse y 49,
he dearth in many distrit %s was ~ eA-
rene, that not merely tn. 'hgs co Oats.
nd unfit for human food, ha ,~lhe NIUE
II no nourishment, as bread NJ Sue OF
.corns, were eagerly devoured but oeF- :