Litchfield enquirer., 1866-10-11

where respect for all constituted authorities is
 carried to an exaggerated degree. complaints
 were rife as 10 the extent to which the rights of
 royalty interfered with the efficient conduct of
 military affairs. Without in the least wishing
 to deny the merits of the Prnssian royal gener- ais, who, one and all, were brave men and gall
 lant soldiers, think I may assert that the
 success of the campaign was il no sense due
 to !nelr military abilities, Generals Steinmetz snd derwath ven Bittenfeld, had considera ole .epatat'on amongst their troops but I
 oonot II either of these had occasion to give prooi or nrst class. or even second-class, mili
 tary talent. In as far as the credit of the
 campaign WIS due to any single person, it was
 doubtless due to General Moltke, who from
 Berlin dictated by telegraph the movements of
 the Prussian armies.
 @ But still even placing the utmost estimate upon the ability of the princes and the enno-
 bled generals who commanded the Prussian armies, 1t would be the greatest fattery to say that their success was chiefly owing to the mil itary superiority of their commanders. Nor, as have said before, do think undue weight should be placed upon the superiority of the needle-gun. In the first place, very consd- erabie portion of the Prussian army, as I can vouch from personable observation, was not iesA"ASu "ACA UiCCCu-lOducFS3 UuC WLtu OIu-IdSQ. l toned muzzle-loading muskets : in the second
 place, in many of the engagements, in all of which the Prussians proved victorious, the mnsket whether breech- loading or muzzle-load- ing, played very insignificant share. Both before and since the war; Prussian officers have assured me that the artillery was really the finest arm in their service and, from what saw at Sonderburgh, I am inclined to believe the statement is correct i; but, owing to the circumstances of the war, the Prussians were never able to employ any DO rtion of their artillery. with the exception of the light field guns. l have no doubt that the prestige of the Aundnadelgewehr, the rapidity with which it was hred, and the precision with which it hits its mark, did much to discourage the Aus tran regiments. But this fact alone is not suhcient to account for the issue of the cam paign. + @ @~ 5! sa. The plain. simple, unvarnished truth take to be, that the Prussans uniformly defeated the Austrians, because, man for man, they were better and braver, and stronger soldiers. They were net so we'll drilled, they were worse dress ed, they were not so rapid in theira movements. they were far less soldier like looking; but they were much more ready to encounter dan ger, they were animated with far higher and more intelligent courage. Physically, they were stronger, stouter, and more powerful men than their opponents mentally, they were i'm measurebly superior to the mixed hordes of Greats and Bohemians and Hungarians array ed against them. They knew, or fancied they knew,-which comes much to the same thing what they were fighting about they had a strong sense of duty they were steady, order ly, God fearing men. From the highest gen. eral to the lowest private, they had learned I horu fo ohau. nd fbn, hnJ a;t 1 that their officers, whether able or not, were prepared to do their duty aIso.. All estimates i of the men l have vet seen seem to me to leave out of sight the power of what may call the religious element of the Prussan army. You may call it superstition, or bigotrY or fanati- cism, ,as you chose but no person who has studied the sudject cordially can deny that the Prussian soldiers had sort of reliance in their own cause, as being that of duty and religion, which was entirely wanting amongst the Aus trians. The phrase of "Holy Prussia" about which we in England have laughed so often, when it was used by the King in his addresses to his people, had a real meaning and purport for the Prussian peasant. And 80 the Prus- sian armies in my judgment conquered for much the same reason that the Puritans con- quered the Cavaliera the Dutch conquered the Spaniards, the Federals conquered the Con- tsderates -rbecause they were more in earnest, more. thoughtful, more willing to risk their lives for principle, whether false or true, more imbued with sense of duty. s"'i If this exlanaton be true, as I h old.it to be the apparent mystery of the campaign vanish
 es.a Given the knowledge which Herr Won ! Bismarck undoubtedly possessed that his countrymen, on anything Ike equal terms. would be more than match for the Autrians, --allhe had to do was to secure that the Prus
 sians should be placed in position to choose their own fields of battle and this was se- cured by the daring srategy of pushing for
 wards at all risks and all costs. But doubt
 whether this campaign any more than the bold move by which Garibaldi marched on Naples
 from Sicily, will be cited hereafter as any great achievement of military genius. It is very easy to show that one crushing defeat would have been almost fatal to the Prussian armies. they were completely isolated in strange and hostile country; they had but one and that most circuitous line ofretreat open to them | they were liable at: aay moment to be cut of from their supplies and resources. If Sadowa had beena defeat instead of 8 victory the Prussians could hardly have hoped to regain ttheir ownI territory. But the fact for which, I thick, in a military point of view, they deserve Gf4C SulCi SkSNs iS hosAAS fASootS0A uPOu most hazardous plan of campaign, they sac rifced every other consideration to that success They took no tents with them :; they provided, may say, no resources; they relied on the country in which the war was to be carried on to give them food and shelter. According to their own notions, they paid honestly lfoi
 what they took. The farmers whose horses and carts they seized the cottagers upon whom they quartered themselves, the shop keepers whose stores they took k,-were all fur nished with acknowledgements of the debt, which. the Austrian Government may present as part payment of the inoemnity it is required to pay Prussia for the cost of the war. By this system. and by an economy ss rigid as to be almost parsimonious, Prussia will now be enabled to carry on the war without loans, without extraordinary taxation, and without fany important addition to her insignificant na. slonat oeot. .b7es .e,as sI,a o8 3lyg.ca, sa At the same time, it must be fairly owned that the campaign, however brilliant, has not enabled the world to prosounce decisive judgment uponithe merit. of Prussian troops as compared with those of other nations. The Prussans have shown that they are able to march well and fight gallantly; and more than this they have not had the opportunity to prove 1 If ia still an oman nueStion how they would