The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-07-09
Military Critics and strategicaI Bohemians

From the Daily NeaCS.
1t is a matter of some interest, just now, to
observe how promptly the Bohemians and mill
tary critics of the metropolitan press are step
ping up to the work of instructing Europe in
the proper method OF conducting the war re-
Gently commenced on that continent. No
sooner does the European steamer bring the
tdings OF an undoubted commencement OF hos
tilties, than the military critics and stIategical
Bohemians, having nothing else 10 do, present
themselves like noisy mountebanks at village
fair, and below out their suggestions and ad-
vice, declaring the immense superiority of the
military science on this side OF the water over
that which obtains ON the other, and making it
clear to the commonest understanding that they
have not the faintest idea of what they are
writing about.
The close of our own little squa0ble threw an
immense number of these tacticlans on pager
out of employment. For the while Othelos
occupation was truly gone. Four years of in
credible hardships on their part, passed IN the
rear of armies on the advance and in their front
on the retreat, and devoted to fabriCating re.
puta'ions for their fayorite generals, and to
writing of victories that were never won,
gave them a sufficient smGttering of terms
connected with the art OF war, and acquired
from careful perusal of field orders, and by
hanging around the rear OF teuts and listen
ing to the soldiers conversations, to enable
them, with the facts in hand, to write up,
a sufficiently lucid account of marches,
battles, and sIeges to enable their CrudIties to
pass, among the unthinkng, for good, sound,
practical views of the military situations. In
condition OF affairs in which nobody, from the
General OF Division to his hostler, was well up
in the theories of Vauban, Totleben, or any of
the celebrated European masters of strategy
and the systems of otfense and defense, the
military Bohemian, with his pencil and note
book, became no mean exponent of the mys
teries OF tactics and the p, oiound and compli
Gated manpuVres of a weli-handed army in
battle. The natural audacty of the race, too,
pa cd M hrav alu mh 40
men would have hesitated; and, as in the king
| dom where dwell the blind. the one-eyed man is
king, so did 1t occur that our Bohemians, in
their condition of one eyedism, and surrounded
| by the sightless, came out OF the war in fine
| feather, and with the satisfaction OF having
written up" humbugs into the position of
heroes, and of having dignided a prosaic
mediocrity, or worse, into splendid exhibition
OF genius. .....
| Now, whilst it was pardonable that, in our
| war, the strategical Bohemians should have felt
| their powers ano eXulted IN them, 1t is drawing
| too largely on human iorbearance TO witness
their attempts to instruct the soldiers of Europe
| in their duties. To suppose that any facts in
| our war-great as 1T undoubtedly was In the
| sacrifice othuman lite-could present themselves
as something new 10 those who conduct the
| military movements of the armies OF the Old
| World is TO suppose an absurdity. Were the
| Bohemians to refect-if they ever do reflect
that the military system in this country is
| almost altogether fashioned after European
models and that the best rules of the science OF
war have been the product of the brains of
| foreign strategists and commanders, they would
| see clearly that whatever was practised in our
| campaigns, and which is not revealed in the
| European style of conducting military affairs,
| owed its existence to the fact that circumstances
were favorable to It's Development in the Ameri-
can conflict, and, perhaps, would not permit of
| its exercise in continental warfare.
This, however, is Just what the military
critics and strategical Bohemians refuse 70 see.
| Now, we would like to make plain suggestion
| 10 those ambitious eXponents OF the science Of
| war. Let them avoid the columns of the news
papers when they are about TO reconstruct" the
map OF Europe, or when they are attempting
| to decide, before the French Emperor is out OF
| hls quandary, upon the future attitude of
| France in the present unhappy quarrel in Ger
many, and let them seek publisher of bro
| chores. When they have done that let them
| strike bargain with their publisher to print so
many thousands of copies OF their ''views, !"
| pay for the same out of their pockets, and dis.
| tribute them gratuitously among the people
| That will be a cheap way, as lar as the Oubhc
are concerned, OF acquiring reading natter
| even though it be of tishy nature; aud,
| although the European question, in theT
| hands, would become as COMPLICATED and unln-
| telligible as the Sches wig Holstein muddle nov
| is, the inquiring mind could always be put on
| the right track by perusing the lacts as they
| appear in the reliable papers.