Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-07-04
About Armies - Modern and
Ancient.


versant with the history of warfare from
the remotest centuries to the present day,
would write and publish, for the general
edilicatiOn of mankind, an analysis of the
art ofwarwi the ancients and its gradual
development to our time. Since the term
GEOGRAPHY of the sea" was justified by
science, the writer of such work we pro-
pose, might perhans entitle it "A Compare
tive Anatomy of Tactics" 1T would un-
doubtedly be Instructive, at all events, and
to that extent useful. There is one point.
and a very curious one too, upon which
such a dissertation would throw consider
able light. This point is again prominently
evolved in the present European war, that
mankind more aud more resumes the prac-
tice of the pre-Christian era in massng i'm
mense numbers of men for active warfare.
Tamerlane and Genghiskhan, and the Per-
sian XerXes lstaspin led men by the half
million, and of the latter it is even said by
three millions, into war at one time. The
Huns and the Hungarians before their con-
version to Christianity, and before assum-
ing fixed abodes for.their homes, overran
Germany and Italy with armies numbering
four, five and six hundred thousand. Even
later, the Turks gained all their victories
by means of their immense numbers which
they hurled upon their Christian lver-
saries, and it was only by the merest luck
that Kara MuStapha's three hundred thou
sand were defeated under the very walls of
Vienna in 1853 by the eighty thousand un-
der the Polish King Sobieski and the Duke
of Lorraine. While the weapons of attack
and defense were only available in close
combat and personal bravery. and dexteri-
ty and strength in the use of the lance, the
sword, the dagger and the battle-aX often
decided the contest, it is easy to understand
why the onslaught Of whole avalanch of
human beings upon smaller number. in
open plain, became irresistible and was
adopted.
Even after the invention of gunpowder
and its application to war purposes, Ma
hommedans though gradually, vet sparse
ly introducing into their armies the use of
cannons and the clumsy musket, still con-
tinued to place more reliance upon num-
bers. The Christians, actuated by higher
tone of chivalry, put individual courage
and exertion in battle higher than the
power Of attack or resistance of compact
masses, when one counts only as a small
fraction of the whole. And we see, that i'm
their contests throughout Europe and even
during the Crusades, comparatively small
armies were brought in the field. When
the gun for war use became better availa-
BILE and less heavy and clumsy, the idea of
standing armies had also begun to take
root, and European armies in war grew in
size. And yet, during the great Thirty
Years War, was there on neither side an
army of sixty thousand men brought into
fight. Gustave Adolphe landed with but
twelve thousand Swedes on German soil.
AT the great battle of Nuremburg between
this Swedish King and the Imperial Gen.
Wallenstein, each combatant had not more
than forty thousand men. And at Luetzen,
where Gustave closed his career, each army
was less than fifty thousand strong. The
Duke of Weimar, the second great General
of the League, never had more than twen-
ty-five thousand men under him, and the
Imperial Gen. Tilly had won all his fame
and laurels with less than thirty-five thou
sand men. Eighty thousand was consider
ed an immense body of troops by Turenne,
Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy. In
the wars of Frederick of Prussia, the
French but once, with all their German
allies, ut Rossback; had one hundred and
twenty-five thousand, and were terribly
beaten by Frederick's seventy or seventy
five thousand. Frederick himself gained
the almost bloodless victory of Pirna, with
ten thousand prisoners, with an army of
only thirty thousand, and won the great
IL
sixty thousand.
At the outbreak OF the French Revolu-
tion, the Duke-Of Brunswick marched into
France with an army of two hundred
thousand, an unprecedented army for those
times, but he soon marched back again
with very much less. Napoleon had beaten
three Austrian armies, conquered all North
ern Italy, and made for himself the fore
most name in war; all with never more
than forty thousand men under his COM
mand. In sll his campaigns, Napoleon
never gave battle with more than one
hundred and fifty thousand. At jena he
had but one hundred and twenty thous-
and, at Wagram twenty thousand more, at
Austerlitz not over ninety thousand In ac-
tual fire. His large army of five hundred
with which he marched into
Russia, shared the same fate, hut for other
causes, as the, Duke of Brunswiek's, in
France. Even at Waterloo Napoleon's
army was not much over hundred thous-
and strong, while Wellington, with Bluch-
er's thirty five thousand Prussians, had
only about a hundred and fifty thousand.
But look at the present armaments in
Europe. Prussia puts an army of between
six and seven hundred thousand men into
the field, of whom fully five hundred
are available for offensive pur-
poses. Austria has between eight and nine
hupdred Thousand men in arms, and be-
tween six andseven hundred Thousand it
islintended to move for actual warfare.--
The German States siding with Austria
win bring from, three to four hundred
Thousand into the field, and those allied