The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1866-08-03

NY N'eSi lpliVu " thB TetTC0t given 10y Oul
correspondent bnsthom our readers That th,
accounts Which tbe telegraph sent Us Of thii
tremendous conflict were not Exaggerated. -
There have teen great victories won with q
Comparatively email loss of life even 10 III,
varqushcd. Au army oat,manehveted Of
out-humbercd has often abandoned its pos
tions ond yieldtd the fruits OF campoien IA
the enemy. But the battle Of Sadowa was
won step by step, and the Prussinns advanced
to victory over thousands OF the slain. IL il
remarkable that tho Losses Of the Aus.tians are
placed higher by those who are among them
thAn by the eonquerors The gaps in the
army Of Beuedek are only fully dscerned by
those who knew it before it met the enemy.
Our correspondent, writing three days after
the battle when the confusion was beginning
TO snbside When tie mcn wore finding their
way back to their rteimenis, aud regiments
or wbOt was left Of them, were ngain being
united into brigades and divisions, gives the
loss OF the beaten army as probably more than
two liflhs Of lie whole number ut may be
true" he says, "tbat eighty thousand men
we're killed. wounded, taken prisoners, OF
drowned, and that one hundred and fifty guns
we're taken, abandoned, or thrown into the
river on the retreat" Adding to these losses
the number of men who must have thrown
away their arms in the retreat, we must doubt
whether ono hundred thousand effective men
were to be found in the army Of the North
three days after the battle.
The retreat was. indeed, melancholy aud
disastrous. As at Ieipsic, we hear of pom
toons laden with hundreds swept down the
river and overturned with their living car.
goes-of artillery aud horsemen crushing
down upon nnd through the struggling iuran-
Try inmming them in the narrow roads auG
huslling TEEN over the bridges into the waters.
III short, oil that was most horrible in war
fare was concentrated into this contest a
long struggle, lastirg the entire day, the move
ing down Of whole regiments by the frc of the
enemy, the burning of villages, the horrible
incidents ola fight through nm inundated
country, aud, finally, the long suHerings of the
disorgunized march that succeeded, form a
combination at which The imagination is
shocked and snddened. e..t.,-... F..
II is difficult 10 bring oneself to believe that
such horrors have been enacted 10 our own
time, hnd in region so near and so familiar.
We bad heard and read Of such fields Of
slaughter, but they seemed 10 belong to an
age Ond state Of human character which could
never be revived Nine miles of slaughter,
ending with the drowning Of mass Of terror
stricken fugitives, is al event which few
years since the wisest would have pronounced
impossible in the Europe Of to-day.
Unless the course Of hostilities be stayed,
there Is reason TO fear that Sadowa will not
hethe last, though It may remain the most
deadly, Of the Austrian battles. The Prus-
SLAMS are flushed with victory, Ond they know
that the Army of bohemia, unaided, is in no
condi;ioU TO oppose them. That army must
have lost neorlybali its guns, and by lar the
greater part of its military stores. fthey
have no other foe before them, they may drive
it from point to point unti. they force it Ia try
iis fortune in The very suburbs of the eoptal--
perhaps on the fields which the campnign OF
500 made so deporably famous. But, on
The other hand, il the Army OF Vtuetia eau be |
TO the northern provinces OF the |
Empire, il the reserves which are more or lcrs |
'cady for service can be brought up, there
must be new battles, in which it is possible,
hough hardly probable. thatthe fortunes Of
var might change. @ a
The Prussians, therefore, have lost no time
n following up their victory, They would
'rcbaby have displayed even greater ardor
n the pursuit had il not bien for their own
envy losses, aud the want Of provisors. from
'hich all armies suffer. 1t is said Tile
russians fought the battle OF Sadowa with,
ut having tasted food since eleveugo clock In
no forenoon Of the day before, and the Gene :
lls were loud in their remonstrauces against
ne Cunmissarat: These difficulties, we NAV ,
ssume, still continue. The vitualling of so ,
normous an armyis task almost beyond
'uception, and ineiicency of supplies means
owness OF advance Bohemia has been al.
udy 10 great extent eaten up by the
ustrian army, aud .be progressof the Pras. c
M legions must be measured by their means b
subsistence, Their dependence must be on v
G railway, ind we accordingly find them es- d
0!ishing themselves at functions and pre- Ii
ring to follow the course OF the rail. :,
Pardub!iz in the present war has been :
emed oimore importance than the strongest :
rtress, and when Prague Is seizrd it will be "
t so much because it is the capital of Boho, u
Ia as because il 10 the spot where the line IN
I'M Bavaria meets the lice which runs north hi
IN Dresden. Supporting, then, the camj d.
ign to continue, the Object Of the Prussians pl
u doubtless De 10 march along the line of 70
i to Bnnn and Vienna. Their hcadqua,o n,
\ a .... a