Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1866-11-22
Cost of War in the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Centuries.


Nineteenth Centuries.
The Fall Mall Gazette has the following
observations:
An exhaustive comparison of the cost of
war now and formerly would be most ip-
structive and somewhat appalling docu.
ment 1t would be impossible to draw out
such a contrast with complete accuracy,
but it might be done approximately. The
expensiveness of war to country comprises
many items; the size of armies and navies ;
the cost of transport; the price of arms
aud ammunition; the slaughter directly or
indirectly caused the extent and compli-
cation of the Notifications constructed and
DESTROYED; and the wealth and civilization
of the district which is the seat of war.
Some of these can be ascertained or esti.
mated; others can only be guessed at.
Thus the siege and destruction of fortress
like Sebastopol is iucomparably more costly
to both parties than the seige of fortress
like Namur. A campaign in England, or
in the heart of France or Germany, as
oupared with a campaign carried on in
Russia, in Poland, or even in Spain, would
be costlier beyond all measure of compari.
SOD, both in reference to the amount of
property destroyed, and the delicate aud
complex processes of civilized and indus
trial life suspended or deranged. In wild
and thinly peopled lands war may cost
nothing but gunpowder and life; in rich
and populous countries far advanced in
all the luxurious appliances Of modern
existence its expense becomes actually in-
calculable.
A few facts may, however, be noted down
by which something, not of an estimate,
but of an idea, may be arrived at as to the
vastly increased cost of warfare now and in
the days of our fathers and grandfathers
One point of comparison is that the armies
we fight with are enormously greater than
they used to be. This is owing in part to
our improved facilities for the transport of
troops, materials aud the commissarlat
Railways do now, and do far more rapidly
and cheaply, what bullocks and wagons did
for Frederick the Great aud the Duke of
Wellington. To the campaigns of the last
century, in all the chief battles of the
Seven Years War, the Prussians never
bad more than seventy thousand men 10
the field, and very rarely half that number.
In only two or three cases did the aggregate
of the combatants on both sides reach one
hundred thousand, Even in the early bat
ties of Napoleon the forces engaged were
what would now be considered small Be.
fore Wagram be never had more than one
hundred thousand men in the field, and
seldom nearly as many. At Marengo he
had not thirty thousand. 1t was not till
the day of his downfAll approached that be
began to deal with corps d'armee as numer
GUS aud colossal as those with which the
wars of our days are making as familiar.
At Borodino and Dresden quarter of o
million we're engaged, and at Leipsic, if
figures can be trustred, not far from half a
million. The British force with which our
great Duke won the Peninsular victories
never once, We believe-at least, not more
than once-reached fifty thousand, and his
entire army, even reckoning Spaniards and
Portuguese, seldom much exceeded that
number. At the browning victory of Wa
terloo the forces on both sides were under
one hundred and forty thousand, and of
these not one third were English. Com
pare these armies with the three hundred
thousand who fought at Solferiuo, tue four
hundred and twenty thousand at Sadowa,
and the multitudes, often exceeding quar-.
ter of million, with which the Americans
tried the terrible issues of ther civil con-
troversy, and the advance made in recent
times, if it be an advance, will be obvious
at once.
It is some comfort to know that the
slaughter in our days, in spite of our
mightier artillery and our armes de prects-
ion, is not proportioued to the number en-
gagged Why this should be so we are not
prepared to say, and we are aware that the
popular impression is different one, but
we believe the facts would be found to bear
US out. In Frederick's wars the proportion
of killed aud wounded on both sides to the
forces in the field ranged from one.sixth to
ope.tenth, and at the peculiar battle of
Zornsdorf far exceeded this ratio. In Ma
poleon's campaigns it was still higher, often
averaginga fifth; while at Eylau and Boro'
dino it is said to have reached a third. In
some of these cases, perhaps, the "missing"
may have been included, but not usually.
Alisons calculation is that from 1892 to
1915 three millions of French soldiers per-
ished in the field or in the hospital, ard at
least an equal number out of the ranks of
their antagonists The proportion Of the
slain aud disabled in the American battles
is not known with any accuracy, but prob
ably no one would place it higher than one
tenth; while in the Italian battles of 1859
it is estimated at scarcely more than a
twelfth, aud at Sadowa about fifteenth.
Still, though the proportion is less than it
used to be, the positive number who fell is
even greater, and the cost in life therefore
heavier.
If We compare the cost of the arms and
artillery now in use, and their suitable am.
munition, with the ruder aud cheaper
weapons which contensed US in the last war,