The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-07-19
The European War.
COMPLETENESS OF THE AUSTRIAN DE-
.'fsiiE 2- FEAT.


COMPLETENESS OF THE AUSTRIAN De
aasfi eG FEAT. ..
from the London Times, July 4.
The war in Bohemia is awful work. |
The Austrians, we are told, lost ff- |
teen thousand men in their various
encounters with the~army under the
Crown Prince of Prussia. They had
twenty-five thousand put hors daco0l-
bdtin their vain attempts to arrest
the progress of the army under Prince
Frederick Charles-altogether forty
thousand men in five days. The pris-
oners. are computed at fifteen thou
sand, leaving twenty-five thousand for
the dead and wounded Whole bat
talions have been annihilated; whole
corps-the Clam -Gallas, the Gablenz
and the Saxon corps, no less than the
Kalick brigade-are so utterly broken
up as to be unable to reappear in ac-
ton for some time. Benedek' 5 army
has fallen back behind the Elbe, tax
ing up its position between the fort
resses of Josephstadt and Konpig-
gratz, according to the account of
Austrian officers prisoners in Prus-
sian hands. The desertion of Ital-
ian soldiers from the Austrian ranks
is on the increase.
These are merely Prussian state
ments but however much. we may
feel disposed to charge them with ex-
aggeration, however much we may
wonder why the Prussians did not
rather give us an account of the casu-
alties among themselves, we have no
hesitation in believing that the havoc
has been tremendous on both sides.
| Indeed, every bulletin or letter pro-
| ceeding from either camp bears wit
ness to the extreme ,valOr displayed,
and allows that success was in every
| instance purchased at a very heavy
sacrifice
fFrom the London Times, July 4.
SUPERIORITY OF THE PRUssIAN ARMS.
The great lesson to be learned by
military men from the present war in
Germany is the irresistible superiority
| of breech-loading rifles in action The
| Austrian army in Bohemia was sup
posed to be numerically stronger than
the Prussian; it contained far larger
proportion of veteran soldiers, and
/ probably of scientific. officers; it was
commanded by a man second in re-
putation to no General in Europe; it
was fighting on the defensive, for a
cause which, as against the invaders,
is a good one, and in a country of
which the population is loyal to the
House of Hapsburg; and yet it has
been gradually driven back, with loss
estimated by the Prussians at thirty
or forty thousand men, and is now
said to be greatly dispirited by the
series of reverses which it has sus-
tanned. 1t was for some time sup
posed that strategical reasons of an
unexplained and mysterious nature
might have induced Marshal Benedek
to fall back, point by point, toward a
position selected by himself for a
general engagement. The supposition
is no longer tenable.
In these sanguinary conflicts the
Austrian troops fought obstinately
and well, but they were fairly beaten,
= and they were beaten-according to
all accounts that have reached us-by
the more rapid fire of the Prussian in
fantry. From first to last it is the
, needle gun that has apparently car
; ried the day, and the needle gun is
SlHpIy pIeoch-IOdu1HS TlI0 VI very
inferior quality. In principle, as well
as in construction, it is not to be com
) pared to several breech-loading rifles
manufactured by English makers; but
| imperfect as it is, it has proved quite
good enough to secure victory to the
Prussians IN almost every encounter
1t was but last month that Marsha
Benedek encouraged his troops to de.
spise the alleged superiority of Prus-
sian firearms, and to rely on the bay
onet, and we already see the conse
quences. Every one knows tina
bayonets are seldom actually crossed
when they are crossed it by no means
: follows that those who carry the wors
, rifles will give the most vigorous
thrusts, and before they are crossed !
q is certain that rapidity of fire will tel
= fatally.