Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-10-26
AND MODERN WARFARE.


mention of the wounded. There
died. says Thucydide, after telling
the story Of Delium, which, both be-
cause it was fiercely fought on both
sides, and because we have a perfectly
I trustworthy account Of il, we may
take as a leading nstance-"there
/ died of the BPOtians nearly five hun
/ dred, and of the Athenians nearly a
/ thousand. We may suppose, indeed,
that the proportion of men killed out
/ rightin these hand-tO-hand fights was
| very large. A heavy armed soldier,
l il he was wounded at all, was proba-
| bly, wounded to the death. But this
is not the reason why we hear only of
| the killed. That is to be found in the
/ fact that the wounded were put TO
| death as they lay upon the ground, as
I soon as one side or the other had
| gained possession of the field of battle.
Men similarly trained and armed
/ would meet in the actual encounter
with about equal results; but as soon
I as one army was forced to quit its
I place. its losses would be swelled by
/ the destruction of all the disabled men
/ whom IL had been compelled to leave
I behind il, as well as by the disadvan-
tages of retreat. At Delium, for in
| stance, as the Athenians were success
| ful along half their line, the casualties
I of the conflict itself were probably
equal on both sides, and the retreat,
| though broken, was soon covered by
the night; but the field was lost, and
with the field the wounded. Hence
came a loss double that of the con-
| querOrs, and enormous in proportion
to the number engaged (the total of
heavy armed in each army was about
six thousand, and some of these took
no share in the cOnflict.) One thous-
and killed would imply in the ordina-
~ warfare of modern times a total of
men hOrs 9e combat more than equal
10 the whole of the army.
Imagine now a Greek warrior watch
/ ing a modern battle, such, for in
stance, as the terrible fight at Sedan,
I for which the future historian will
I probably find a place among the "de-
l cisive battlesn Of the world. His first
/ bewilderment at the vast numbers
engaged got over, he misses what
seems essential to a genuine, hard
Z fought battle-"the fierce fighting and
pushing of shield :" for from begin
ming to end it is a matter of war en-
| gines, great and small, and the SOL
diers scarcely, if ever, cross hands in
actual conflict. Then it strikes him
I that the result is scarcely proportion
ate to the enormous efforts employed.
I The difference of numbers considered,
| he has seen better work done in many
a little battle of the old fashioned
| sort, with which he is familiar in the
Il h. NhnrrnFNn
are struck, cOmparatively few are
killed outright. This" he says TO
himself, ais the sort of work archers
used to do, though certainly they
could not shoot so far; the heavy
armed did their business far more
effectually. 1t will come, however, to
the same thing when this side or that
shall be compelled to quit his position.
1t is quite impossible that those who
retreat should carry off all their mass
of wounded, or that the wounded
should drag themselves very far
When the day is done there will be
very large total of killed after all"
With what immeasurable surprise,
then, would our resuseitated Greek
regard what actually happens. The
scales OF battle begin to incline. One
army has suffered more loss than the
morals of Its men can bear, or finds
that its position cannot be held any
longer. It retreats, and, as he antici-
pated, is obliged to leave the greater
part of the wounded behind il. The
enemy occupies the ground. In the
rear follow the surgeons and the am
balances, probably a new sight alto
gether to our warriors eyes, and GER
tainly occupied in a work which he
can not understand. He does not see
the finishing stroke which he has
been expecting given, as a matter of
course, to the wounded. On the con-
trary, the cOnquerers seem to mistake
them for their own men. Some are
tended as they lie upon the ground
others are moved into the wagons and
carried off. It seems as if as much
pains would be taken to cure them as
have been taken already to kill them.
He could understand this in the case
of men of distinction. 1t may often
be better worth while to keep an enc
my alive than to kill him; but in the
case of the common men it is absO-
lutely unintelligible. 1t seems to him
the merest waste of labor to spend in
finite trouble on wounding men only
to spend trouble equally infinite on
making them well again.
Logically, the position of our imag-
mary Greek is quite unassailable, and
free from the embarrassment, theo-
retical, certainly, and even practical,
in which modern ways of thinking
involve us. Stated simply the imme-
diate object of war is to disable as
quickly and effectually, and at as little
cost, danger, and loss to the belliger-
ent as possible, the largest possible
number of his opponents. And as
long as this object is pursued with
singleness of purpose, without any
admiXture of motives that are often
found in its close neighbOrhOOi, the
desire of revenge, the love of infiict-
ing pain, and so on, it is difficult to
establish (the object itself being once
allowed to be legitimate any moral
difference between various modes of
obtaining it. To use an effective
weapon, which also inflicted great
pain, because it inflicted pain would
be cruel, and therefore immoral to
use it because il was effective, ignOr-
ing the accident of the pain, would
be putting aside any rules that civil
tied men may have agreed to follow,
justifiable Attempt 10 modify the
simple principle, though we quite
agree that it must be modified, and
you get through into a labyrinth of
causistical difficulties. It is mani
festly easy to construct questions of
conscience in this subject matter
which it is possible to decide.-LOR-
don Spectator.