The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1870-09-23

IT has long been current opin-
ION With military men that it was of
No consequence how ignorant or de-
gTsded the rank and file and petty
officers Of any army were. They
were merely machines, or "food for
powder" and for this reason educa-
ton and character were of no ac-
count. 1t may be said that the or
dinary stuff Of the British army is
among the worst in the world. The
rank and file of the Austrian and
and Italian armies has been little
better. The French private and un-
der officer has always been n man OF
more intelligence than his compeer
in the armies mentioned above; still
he has not been man of education,
nor has he been valued for his
brains.
This old military idea was pre-
vented in the beginning of our civil
war. 1t was supposed that high
lv-organized and intellectual commu-
nitv. like that oS New England for
instance, or a very active and intel
ligent one, such as the Western, was
not so well adapted for fighting as a
rough, border, ignorant class, such as
filed the ranks of the Southern ar
mics.
But never has the old military
axiom been so overthrow as in the
two great wars of Prussia. Her ar
my was a whole people, the best ed
ucated in Europe. In the ranks and
among the minor officers were the
flower of the nation-sons of pro
fessional bankers and gentry, and
ordinary men Of good training and
education. 1t was an army from
| the common schools. "The uni.
versities conquered at Sadowa,
| said Renar; the schools oyerthreW
the Emperor at Sedan. Never, prob.
ably, in the history of the world, ex
cept in our own civil war, were sc
many cultivated and subtitle brains
made food for powder as in the ter
rible slaughter at Beaumont and Sc
dan.
/ From the first day of the cam
paign, the struggle, as in all modern
warfare, has been one of brains
The remarkable and orderly trans
portation of such vast bodies o.
men, the perfect arrangement ofsup
plies, the organization in the ammu
| milton and ordance department
which so surprised the world, were
the fruit of intellect and study. Then
as the army advances, they are found
by their surprised enemy to know
the mountain passes, the country
roads, and every feature Of the land
scape as we'll as the natives. This
again is study, Won MoltBe moves
his pieces of fifty thousand men with
the precision of fchessmen, but this is
| because he and the officers know the
country, as a German knows the di-
visions of ancient Attica, and the
men are trained to a scientific exact
ness Of movement.
With the French, as we all know,
all is reversed. The transportation
is irregular, the commissariat miser-
able, the ammunition only half sup
piled, and the attendance worse than
nothing. The officers do not know
their own provinces, miss the coun-
try roads, and whole armies move in
ignorance of the enemy's proximity.
The men fight well; but there is no
where invention, enterprise, or the
vigorous use of the intellect on the
great problem before them. The
| private soldier, the non-commission-
ed officer and the average ofthe Off
GERS, evidently are not men of edu-
cation or training. In the Franco
Prussian war brains have conquer
ed.-N. 7. Times.