The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-09-10
The Military Failure Of France.

. | fOC UlUIG Illuu lbl q SSisoA ~ A-~
the general belief that the French military
system was practically perfect, and that, In
all matters which affected the comfort OF the
soldier in camp and on the march, there was
absolutely no room for improvement. Ihls
feeling was strengthened by the knowledge
that military glory was the one great tradl-
ton and constant desire OF the French ma
ton, and, as the Napoleonic dynasty was
hedged in by steel, it was not doubted that
the Emperor had, even to the injury OF other
interests, lavished his care and the public
treasure upon the soldiers OF the Empire. 1t
was then, shock to all Europe when, i'm
mediately after the first battle Of the Franco
Prussian war, the French officers and SOL
diers complained loudly of short rations, de-
fective ammunition, insufficient transporta-
ton, and lack of hospital supplies. The
whole supply service had broken down.
| Where the French system was thought
the strongest, /. e., in administrative Or
ganization for the comfort and protection OF
the soldier it had shown itself incapable,
weak, and in condition of helpless confu-
sion. Plausible explanations were given to
the public Cries OF treachery near the
throne, and OF fraud in high places, were rails
ed without delay. Every explanation was
given but the true one, which is, that the
French supply departments are radically
wrong in system, and, since the peace OF
1915 have broken down whenever the strain
of war has been put upon them. The main
facts are explained by General Trochu in his
we'll known work, 'L'Armee Franchise en-
"ls67," which work, by the way, shclyed the
author, and gained for him the ill-will OF
every military barnacle in the Empire. In
the chapter upon attendance or Administra-
ton, General Trochu says:
'In France, after the campaigns of the Re-
public and the Empire. men whose experience
was considerable united for the purpose OF
furnishing the army with system Of military
administration, the principles and mechanism
of which had high practical value in refer
ence to war. -. In the system OF these great
administrators, the direction ana control of
| the various services were carried on, side oy
side, without being coufounded with one ano-
ther . The directors, the controllers, and
the executive officers were men Of business,
who had been Initiated into business from the
| first step in their career, md educated from an
early period for the performance OF their func-
tons in the army by actual duty, by exchanges,
and by being specially brought into contact In
every way with the details of those functions.
They lived from the age OF eighteen or twenty
| in an atmosphere OF business, having special
reference to the administration OF the army.
The members CT the central department,
and the agents of the administrative services,
| commenced their career as students, learning
from their youth what was always to be their
specially. Under the system which prevails
nowadays, all such tunct' onaries, without eX-
ception, before entering upon their public busi-
ness, have been through long years-the years
of youth, in which men learn and study With
most fruit-oficers and non-commiSsioned
officers In the army. With them public ex-
amina ion takes the place OF ten or fifteen
years of practical and professional experience.
What do say-of thirty or forty years OF such
practical! experience; for we see generals OF
brigade not unfrequently at the last stage Of
their career, becoming acknowledgements,
that is to soy, the arbiters for the next war, Of
the existence OF our troops In the field. 1t is
idle, think, to search through the whole
scope of the public affairs of France for more
astounding specimen Of blunder."
The same high authority assures US that
through the failure OF the attendance in the
Italian campaign, acAole divisions Of the
French army acre often for days together
,cithoM bread; and that in the Crimea the
army must have perished but that we'll
known house OF business in Marseilles step
4Bed forward to sustain paralyzed depart
ment. Again, we find that in consequence
of being thrown upon the attendance for it's
supplies, the medical department OF the
French army, both in Italy and the Crimea,
was continually at its wits ends. The Sur
geou-in- Chief Of the Guard, writing from
Alexandria on the 10th Of May, 1859, says:
'sNo lltters, no ambulances, no wagons; I
have begged hard for chloroform and per-
chloride OF iron; nothing has as yet been given
me-"
He writes again from valeggio on the 7th
of July:
"For the last fortnight some regiments have
only once OF twice had bread, and even then 1t
was mouldy and of a very bad quality. Wine
has completely failed; there has been scarcely
! any issue of it,"
On the I'd OF july an officer wrote to the
Emperor himself from Castiglione:
"sire the wounded Of solferlno, who are
crowded here, have never yet had their
wounds dressed fer want of supplies. We
have lint, but no linen, no sheets, no sugar, no
provisions"
Matters we're quite as bad in the Crimea,
perhaps worse It is stated in the Gazette
Hebdomadatre, in which some recent arti-
cles on the medical statistics of the French
army have attracted great attention, that
whereas in the English army 1873 per cent,
and in the American army 4O.2 per cent. of
surgical operations in war prove fatal. in the