The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-07
SPIRIT or TIE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions OF the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics-CompiIed Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
LOSS OF LIFE IN WAR.

FROM the N, 4. Ifnte8.
The shocking slaughter which has charac-
terized recent European battles has naturally
directed attention to the comparative blood
shed of these and former struggles, and sug-
gested estimates of the practical bearing on
the question of the new weapons of war;
fare. Whether rihed cannon, the sUndRGdeJ-
geloehr and mjtrdIeuSe are or are not, as the
guillotne was alleged to be, benefcent in
yentions, appears to depend on these calcula-
tions. For if it should appear that, while war
costs no more men than formerly it is much
sooner over, and that this is in an appreeiable
measure consequent on the use OF better or
more effective weapons, the affirmative of
this proposition must be accepted. War c9n- I
Germs mont n-combatants as we'll as others, aud
the shorter it is the better, of course, for all
industrial interests If 100000 men must
be killed it is better for their country that
they should be killed in month than in a
year. A recognition of this principle would
seem in part to have inspired the existing
Prussian military system. The accounts
that reach us of the current strife are GER
tainly terrible and distressing. The details
of mangled bodies of ''colored rags glued
together with blood and brains, and pinned
in fantastic shapes with bits of bone" are
sckening beyond measure. 1t is, however,
a debatable question, granting that war
must still be, whether the soldier is worse
off for going through a great danger for
short time rather than a considerable danger
for a long time. An examination of some
details of the loss of life in past aud recent
battles will assist the formation of intelli-
gent opinion.
For the losses as we'll as the numbers en-
gagged in the battles of antiquity, we have but
uncertain data. Such history as we possess
asserts-that at Marathon 10000 Greeks over
threw 100000 Persians, and that 200,00 of
the latter were slain. This, of course, is the
III t-.~ - 4
taking of Jerusalem by Titus more than
1000, 600 Jews are believed to have perished.
At Naissus, when Caudius defeated the
Goths, it in said 800, 600 of the latter were
killed. The siege of Acre cost an equal
number of Christian soldiers At the battle
of Hastings 10000 were killed-a vast proper
tion of the numbers engaged. The famous
struggle at Bannockburn was one of the most
disastrous for England that ever occurred
before its date or since, the total loss
being $4,000, or one-half of King Edwards
whole army At Cressy the English under
the Black Prince killed nearly as many as
their own number of the French, .. e., some
what over 10000; and at Agincourt Henry V
did even better, for, with only 1900 men,
he is declared to have beaten 60 600, of
whom 10000 were killed and II, 900 taken
prisoners. The records state that at Blen-
helm the English, under Marlborough,
slew $4,000 of their adversaries and took
$4,000 prisoners. At Fontenov. where Mar
shal SAKE, at the head of the French, de-
feated the English under the Duke of Cum
berland, both sides confessed to O loss of
about 4, 1000. At Malplaquet the allies lost
ones sixth of their whole force of 90, 900 men,
and the French one fifth of theirs or 80, 900.
The loss of the Allies at Austeritz was
3O,000-one- third of their whole array; while
that of the French was 10, 600 O-one-seventh
of theirs. Of the 40, 900 Austrians at the
battle of Wagram, %, 600 were wounded or
slain, and of the l8O, 600 French 20, 600 At
Borodino, the awful number of A 900 Rus
SLAMS were put h0rS de combat, being one
third of their whole army and 10000 French,
or one.fourth of theirs. The allied loss at
Leipsic was As, 000-one-siXth of their army,
and that of the French, A., ,000-one-qu quarter
At Waterloo, of the 10000 allies, the loss
was $4,000, and of the y, 600 French, 3j, 600,
or more than one-half.
In the present generation the great Euro
pean battles may be considered to have been
Solferino, Koniggratz or Sadowa, Metz, and
Sedan AT Solferino the French and Italians
had 152, 900, and lost 1900 men, or one
ninth, and the Austrians had 16O, 900, and
lost 10000, or one-eighth of their total force.
Of 220, 900 Prussians at Sadowa, but 5000, or
one-twenty- third, and of the $1,000 Aus
trians 1000, or one-seventh were lost.
The present estimate is that there were
100000 French in the three days battles
before Metz, and that 80, 900 of them were
destroyed, and that of the 250, 900 Germans,
100000 or one-sixth, represent the losses. 1t
is difficult as yet to pronounce upon the num-
ber of killed and wounded at Sedan. 1t is
variously reckoned at from 0,000 to 10000
men. The French who were made prisoners
numbered some So, ,000-the first instance of
the surrender of so large a body of troops
since the Romans capitulated to the Sam
mites at the Caudne Forks In our Ameri-
can civil war the most sanguinary battles
exhibit mortality of nearly the same rela-
tive proportions as the most bloody
of the European struggles. About 100, 900
men-5S, 900 Federals and 40, 900 Confede-
rates-are recorded to have been engaged at
Antietam; the national loss is set down at
11,42G, the Confederates at about 10000;
the aggregate loss thus being more than
quarter of the whole number of both COM
batants Nearly the same numbers with the
same relative casualties were seen at the
second Bull Run. At Gettysburg the ma
tional loss is recorded at %, 100, and that of
the Confederates at about 36, 600. The num-
bers on each side having been about equal,
or, say IS, 900 each, more than one-third of
the whole were missing or destroyed at the
end of the battle 1t is commonly reckoned
that the American civil war cost by death in
action, wounds, and disease, about ,000, O01
able-bodied men, which is also the number
said to have been expended in the wars of
Napoleon l.
1t seems probable, on the whole, that former
battles have often been as destructive as the
worst of our own day, but that the work of
death is usually done in a shorter time than
it once was Indeed, there is no other way