The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1870-09-14
HAq4Inneuns.
IFrom the New York Herald.l
The Most Wonderful Military Cam
paign OF Odern Times.


The Most Wonderful Military Cam
paign OF Modern Times.
Since the invention of gunpowder there
has been no war between two or more ma
tons which will compare with this Just
closed between France and Germany,
whether we consider the strength and
equipments Of the armies on both sides,
the bloody battles fought, and within the
brief limits Of single month, or the OBJ
stacles overcome and the results achieved
by the armies of the successful beliger-
emit.
The war was declared by France July 10,
and hostilities were commenced by France,
Louis and l." at the little frontier Ger
mar town Of Saarbruck, where the Prince
Imperial received his baptism Of FIRE" on
the I'd day Of August, and on the I'd day
of September the war is ended in the capt.
tulation Of the army Of MacMahon and
the surrender Of Napoleon to King Will
am. Within the week from the opening
of the ball in the dramatic little affair OF
Saarbruck the strong positions of the adj
anc right wing Of the French army un-
der MacMahon, from the Saar to the
Rhine, and thence up TO Strasburg, IN q
series Of fierce and bloody battles were
carried, the whole French line was doubled
up and pushed back over the Vosges
Mountains to the line Of the Moselle and
its protecting fortresses. In these opera
tions the losses to the French involved the
reduction Of the splendid army column Of
fifty thousand men, with which MacMa-
hon marched out OF Strasburg, August 4,
to less than fifteen thousand in his halt to
repair damages at Chalons, ten days later.
When Napoleon rode back with the
Prince Imperial to his headquarters at
Metz, the French army extending in q
segment Of a circle from that point around
to Strasburg, numbered, perhaps; not less
than two hundred and fifty thousand men.
The German armies confronting them,
roughly computed since at half a million,
did not probably exceed in all three hun
bred and fifty thousand men. But the
weight of it was thrown with crushing
force upon MacMahon, and in his demoh-
tlon at Woerth the whole campaign was
virtually decided. The next chapter in
the sangulnary drama was in the success
ion of desperate battles with the original
left and centre of the French army, on the
line OF the Moselle, under Bazaine, culmi-
mating IN the terrific struggle Of the 18th
at G~ravelotte, which resulted in shutting
up Bazaine within the walls of Metz, to
the extent of from eighty to a hundred
thousand men, in charge of the Prussian
General SteInmetz.
Thus by the 18th Of August the origi-
nal French army Of the Kline was DIS
posed of, including q detachment be-
leagured IN S~trasbourg, and excluding the
escaping remnant of MacMahon's corps
and the detachment escaping from Metz
and uniting with MacMahon IN the north.
To this point the French losses in killed,
wounded and prisoners, and in their forces
held in several fortresses, as under lock
and key, were equal to two hundred thou
sand men. The c%apitulation of the new
army of MacMahon under Gen.. Wimpfen
at the time involved an additional imme-
date loss of one hundred and fifty thou
sand men more or less. We have no
means of estimating the aggregate losses
in killed and wounded on either side, but
from the reports made we apprehend that,
while the French losses Of the wal will
not exceed one hundred thousand men
the German losses, from the exposures on
that side as the attacking party, have
hardly been less than one hundred and
fifty thousand men.
All this has been done in the brief space
Of one month, from the I'd day Of August
TO the I'd day of September; and the
grand results are the surrender Of Napole-
on and the subjugation of France, and at
lint in the contest when the French
people were only beginning to prepare for
the expulsion Of the enemy.