The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-11-04

! General Grant's views OF Baxninc's Sur
render and tho Frcnch Army.
The views Of General Grant on Bazaine's
surrender and the French army, as published
in yesterdays HERALD. are very interesting,
coming, as they come, through one of our most
careful correspondents, and embodying, as they
embody, the elements Of a profound criticism
in few brief and simple sentences. They are
as s'full of matter as an egg is of meat" For
Instance, General Grant s'cannot understand
the course of Marshal Bazaine in allow
ing himself to be bottled up in Metz Gas
General Butler was bottled up in the fork
of the James and Appomattox rivers) with
such fine army under his command" Gem
eral Grant thinks there was no necessity for
such a move; that Bazaine could have kept
outside of Metz aud maintained himself
against all attacks, and could thus have
avoided that worst enemy Of all-starvation.
When asked what he would have done if placed
in Bazaine's position Chat is, after the battle
of Graveotte, by which he was cut off from
retreat to Paris) the President answered,
'sWell, would have fused around some way
or other, until l cut my way through the
Prussian lines" and that Bazaine, with his
fine army, ought to have cut his way through
the Prussans, instead OF allowing himself to
be shut up in Metz.
The battle field OF Gravelotte lies mile or
two west Of Metz. TO that point Bazaine
with his army, had advanced, when, on the
18th of August, he was Intercepted by the
Prussians and compelled to fight He fought
all day stubbornly and splendidly, and the
night had come on, when he was driven back
from his position. Under cover of the dark
ness, however, leaving the regular garrison
to hold the city, he still had the choice of a
retreat northward out of Metz, after entering
it by the western gate; for the demands of
the battle had drawn the whole Prussian army
to Gravelotte, where it remained during the
night. This is what, we suppose, General
Grant means by fussing around. He means
that Bazaine should not have rested an hour
after that battle until he had escaped from the
coils Of the Prussan army; and herein lies
the fatal mistake of Bazaine-fatal from his
inaction directly after Gravelotte, first to the
army of MacMahon at Sedan, maneuvring
for his relief, and next to his own army,
cooped up in Metz, and, let us say, disarmed
by starvation. By his continuous hammering"
and ''fussiDg around" General Grant, in our
late civil war, gained many battle which,
judging from Metz, Bazaine would have lost,
from Belmont to Petersburg.
But, leaving Bazaine, what says the Presi-
dent of this war in France? He says he never
had doubt that the Prussians would win,
from the superiority Of their military
system over that Of the French; that the
whole adult male population Of the Prus-
slams are trained and disciplined soldiers,
against which raw recruits are useless; that
the French simply had regular army, and
after that nothing worthy Of the name. This,
too, while the Prussian reserves were as
good as their immense armies first sent into
the field-all intelligent, trained soldiers And
here we have from General Grant the secret
of all these French disasters. It lies in this
fact, that under tho empire ''the French sys-
| tenn has discouraged the use of arms among
the people," and that consequently. with the
destruction Of her regular standing army,
France is defenceless against the trained
legions of Germany. Furthermore, says
General Grant, s'we would never think here
of using up our regular army at the start. We
would first employ our volunteers and militia,
| and keep the regulars for the last resort :"
This was the first Napoleon's plan in battle
with his Imperial Guard. General Grant,
however, forgets that Napoleon the Third
thought he had sure thing Of 1t in this war.
and that but for this initial blunder all the rest
might have been avoided, even after the de-
claration of war. AS far as they 60, however,
the views of General Grant on the French
situation will command the highest respect,
even in France and Germany, as the views Of
soldier whose achievements in saving the
Union and in re- establishing the United States
| upon the solid foundation of universal liberty
and equal rights have made ''the great re-
public" in all the elements of true greatness,
first among the nations.
THE POLITICAL MArRRIA MRDIOA-The