The union Democrat., 1870-08-13
Gre 9anion 9emurrat.
R.,uI.. Of Great Battles.


SPECULATION will be very busy for some
davs. among our journalists, respecting tne
alliances. offensive and defensive, that the
great contending parties may effect IN TINS
saal.,cholv and wicked war which is to be
waced in Europe. Pen and papers, generals
.nd statesmen will arrange these matters
nret,s much according to their personal pre-
objections. There ia an element, however,
which ought to be included in the calculation,
that will, we fear. be omitted. We refer to
the change which has been introduced into
military operations by the vast improvements
that have been effected in all implements Of
war.
In the days or the old Peninsular war sit
took an enormous amount of time and lead
aad labor to kill q man. At q few perches
distant man in the ranks stood in compara-
tivdy little danger from any injurious effects
that siBrown Bess" was likely to produce.
Ia our boyhood we used to be familiar with
old heroes, who had gone through the scenes
of Corunna under Moore who had marched
backward end forward and every way through
Spain and Portugal, and who were eloquent
on the glories of Salamanca end Victoria
and one and all of them agreed that to aim al
an enemy, with view to kill him. was little
less than murder. 1t is trne they loaded
their muskc.s and they fred before them,
but whether into hillside or over the heads
or beneath the feet of an enemy, they knew
not. They fired ut random, and aimed only
in general way in the direction where men
whom thew wanted "to leave that"
All this is changed. The implement is
changed, the tactics are changed. and the
aim is now direct and deadly. Hence war
must bo brief, bloody and decisive. Where
strategy is scientific, and mind has massed
the forces so as to do the work of death effec-
tively, then the destruction is wholesale, and
the object Of a campaign is accomplished By
one blow. In Lombardy, the battle of Ma
genta, severe as it was, was merely the pre-
liminary ar-aying of part of the forces on
either side, and yet the effect was tremendous.
Let any of our readers look ut the map and
note the locality where that action took place,
and then see how destructive its effects must
have been, when the Austrains were obliged
to flee across Lombardy before they could
form their forces again, on the fatal nights of
Solferiro, where the Austrian eegle again
fell before the foe.
Still moro to the point is the lesson of Sa-
dowa. One such battle must necessarily de-
termine the direction Of an appeal to the is
sue of war. Hence the likelihood is that the
wholesale slaughter of one great engagement
may be such as to indicate the imperative
necessity of one of the parties abandoning the
strife. In that case there would be no time
nor opportunity to entangle the neighboring
powers, and the other nations of Europe
might be saved from taking part in the
bloody fray. On the other hand, if prelimin-
airy actions of minor character occur at or
near Luxembourg, and if one or the other Of
the armies be driven into the territory oi
Belgium or Bavaria, then it may be expected
that power after power, will be driven into
the maelstrom, and the unavoidable result
would be general war; war most Grimm
al and wicked-utterly uucalled for; tha
will devastete the fairest scenes of the mos
civilized lands that will clothe widows il
their mourning, and leave tedder children
desolate; that will burden toil;ng millionl
with debt and taxes, and all to establish {
dynasty to quiet the murmuring of discon
tented subjects and satiate mercurial people
with trophies stepped in hlood.-Philadelphit
Inquirer.