The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-12-12

Tho Late Military Operations In France
and Their Results.
The recent desperate efforts of the French
to relieve Paris from the strangling coil of the
German armies may in q general parallel be
compared with the closing scenes in the war
of our Southern rebellion, both in the objects
| and their results. Towards the close of March,
| 1865. with Sherman advancing through North
| Carolina, and with Grant extending and
| tightening at the same time his lines
around the south side Of Petersburg, it became
evident to Lee that his only way Of escape
was to break the investing line Of Grant and
then to double it up and demoiish it, or to cut
through and secure, If possible, junction
with the army Of 10 Johnston approaching
through North Carolina, with Sherman in pur-
suit. Accordingly, on the morning Of the
25th Of March, Lee detailed heavy column
against Fort Stedman, one Of Grants invest
ing line Of works, carried 1t, and turned it's
guns upon Grants forces. But the sortie was
q shortlived success; for the captured fort
was retaken the same day, and the Union
army was advanced along all that portion Of
the line. Then followed those charges upon
the enemy's works and lines which resulted
|. successfully in Lees abandonment of Peters
burg and Richmond, in his retreat westward,
In his surrender, with the remainder of his
army, at Appomattox Court House, and in
the surrender Of Johnston's army in North
Carolina, which ended the struggle Of the
Southern confederacy.
Now in these late operations Of the French
Trochu in Paris occupied the position of Lee
at Richmond and Petersburg; King William,
with his besieging army, the position of Grant,
the Army of the Loire the position of 10 John
ston and Prince Frederick Charles the position
Of Sherman. The object Of the French army
from the Loire was, through junction with
sortie from Paris, to raise the siege of the city,
and the object of Trochu in his sorties was the
same. In both cases these desperate attempts
failed. Trochu, finally repulsed at all
points and driven back within the
line Of his defensive works, is worse
off than he was month ago, and the
Army Of the Loire, though reported as num-
bering two hundred thousand men and five
hundred cannon, has been driven even out of
Orleans, and from all appearances will next be
driven from Tours What else, then, with
Rouen captured and Havre cut off, what else
can be expected of Trochu but the final sur
render Of Lee?
But while history, in the closing struggle for
Richmond, may thus be said to be repeating
itself in the struggle for Paris, the parallel
ceases when, in the two cases, we touch the
strength of the armies engaged. In March,
1865, Lees army for the defence of Richmond
and Petersburg hardly exceeded, all told,
eighty thousand men, reduced to twenty-seven
thousand in his surrender, and 10 Johnston's,
in North Carolina, was less than fifty
thousand. Grants immediate forces for
active operations numbered, perhaps,
one hundred and twenty thousand men, and
Sherman's about seventy-five thousand. On
the other hand, while the German forces in
vesting Paris are reported at two hundred
and fifty thousand men, General Trochu is
said to have within the circle of the city
Notifications four hundred thousand soldiers.
His late principal sortie was made with a
column of one hundred and twenty thousand
men. And yet again, the army retained by
Prince Frederick Charles, from his army of
Metz, is estimated at one hundred and fifty
thousand men, swelled to two hundred thou
sand from the troops of the Crown Prince,
while the opposing French Army of the Loire
is reported to be two hundred thousand strong.
To 60 no further in the enumeration of the
armies engaged in this wsr in France, there is
no approach to these figures in any other war
of modern times. Even the imposing army of
four hundred thousand men with which the
first Napoleon undertook his march to Moscow
is collapsed by the seven hundred thousand
armed Germans now upon the soil of France.
But if it is still true that ''Paris is France, !"
the end Of this war cannot be far of, although,
even with the surrender of Paris, there may
still be left three hundred thousand armed
Frenchmen in the field. Such are the astound-
ing results of modern science and art as
an piled in this barbarous business Of war.
PRUSSIA AND THE BoNAPARTE DYNASTY
In the London clubs and other high places
there seems to be q growing feeling that the
Prussians intend to restore Napoleon to
the throne Of France. The Situation, a
Napoleonic journal published in London,
begins to speak out very plainly. ''The
Senators of the empire, the Empress presiding,
must now meet and make peace with the con-
querors." Now that Havre is besieged, that