Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-07-20

WAR, AT LAST.

enthusiasm and veneration which once in
spired French hearts for the great Napo-
leon, he seizes the opportunity afforded by
the Hohenzollern's candidature for the
Spanish throne, and Eliminates his decla-
ration of war. That it will be war grim
visaged and terrible, there can be no doubt
There is but one consolation left, and that
is that modern science will make it short
and decisive
In our college days, we read of fearful
battles, where hundreds of thousands fell
through the slow but stubborn hand-to-
hand conflicts which the rude, ancient
weapons of war made necessary. But in
our day, with the rifled, revolving artil-
lery and small arms, and with the railroad
and telegraph, war is prosecuted with
more vigor and decision, if not with as
great destruction of life in single battles.
With these modern improvements in the
fearful enginery of war, and in view of
the immense force to be engaged we con-
template with horror the dreadful struggle
into which the two leading powers of Eu-
rope are now about to plunge.
Something over ten years ago, on
the plains of Italy, Austria, France and
Italy fought their desperate struggles at
Magenta and Solferino. At the latter,
by aid of telegraph and railway, was con-
centrated on shorter notice the largest ar
mics of that desperate war; AT Sadowa,
by meaus of the sames agencies, Prussia
gathered that terrible army that levelled
i'll that one desperate struggle the power
and pride of Austria. France and Prussia
are but vast networks of splendidly con-
structed railroads, and all their towns and
cities are within reach .of the telegraph
lines. Their territory combined is not
larger than the three States of Tennessee,
Virginia and Kentucky. The movements
of forces over such a limited area, and with
the aids named, will ueces sarily be rapid.
With such able strategists as Baron Moltlle
and Napoleon, we may expect such combi-
nations and execution as planted victory
on Prussia's banners at Sadowa, to be met
and equalled, if not surpassed.
1t is impossible to tell what will be the
result The mere superiority of numbers
will not alone decide it. Looking even at
the forces at command, they seem to be
| almost equally divided. France, in her.
self, has wal force of | ,350,00 of which
$4,000 are ready for instant service. Prus-
sia has total army of 300, 900, with 3OO,-
| 900 soldiers ready for immediate operation.
| If we take into consideration the powers
very likely to become involved, we find
France to have at her service a force OF
| ~ ODO mon at in, ndi 70 commend and n
reserve of $685. los. Prussia and allies,
on the ether hand, can, in twenty-four
| hours, put under march a fighting force OF
! splendidly disciplined soldiers $40, 00O
| strong, with reserve of 1,364,32l expert
enced men. But the contest is not alone
| one ofbrute force. The consummate strate-
| gy of MOltke will make up to Prussia the
want of a few legions. The superiority OF
the needle gun over the Chassepot rifle can
not determine the contest. 1t was not the
| Prussian needle gun alone that, in II cam
paign of sixty days, brought to terms the
naughty power of Austria. Prussia has
| nurtured i'm the splendid school system
and liberal government she has given her
| people, "a power which cannot be measured
~ iaSlN numerical SllcIStil, OF lIlc line Oh
the battle front. There is more in the
! loyal hearts and pride of nation that are
to he found on every Prussian hearth-stonc
to tum the scale of BATTLE than in the
weight of the Chassepot bullet or the pres
| tige of Napoleon's name.
The Emperor of the Tuilleries need not
hope to find divided Germany when his
| legions cross the Rhine; for when Father
land is once invaded, every German heart
will throb with one impulse, and every
GermanfOOt beat time to the same inspiring
| strain. There is something in this which
will give to Prussia an advantage worthy
| of consideration. France has declared
war, and turns the head of her column to-
wards Berlin. She will be the invader in
a war begun without a just cause, and she
will find every German loyal to his King,
and as determined foe rs did the First
Napoleon.
y century and more ago, the Prussians,
under their greatest soldier, Frederick,
contenOed with France, Austria and their
allies combined. With the odds of two to
one against them, the Prussian army, per-
feet in its organization and disposition.
carried the black eagle, on its field of ar
gent, triumphant over the field covered