The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1870-12-23
SNlistellaneous.
Ancient and Modern warfare.

Ancient ana Modern warfare.
The very striking differences exist be-
tween the mode in which war was car
ried on in ancient times, and that in
which ii is conducted in modern. The
first of these is that the vast armaments
of which we read as having been brought
into the field by Semira mis-, Sesostris,
Xerxes, and others, in which the num-
ber of combatants was estimated by
hundreds of thousands, and even by
millions, were, in reality, composed of
host of non. combatants, as well as Of
combatants. Xerxes, it is said, led an
army of 100000 men into Greece, yet
it does not appear that one.tenth of that
number took part in the battle of Mar
athon, which effectually checked his
aspirations for while. The Greek
army there engaged consisted of 10000
men, heavily armed and well disciplin-
ed, drawn up in strong position, and
ably officered. Not one of them was a
useless man or an incumbrance. But
the Persian host was made up of about
100000 fighting men, lightly armed and
indifferently led, while the remainder
were slaves, cooks, BARRIERS, and every
species of camp. followers, together with
the throng of personal attendants, male
and female, of "the Great King" and
his court, to say nothing of innumera-
bic horses, mules, camels and other an
imals required to drag these luxurious
jewellers and their baggage from Persia
to Greece. Now it is evident that it
required far more to feed and clothe
this horde of supernumeraries than the
| fighting men indeed, making due al
lowance for Oriental exaggeration, it
may well be doubted whether the
numbers who accompanied Xerxes did
amount to 10000 or even half that,
though some accounts go the extrava-
CANT length of 100000. They might
have subsisted on the fertile plains of
Asia Minor, but when they reached the
rugged mountains and defIes of Thrace
and Thcssaly, it must have gone hard
with them to procure supplies. And,
doubtless, this was why, after witness
ing the destruction of his fleet at Sala
mis-, Xerxes hastened back to Persia
leaving his generals to prosecute the
war, with 800, 900 men, the vast bulk OF
his non.combatants returning with him
He was beaten by want of supplies
quite as much as by the heroisn of the
Greeks. Now, if we can suppose tha
this system Of carrying about with al
army horde of "useless mouths" pre-
vailed at the present day, and that the
King of Prussia had collected half Ger
many to follow him to the war, woult
he have achieved one-tenth part o
, what he has? Would not the very
numbers he brought with him have i'm
4 peded and stopped his operations? Ye
this was the ancient mode of carrying
on war, until the Greeks and the Ro
: mans, but especially the latter, invent
ed the military organization, upol
which modern armies are based, where
by all useless hands are relegated to tn
rear or left entirely behind
The second of these differences con
= sists in practice which has been yer,
much lost sight of when comparison
are made between the sanguinary re
suits of ancient and modern battle;
The slaughter was much greater in an
}. cient conflicts in proportion to number
than it is in modern. 1t is commo
c thing to attribute this to the system c
hand-to. hand fighting which then pre-
vailed. The only projectiles the al
clients had were darts, arrows an
d stones, but these were not effective a
= long ranges, and, indeed, were genera
ly successfully resisted by shields {
rhinoceros skin, or of tough leather
y studded with nails, and by armor, G
iron helmets and breastplates. This
d insufficient to account for the very dis
proportionate losses we almost alway
d find recorded between the victors an
yanquished, the difference being some
, times twice or thrice as great. The tru
reason of this difference is that whe
the vanquished were driven off tn
field the victors put to death the wounC
70 ed of the enemy whom they found o
I'd the ground. Thus up to a certain poir
in the conflict the losses might hay
been nearly equal in killed and wouno
ed; but when the tide turned again;
Que party the victOrs recovered the
own wounded and killed those Of thei
adversaries. Let it be supposed thu
10000 killed and 20, 900 wounded ha
s. fallen on each side until victory Wa
declared, the victurs would then recoN
er their 10000 wounded and kill tn
900 of their oppnents, and the losst
would then stand 10000 to 30, 900. Ho
different is the modern system A d
(eated foe is driven off the field, an
the victor occupies it. In his rear 70
low surgeon, with ambulances the
take up the wounded of both parti,
Unfortunately, with the greatest ca
and tenderness, if The latter can
moved, if not they are attended to c
the ground. What would be the su
prise of an ancient warrior could
rise out of the grave and see foes takir
as much pains to cure, as they had pr
viously taken to kill, each other
Would he not eXclaim "what an a
surdity war is ?"-Philad'd Ledger.
Artemus and Betsy Jane.
In an affecting account of his coul
ing with Betsy Jane, Artemus Wal
says; --.