The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-09-04
The Most Wonderful Military Cacpnign
Of Modern Times.

| OF Modern Times.
| Since the invention of gunpowder there has
been no war between any two or more nations
which will compare with this just closed
between France and Germany, whether we
consider the strength and equipments of the
armies on both sides, the bloody battles fought,
and within the brief limits of a single month,
or the obstacles overcome and the results
achieved by the armies Of the successful bel
ligerent.
The war was declared by France July Is,
and hostilitles were commenced by France,
| "Lous and l." at the little frontier German
town of Saarbriick, where the Prince Imperial
received his "baptism of fire, on the I'd day
of August, and on the I'd day Of September the
war is ended in the capitulaton of the army Of
MacMahon and the surrender of Napoleon to
King William. Within the week from the
opening of the ball in the dramatic little affair
of Saarbrick the strong positions OF the
advance right wing of the French army
under MacMahon, from the Saar to the
Rhine, and thence up to Strasbourg,
in series of fierce and bloody
battles were carried, the whole French
line was doubled up and pushed backward
over the Vosges Mountains to the line of the
Moselle and its protecting fortresses In these
operations the losses to the French involved
the reduction of the splendid army column OF
fifty thousand men, with which MacMahon
marched out of Strasbourg, August 4, to less
than fifteen thousand in his halt to repair
damages at Chalons, ten days later.
When Napoleon rode back with the Prince
Imperial to his headquarters at Metz, the
French army, extending in a segment of circle
from that point around to Strasbourg. num-
bered perhaps, not less than two hundred and
fifty thousand men. The German armies
confronting him. roughly computed since at
half million, did not probably exceed in all
three hundred and fifty thousand men. But
the weight of it was thrown with crushing
force upon MacMahon, and in his demolition
at Woerth the whole campaign was virtually
decided. The next chapter in the sanguinary
drama was in the succession of desperate bat
ties with the original left and centre of the
French army, on the line Of the Moselle, under
Bazaine, eliminating in the terrific struggle of
the 18th at Gravelotte, which resulted in
shutting up Bazaine within the walls Of Metz,
to the extent Of from eighty to hundred
thousand men, in charge of the Prussian &C.
neral Steinmetz.
Thus by the 18th of August the original
French Army of the Rhine was disposed OF,
including detachment beleaguered in Stras-
bourg, and excluding the escaping remnant of
MacMahons corps and the detachments escap-
ing from Metz and uniting with MacMahon in
the north. To this point the French losses in
killed, wounded and prisoners, and in their
forces held in several fortresses, as under lock
and key, were equal to two hundred thousand
men, The capitulation Of the new army Of
MacMahon under General Wimpfen at the
time involved an additional immediate loss Of
one hundred and fifty thousand men, more or
less We have no means of estimating the
aggregate losses in killed and wounded on
either side but from the reports made we ap-
prehend that while the French losses of the
war will not exceed one hundred thousand
men, the German losses, from the exposures
on that side as the attacking party, have
hardly been less than one hundred and fifty
thousand men.
All this has been done in the brief space of
one month, from the I'd day of August to the
I'd day of September; and the grand results
are the surrender Of Napoleon and the subju-
cation of France, and at point in the contest
when the French people were only beginning
to prepare for the expulsion of the enemy.