The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-04
THE OPPOSING ARMIES.

RAILROADS and telegraphs have changed the
old method of conducting war as completely
as they have revolutionized the pursuits of
peace. In our own conflict the first great
step was the disastrous onslaught on Manas-
sas Junction, which was undertaken in the
hope that it would give the Union army con-
troll of the approaches to Richmond, or at all
events O convenient railway front in the
enemy's country. Subsequently it became
the object of the Rebels to seize or iniure,
and Of our troops to protect, the line of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. At one time
the Northern Central and Philadelphia and
Baltimore Roads were endangered, at another
even the Pennsylvania Railroad was ieopar-
died by Lees advance into this State, while
in the far South the railroads were
the objective points of more determined
attacks than the Rebel armies. In the pre-
sent European war this system of railroad
raids has also already been commenced. One
of the first things done by the Prussians was
to break the continuity of railway communi-
cation along the front of the right of the
French line, and now the French have de-
stroyed Saarbruck, which is a junction of a
railroad running northeast and southwest
from France into Germany and a line run
ming north and south nearly parallel with the
Prussian boundaries. A great advantage will
be gained by either party if it
Can destroy or cripple the military lines of its
opponents and maintain its own intact; and
on the success of operations of this character,
even more than on the strength of fortresses,
will depend the determination of the actual
seat Of war and the character of the present
campaign. Each nation has a railway line
nearly parallel with the whole length of its
frontier, and a wide field is thus opened for
railroad. destroying raids like those which
formed a very important portion of our own
war.
If Napoleon really expects to make the
present contest short, sharp, and decisive,
his natural policy is to make a direct advance
into the strictly Prussian territory which he
menaced by the affair at Saarbruck. This
district is the prize for which he wages war
the land lying west of the Rhine that France
has 80 long coveted. If he can capture and
hold it, and make a peace based on the stipu-
Iation that it shall become the permanent
property of the empire, he will come out of
the conflict with flying c%olors, and re-estab-
Lsh his damaged prestlge. Inc russians
are in no mood to give up their
lands without a desperate struggle,
and Napoleon must strike fearful
blows before they will surrender their pos
sessions on the western bank of the Rhine.
But since the sword is to decide the future
ownership ofthese dominions, no more fitting
place for a decisive battle could be chosen
than the fair fields whose title-deeds depend
upon the relative merits of the needle-gun
and the Chassepot. The present situation
indicates that if the initiative is left to Napo-
leon he will meet his fate on the territory
which his political necessities now compel
him to acquire, and if a very great battle is
to be fought soon, the banks of the Saar, a
river nearly parallel with the Prussian from
tier, is the locality most likely to be selected.