The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-11-23
LINE ANE COLUMN.
[Erom tho Na'Ion.l

The new discoveries IRE changing the mill
tary type OF character all over the world. The
soldier Of the historian as well as Of the poet
and novelist-the gay, 3ashlng, restless youth,
who danced with and n ade lo9e to the women,
and duelled and gambI,d with men from post
to post. and went undes fire with On oath OF Or, o
song on his lips. who used TO be the ideal
"mllltaire," has VANISHED or is vanishing from
the earth. His successor is grave gentle
man With specracles, whose uniform smells Of
the lamp, whose dreams are OF strategy and
tactics, and whose la5orious days are passed,
not on .'toy sor lust OF wine," but over figures
and dIagrams. aud among books; to whoa, the
t''pomp and prlde and circumstance" OF war
ARE nothing, and Its uss as q naked, unadorn-
ed, savage, but potent instrument OF The
natlonal will, everything.
Both line and column are now to pc num-
bered among the things that were. The ''co-
umu OF attack" indeed, which has played 80
famous part in military history. may be SAID
to belong to the pass as completely as the
Macedonian phaIanx OF the wooden lIne-of-bat-
tie ships. We shall never again witness great
spectacular feats like the advance OF the Eng
gllsh column Mt Fortenoy, or Macdonald's
charge across the plain at Waaram. When the
Prussian Guard, in column, attacked the
French line at Marsha tour, in August, 1870 and
lost Six thousand men in ten minutes, the days
ofclose formation came to an end. Itis now ac-
knowIedged on all hands that it will not do to
send men into action iii any formation IN which
they touch elbows, or present q continuous
front TO the epemy's fire. In other words, q
total revolution is taxing place In tactics,
which will inevitably greatly diminish the Of
ficer's control over the soldier during the pro
gress Of the engagement, and render necessa-
ry on the part of the latter an amount OF INTEL
ligence, self-respeot ard fidelity which the SOL
diers of no nation have, as class, as yet dis
played. Tue Prusslans are now practiclng q
system which opens an engagement by a
heavy fire Of artillery, and then attacks neith-
or in line nor column, but with great clouds OF
skirmisbers, 10 whom It Is only possible 10 In.
dIcate their objective point, and who reach it
as best they can advancing across the coun-
.tIy py twos, or thress, or slngly, cIrefully
avoiding any kind OF formation, taking adyan-
tage OF every hollow IN the ground, tree, fence,
house or wall to conceal themselves, runnlnI
here at the top of ther: speed, there craving
take steady aim. We believe column, 1t is
true, comes after them, but only as q sort Of
reserve to feed the skrmish horde with fresh
men and hold its conquests.
II can be readily seen that under this
system the superintendence Of the officer must
at best be slight. He can never have the men
swell in hand" to use military phrase; he
must trust during the greater part Of The day
10 their own sense OF honor, to their courage,
and to the opinion Of their comrades. to pre-
vent skulking; and it is only at the last mo-
ment. when the final rlsh is to be made, that
he can, in the strictest sense Of the term, put
himself at their bead. In short the tactics
which carried Frederick through the Seven
Years War, and Wellington through the
Peninsula and Waterloo, are vanishing from
the camps, and in lieu Of them comes, Of all
things in the world, the old Indian BUSH
whacking under which Braddock's files went
down overi century ago at the fords OF the
Manongahela.