Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-12-07
Book Notices.

a.
VARsAILLEs-By Breyet Major General w. B
Hazen, u. S. A, Colonel of the Sixth Infan-
try. Harper & Brothers Publishers
This is work Of deep interest to every
reader, but especially to the officers and
soldiers in our late army. It is from, the
pen of distinguished General, who took
a conspicuous part in the late war of the
rebellion. He is graduate of our Nation
al Military Academy at West Point an
officer of varied experience in his profes-
sion of arms and therefore well qualified
to write intelligently about the grand ar
mics he saw on the battlefields of France.
By permission of the War Department
and with letters to the German authori-
ties, that secured for him marked attention
and every facility to carry out his plans,
the author spent some mouths in the
camps, and afterward in the Government
Bureaus at Berlin, thoroughly familiariz-
ing himself with the details of the
organization of the German armies.
His experience in the army is written in
the shape of diary and opens with an
account of an interview with Bismarck in,
which the great German Chancellor gives
a concise statement of the circumstances
outeof which sprang the grand war.
His narrative of camp life about Paris is
deeply interesting and full of information
not given in any other work we have seen.
He explains the plan upon which the
great siege was conducted, how the besieg-
ing army was posted, and the discipline
and organization that made the operations
so successful. His personal descriptions
Ir;,
Frederick Charles, Won Room, Moltke and
the other leading spirits of the victorious
army are as interesting as they could be
made.
Gen. HaZen gives a full history of the
changes in the tactics and organization
of the German army from the time of
Frederick the Great down to the present
and compares it fairly and fully with the
organization of the French and American
armies. His views on this subject are
worthy of the attention of Congress, for he
certainly makes suggestions of changes in
our own army which every volunteer of
ficer in our late war knows to be neces-
sary.
One of the most valuable features, and to
our minds the most interesting of this
work, is the searching review Gen. Hazen
makes of the causes that have brought
about the relative changes in the positions
of Germany and France. His opinions are
boldly but fairly advanced and well main
tanned, and though it is evident that he is
a sincere admirer of the German character
and holds an exalted opinion of their army
organization and leaders, there is through
out the book such satisfactory reasons
given for his conclusions that the reader
finds himself persuaded that the author is
right, no matter where his own sympathies
may have been when he opened the
book.
Of our officers, schools and soldiers, Gen.
HaZen says
"After seeing much of the best of the
European armies, I believe that at the
breaking out of our war our little regular
army was differed by better technical sol
diers than any army in the world, and this
I believe to be due to West Pointn
'"The school buildings nowhere approach
the excellence, neatness and appropriate
ness of our own, nor did the cadets, wherey-
er / met them, show the trimness and
manliness of those at West. POint.n
SIN comparing our own with foreign ar
mics it is easy to be misunderstood and
I will here say that / believe no men are
Drawer, more patriotic, selfsacrifcing and
enduring of hardships and privations of
all kinds than American soldiers. There
are none susceptible of better discipline
than they although, from having led
more independent lives than foreign
troops, they do not so readily yield to it,
and none can stand up more squarely and
honestly in hard battle"
The appendix contains very full synop-
sis of the German army regulations, equip
ments, organization and numbers that is
Of great value for reference AS we said at
the outset this book must prove of value to
every soldier in our late armies and will
well repay careful reading by all who were
interested in the wonderful struggle be-
tween these leading powers of Western
Europe. .--er