The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-07-04

he naturally sought for . bsttle which
Barclay de Tolly, the Russian commander
quite as persistently avoided. In such
case, he who carries out his plan must b
allowed to have been the most skillfal stfst
egist- On three occasions, at Wilma, Vitspsl
and Smolensk, Barclay evaded the shock o
thes immense army his dreaded opponen
wanted to hurl against him, and thereby in
duced to plunge deeper into the bsrrer
steppes, and TO incur the dangers of the in
clement winter of Russia NIX NJ
Whilst the Russian army remained intact
every step in advance was destructive to the
invading army, whose losses in men and
horses were greater than they would have
su ffsred in series of battles. When Barclay
was superseded by Kutusoff, and the bloody
battle of Borodina gave Moscow to the in
yaders, Napoleon lost seven weeks in that
half ruined city, evidently unable to advance
any further, and yet unreasonably delaying q
retrograde movement which he finally had to
make under the most disastrous circum-
stances His defeat, says Mr. Littre, was not
SO much the result of that browning folly as
Of the defensive policy of Barclay in keeping
his forces on the defensive during that march
of four hundred and fifty miles towards the
interior of the Russian Empire, which drew
Napoleon to Moscow.
La his subsequent campaign, when he re-
appeared in Germany at the head of three
hundred thousand raw recruits, and was con-
fronted by well organized armies, flushed
with recent success, his two barren victories
of Lutzen and Bautzen were soon Offset by
the terrible battle of Leipsic. which he fought
against immense odds and with two rivers in
his rear, the result of which was that his
retreat was cut off and forty thousand men
were captured or drowned in the Elster and
the Pleiss.
W hen the theater of war was transferred to
France in 1914, the same fatal mistake Of
abandoning defensive for aggressive tactics
was committed by the man whose genius was
pre-eminently adapted to the last system, and
with the same disastrous result However
brill ant his marches, however bold his opera
tions and effective and rapid his blows against
the Russian, Prussian and Austrian armies,
whom he kept at bay for two months, it was
evid ent that by substituting the offensive for
the defensive plan, his small army was doomed
to be overwhelmed in the end by the con-
stantly increasing forces that kept pouring
into France. ~
The campaign of 1918 lasted six, and that of |
1914 two months. The final struggle Of 1916
only occupied sir days, from the 14th to the
] 9th of June. Against the advice of his most |
trusted followers, he again reverted to his
favorite policy of carrying the war into the
enemy's country, instead of wearying him out
by an obstinate and well-sustained defense Of |
his own territory. Much has been said by
Napoleon himself, as well as by his fana,ical
admirers, to throw the responsibility of his |
defeat at Waterloo upon the shoulders Of |
Grouchy, but this legendary explanation Of
or ushirg disaster is conclusively disposed Of |
by the fact that on the morning of the 18th, |
Wellington having sent to Butcher to ascer-
tain if he could sssist him with two corps on
the following day, the Prussian Marshal re-
Piled, II shall come to your assistance, not
with two corps only, but with my whole
army; and if the enemy does not attack us on
the 18th, we will do soourselves on the 10TH"
We have no room for further comment on
Mr.. Littre's very interesting pamphlet, neither
do we feel qualified to express an opinion on
the correctness or justice of his structures
upon the military genius of one of the greatest
masters Of the art Of war that ever lived. As
significant symptoms of the decay of NApo-
eonism in France, however. such publica-
ions as Littre's essay and Lanfreys history
lave an importance which is not to be meas j
lred alone by the reputation Of the writer's or
he merit of their respective works. They
re emphatically straws, which show that the t
Wind no longer blows in the direction Of the I
umpire. f,