The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-06-30
THE NEW ORLEANS DEMOCRAT, SUNDAY. JUNE 90 1878

the opposing commanders were wont to de.
clare an armistice pending search for level
| field to fight on In that day and age of the
military art the selection of q series of hills
like gettysburg, or patch of woods-pasture
| like SpottSylvania for a battlefield, would I'M
doubtedly have formed good and sufficient
cause for cashiering a commander on the
ground OF barbarism In tactics
| Thus we observe that
| WASHINGTON AND CLINTON
had been moving in gradually converging and
nearly parallel lines across the Jersey Plains,
| ever since the evacuation of Philadelphia,
watching out for proper battlefield. Gin
ton, who happened to find the first one that
seemed suitable to the purpose, halted there
and, no doubt, after the chivalric fashion Of
that day, sent private flag of truce to his
adversary to notify him of their mutual good
luck. They say the world is growing better,
but / don't believe it: least of all in military
affairs. Those who hold to the pleasing the
DRY that war Is growing more and more hui
name are respectfully advised to compare the
heightened tourney of Fontenoy with the
beastly rough-and-tumbleo of Waterloo. or the
staid and solemn ioust of MndeD with the
savage battte OF the bayOnet and musket- butt
at Inkermann.
For example, you observe that at Mon
mouth, which is described on the books as one
OF the best fought battles of the revolution ;
there were halts for refreshments, and, a
British colonel, who was ordered to charge
boggy ground in his front which might disar-
range the pastebOard formation of his troops,
made long detOur in order to preserve his
alignment and arrived at the point of opera
t1OnS just in time to learn that his army had
been handsomely defeated In the interim and
was IN full retreat Probably, however, the
modification OF mere defeat was cOnsUled by
the aesthetic reflection that it had been done
strictly according to rule, and that Sir Henry
Clinton had been able to hold his watch In his
hand during the entire engagement You re-
member the famous saying of the rugged
Butcher, to the effect that Prussian officer
would as soon think Of fighting without his
sabre as an English general without his
watch.
But for all that there were plenty Of battles
in the revolution where watches were not in
demand. Bemis Heights or Saltwater, where
poor Arnold broke his arrest and hurled the
tattered plow- boys of the Upper Hudson
and Mohawk valleys at the Threats of Bur
goyne's veterans and Eutaw Springs, where
De halb held fragment of the Maryland
line with broken bayonets and dubbed mus
kets to be butchered with him in their tracks;
and Kings Mountain, and Oriskany and the
Cowpens, were battles fought in the proper
style OF a new country where watches were
luxury and leather stocks unknown. Be this
as IT may, Monmouth was fought strictly &C.
cording to
THE RULES OF THE RING.
Lee retreated in proper and polite form at
the outset and then, at the end, Sir Henry
Clinton took to his heels like a fine old British
getftleman as soon as the fight appeared like
~ to degenerate intOa shameful Strengthening
match, Washington seems to have behaved
improperly at one period of the action by aC-
costing his retreating subordinate Lee, with
FudenesS and demanding to know what in
HI was the cause of this ili-timed prudence"
But the Father of his Country subsequently
repaired this improperly by desistiRg from
pursuit at time when energetic action in
hat ftn.Yin Il
raised his beaten adversary and outraged all
the delicate considerations recognized as
fundamental by the military men of that
pasteb0ard epoch
But the truce of a hundred years has fallen
upon
THE GROUND OF MONMOUTH,
and while its brave dead have rotted calmly.
the land born in their blood has gone on from
glory to glory OF progress until at last is
reached that millennal stage at which O
Fraudulent President is to take part In cele-
brating it's centenary Surely the world
moves and men are not as primitive as they
were. Sam Cox will deliver an Grafton, in
which the Latin verbosity Of Cicero is at
tempered with the Greek grace of Hschines,
upon the hallowed ground where his great
grandfather, whose name of Samuel Sullivan
he bears, faced the Kings German grenadiers
@ century ago OF that day but one real relic
fingers; the quaint, little old Episcopal chapel
where they brought stricken British colonel
anu lcI nun ule luSIue Ufle GnAHCel rail-. 1h6
oldest inhabitant maintains that the stains
of the gore that dripped from the side of
the dying red-coat are still visible
in the grain of the white ash pIanks of the
flooring, underneath the faded carpet but
have never had the curiosity to look for my
self. To avoid argument with the oldest in
habitant concede that the stains are there l
never like to argue with the oldest inhabitant
concerning matter which he has repeated
so many times that he has cometOfteIieve if
himself and would hobbIe half mile out of
his way any time to avoid being confronted
with ocular proofs of his mistake Sufficient
unto the day was to go and stand on the spot
where they laid the British colonel and reflect
that the blood that stained the floor was the
"blood of all the Towards, of Carlisle"
a. G. B.
THE PAN-JUDAIC CONFERENCE.