Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-06-27
War; Work.

then In machines for the Staying Of
men would soon make war game so
deadly that kings and nations would
cease TO play at IL. The dream was a
delusion. Improvement in arms en-
courage instead of discouraging war
fare, as they are followed Invariably
by decrease in slaughter. IL is not
necessary to go back to the battles of
antiquity, when the fighting was hand
to hand and no quarter was shown ex-
cept with an eye to profit; TO the merci-
less and brutal days of Canine, when
10000 out of $4,000 Romans fell; of
Zama and the Metaurus, when the
Carthagenian armies were destroyed; /;
of Hastings, when the victorious Nor
mans lost 10000 men out of 10000, or
of Cressy, when $4,000 out of 10000
French soldiers we're slain. Consider
the work of the smooth-bore, muzzle-
loading musket used in the great wars
of Marlborough, Frederick and Napo-
leon, in conjunction with smooth-bore
artillery.
II we leave out of account such bat
ties as Vittoria, Rossbach, or Leuthen,
which were speedily decided by tactical
skill or obvious and overwhelming SUI
periority IN numbers, at Zorndorf of
$4,000 Russians IL 1886 were killed or
wounded, and 81 ,531 of $4,000 Rus
slams, or 80 and 43 per cent. At Aus
terlitz the loss was 134 per cent of the
force engaged; at Jena, IL; at Prague,
ia; at Friedland, 81; at Waterloo, (of
the English), nearly the same; at
Marengo, 23I; at Borodino, so; at
Eylan and Salamanca, nearly 344. Ac-
cording to the figures given by Colonel
Cooke, the average loss of these ten
great battles was nearly as may be 25
per cent of the forces engaged. After
the Crimean war the rifle came into
vogue. The Italian war of 1859
was fought with it, and the Austrians
used it at Konigratz, where the Prus-
SLAMS employed the breech-loader. At
Magenta less than nine per cent. of the
men engaged were killed and wounded;
at Solferino the percentage was almost
precisely the same, and yet these were
pre-eminently "soldiers' battles" de-
cided by "hammer and tongs fighting"
At Konigratz the combat lasted nine
hours, and the total loss, with rifles on
one side and breech-loaders on the
other, was not quite seven per cent.
After this the breech- loader came into
use everywhere and the French brought
out their mitralleuses. The breech-
loader was three times as accurate in
fire as the old Brown Bess, eight times
more rapid and seven times longer in
range, not to mention the fact that it
prevented excited men from perform
ing such feats as ramIuing home
one cartridge ball-formost and sending
home dozen more on top OF that un-
der the belief that all thirteen had been
fired at the enemy-yet what was the
result in the war of 1870? Taking the
battles fought while France had an
army we find that at Woerth the loss
was thirteen and one-half per cent, at
Spicheren eleven and one-fourth, at
Gravelotte not quite nine, at Sedan less
than eight and at the bloody field of
Mars-la-Tours something under sixteen.
In other words we have this table:
Per cent.
Killed in the days of sword, bow and spear 80
Killed in the days of smooth-bores 49,. %
Killed in the days of rifles and breach
leaders. to IL
When we come to look into the mat
ter in detail the figures are quite as in
structive. We hear much about the
frightful effect of modern artillery, es-
peoially when massed. yet in the total
German loss in killed and wounded in
1901, of Is, 241 killed only 665 were
slain by shells, and of 20, ,636 wounded
only 1889 were hit by these missiles.
The sabre is about as grand--or as con-
temptible-a fraud. With swords and
the butt-ends of muskets, which always
play so terrible part in romantic his
tories, there were only six Germans
killed and PIP wounded in the whole
war, though it was a war full of brill
liant cavalry charges by the cuirassiers
and dragons, while the lance and bay
onets killed no more than 1S9 men and
wounded no more than 574. In other
words, of 100 men killed outright or
dying of wounds received in battle one
is killed by blow, cut or thrust and
three are slain by shell or cannon ball.
The effect of bayOnet and cavalry
charges and artillery fire, therefore.
may be set down as chiefly moral.
OF course there is an explanation of all
this. The increased power of modern
weapons has been in a great meas
ure neutralized by the loose order of
fighting; the modern soldier, too, is
taught not to stand up boldly and face
his foe, but to crouch down and avail
himself of all possible shelter. 1t is at
least an open question whether there is
not slow but steadily decadence going
on in the warlike qualities of all mod
ern civilized nations and whether, now
that individuality is allowed to assert
itself in tho extended order of fighting,
the military. machine of civilization has
not been weakened. Already a Ger
man author has recorded the fact that
an army nowadays loses its best men
first, because the bravest work farthest
ahead in the skirmish line. The ten
dency has been so uniform in one direc-
tion that it looks very much as if we
should yet come to inventing arms of
precision so deadly that the rate of NOR
tality in pitched battle would be
good deal less than in city in sickly
season. While on land new and
looser order of fighting has been intro
duced offering difficult target. and
the soldier has been impressed with
sense of danger, taught to shun it and
allowed some option in doing so, the
improvement of weapons in naval fight
ing has done away with naval engage
ments.
Since the Kearsarge sank the Ala
bama and the Kaiser at Lissa rammed
the Re d. Itolia and sank the Palestro
there has not been even skirmish be-
tween the fleets of any of the great
naval powers, though Russia and Tur-
key and France and Germany have
been at war; and we may rest assured
that after the engagement of Iquique,
in which all the Peruvian and Chiiian
vessels concerned seem to have gone
down, commanders everywhere will be
confirmed in their caution. 1t might
be thought that with accurate arms in
the hands of trained soldiers a consid-
erable percentage of hits might be
made, but incomplete as are the statis-
tics on this point they show that fewer
bullets now have their billets than ever