The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1879-08-23
LOSSES IN WAR.
Comparing Tfhe Us.usslfieslin Ancient and
Modern WARFARE.

II Modern WARFARE.
II N x. World
Il Ut was one of the dreams of the friend
of peace thirty years ago that the vas
improvements making even then in ma
chimes for the staying of men woul'
soon make war q game go deadly tina
kings and nations would cease to plays
It. The dream was tdelusion. Inn
provements in arms encourage instead o
discouraging warfare, Is they are fol
lowed invariably by fecreaseiin slaugh
ter. 1t is mot necessary to go back II
tine BATTLES of antiquity, when the fight
ing was hand to hand and no quarter wal
shown except with an eye to profit; ttf
the merciless and brutal days of Canine
when 10000 thousand out of 10000
Romans fell; of Zama and Metaurus,
when the Oarthaginian armies were de.
stroyed of Haatings, when the victorious
Normans lost 10, 900 menout of 10000,
or of Uressy, when 10000 out of 100, 900
French soldiers were slain. Consider
the work of the old smoothsbore, muzzle-
loading musket, used in the great WAITS
of Marlborough, Frederick and Napoleon,
in conjunction with smooth bored artil.
lery. III we leave out of account such
battles as Wit Tia, Rossbachor 14erthe,
which was speedily decided by tactical
skill or obvious and overwhelming snpe
riority in numbers, at Zorndorf of 81, 900
Russians II 1886 were killed Or wounded,
and 81 ,5S1 of $4,000 Russians, or S5 and
43 per cent. At Auaterlitz the loss was
49, per cent of the force engaged; at
Jena, IT,; at Prague, 1744; at Friedland,
q at Waterloo (of the English, nearly
the same; at Marengo, 2344 lat Borodino,
81; at Eyiau and Salamanca, nearly
81. According to the figures given.
by Colonel Cook, the average.
loss in these ten great battles
was as nearly as may be 25 per
cent of the forces engaged. After the
Orimean war the rife came into vogue.
The Italian war of 1859 was fought
with it, and the .Auatrians used it at
Koniggratz, where the Prnssians ems
ployed the breech.loader. AT Magenta
less than 8 per cent. of the men en-
gagged were killed and wounded at Sol
ierino the percentage was almost pre-
cisely the same, and yet these were pre-
"soliiens' battles" decided
BY "hammersand+tongs" fighting. AT
Koniggratz the combat lasted ninehours,
and the total loss, with rifles on one
.itie and breech- loaders on the other, was
not quite q per cent. After this the
came into nse everywhere
md the French brought out their mi
.raillenses. The breech.loader was three
lines as accurate in fire as the old
Brown EBess, eight times more rapid and
even times iiongeriin range, mot to men.
ion the TACT that it prevented excited
men iron performing such frats as ram
ding home cartridge ball-forenost and
ending down a dozen more con top of
hat under the belief that all thirteen
lad been fired at the ensmy--yet what
vas the result in the war of 1907 TAX
nc the battles fought while France had
ny army, we find that at Woerth the
oss was 49, per cent, at Spicheren III
It Graveiotte otanite 8, at Sedan less
han 8, and at the bloody field of Mars.
aTonr something under 16. In other
words we have this table: II
M, Percent
Tiled In the d .ys Of smooth bsfes
liiled In the days of rifles and Brsech- II
to-
When we come Ito look into the matter
ntietail the figures are quite as iinstrnc-
i've. Welhear much about thefsightful
feet of modern artillery, especially
then massed, yet in the total German
osain killed and wounded i'm l187O-71, of
8.241 killed only 1886 were slain fby
hells, and off,, 1886 wounded only A $3.50
these missiles. The sabre lis
bout as grand--or as contemptible--a
rand. With swords and the lbntt,ends
( lmaskets, which always plays sotterri-
lie a part in romantic histories, they
sere only ak Germans killed and 2l2Il
rounded lin the whole war, though
was a war full of brilliant cavalry
the cuirasaiers and dragons.
shile the lance and lbayonet killed mo
more than 189 men and wounded mol
aore thar eE7a n, r.thax xuzo..ls .xf 1onH