The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-08-16
MOVING AN ARMY.
How II Was Done In Ancient and Modern
TiBues.

ItBuea.
Genghis Khan got across the world
twice somehow, and great Tartar armies
used to move about Russia ages before
roads were, and in regions where they
must have carried large portion of
their own supplies The Turkish armies
before Vienna must have been fed. The
Asiatic monarchs made war with huge
armies in roadless lands, and sometimes,
as in Persia, where no kind of requisition
would have produced supplies The
commissariat of Xerxes and Alexander,
and Baber and Nadir Shah, was supplied
somehow, and they all must have moved
through very desolate regions OF course,
the numbers attributed to Xerxes are
pure nonsense. Nobody ever did orever
will march the population of London as
an army straight on, from any place to
any place whatever. Still, large armies
have moved, very often in very desolate
regions, particularly in Asia, without
any of the difficulties being visible to
historians which seem to paralyze Lord
Chelmsford. We think, however, it will
always be found on examination that
there were certain peculiarities of such
armies not tolerated now; that nobody
cared who lived or who died, that the
wounded and sick persisted or got through
as they could, as Turkish soldiers do now;
that there was nothing to carry except
bare food, and very little of that, except
flour; each man carrying his own arms,
and there being little artillery; and
that scarcely any attempt was made at
wheeled wagons. Whatever had to be
carried was carried on camels, oxen, and,
above all, ponies, which were fed on any
thing, like the men, overdriven, starved,
and used up in great herds Requisition
did almost every thing nobody was paid;
the man who did not get along was
killed or left to die, and the track of the
army was marked by skeletons for
quarter of century after. The great
difficulties of modern army, expense
and humane feeling, were entirely abb
sent. We suppose Alexander cared for
his Macedonian Hoplites, but everybody
else might die, without attracting any
body's notice, except the vultures; and
if enough men are sacrificed, the elite
can be carried along. Hyder Ali said he
would have sent the Europeans to the
battles in palanquins, so sacrificing eight
non-ighters to each fighter; and in prin-
ciple that is what the Asiatc warriors
did do, aud so did the small Spanish
armies which conquered the New World
If regiment used up ten thousand In
dams in a march-Mr. Helps put the
figures far higher-wbat did it matter?
Give each European in Zululand couple
of slaves and a pony, and leave artillery
behind, and the force would get along
somehow easily enough. And then
there is the element of time. The fright
full expense of campaigning makes
moderns impatient, but the old warriors
and the Asiatic warriors knew no more of
time than they did of clocks, and marched
as the Chinese General in kashgar does
now, as if the proper way of spending life
was to keep marching. He does not care
if two hundred miles take him two years,
and on one occasion, if we remember
Mr.. Boulger's story Alright, made a halt
just to SOW and reap cropl We cannot
but suspect, if few engineers and traffic
managers, and people accustomed to pop
ular demonstrations would give their
minds to it, the movement of armies
might be easier; but the best soldiers de-
clare that supplies must be carried on
wheels drawn by animals, and if they
are SO carried, transport viii. always be
most formidable difficulty.