Arkansas weekly mansion., 1884-02-09
AnnihilatiOn Of Armies.

Than ''anninilatiOn' there IS no IN "
favoritc word with the critic. of rnan-
Il uvrcs and sham-hghtS. In a notice of
Il mimic battle near Portsmouth in the
London Times OF the day l write these
lines occurs this observation: The
guns of the fleet would have annihiiat"d
Colonel Thompson 5 advance on the left
along the sea-shOre.' In truth it IS
aS hard a thing to ..annii:ilatc' a body of
troops as it is to kill q scandal. In a
literal sense there Is scarcely 4 record
of such a catastrophe; if used in Il hgur-
ative sense to -gnify a los so great as
to put the force suffering it horS de com
Lat, there is amazing testimony to the
quantity of ..annihilation good troops
have acceDt without any such haplcsS
result. Here are four instances taken
almost at random. The -Confetierates,
oit of 6S.OU men engaged at Gcttys-
burg lost 1900, but Meade held his
hand from interfering with their orderly
retreat. Of that battle the climax was
the assault of Pickett 5 division. ''the
Tower of Virginia. against Webb's
front on the left of Cemetery Hill. Be
fore the heroic Armitagc called for the
..cold stecl'' and carried Gibbons bat
tcrv with q rush. the div ision had fnet
with Il variety of experiences during its
milc-and-a-half advance over the
smooth ground up to the crest. When
it first came into sight it had been piled
with solid shot; then halfway across it
had been vigorously shelled, and the
double canisters had been reserved Tor
its nearer approach. An enfilaiing
fire tore through its ranks; the mus
kerry blaicd TO tn against it with
deadly effect This is the evidence of
an eye witness on the opposite side,
who adds. '.but it came on ma"nlii-
Gently. les it came on to cold stceE
and dubbed muskcts, and, afI cr Il des =
rerate struggle it went back foiled, to
the Accomplishments which had marked
| its advance. But, heavy As Were its
| losses. it was not ''annhilated. Pick
ett's division survived to be once and
again thorn in the Federal side before
the final day of fate came to it at APP
pomattoN Courthouse. AT Mars la
Tour, AlyenSleben's two infantry divi-
sions, numbering certainly not over
l., 900 men (for they had already lost
hea, ilv at the Spichcren Berg) sacri-
feed within a few of 1000 during the
long summer hours while they stood un
SUI ported athwart the course of the
French Army retreating from He.z.
But so far were they from being ami
hilated that forty eight hours later they
made their presence acutely felt on the
attack on Plevna, of the 5000 men.
with whom krud ncr and Schaho' skoy
went in. they took out under 21,oup.
Gne reg 2iment of the latter's command
lost 725 killed and LOO wounded -
about 75 per cent. of its whole number
- vet the Russian retirement was not
disorderly: and next day the troops
We're in resolute cohesion ava ting what
might be:all them. In the September
attack on PIevna, of 1900 Russo-Rou
manan infantry engaged, the losses
reached 1900. Skobeleff commanded
l., 900 men, and at the end of his two
days des: crate fighting, not 100 Of
these were lett standing. But there
was no annihilat on, either literally or
conventionally, if one may use he
term. The survivors who had fought
on the 18th and 18th of September were
ready at the word to go in aga n on the
18th: and how they marched ACROSS the
PalkanS later is one of the marvels Of
modern militSny history.-drchi a.
Fortes, IN Fiortnighly Recie'c.