Morning journal and courier., 1884-01-04
AnnihiIatton of Armies.

Archibald Forbes in the Fortnightly Review.I
 Than s'annihilation" there IS no more fa-
 vorite word with the critics of mauoeuvres
 and sham fights. In notice of mimic
 battle near Portsmouth in the London Times
 of the day write these lines occurs this ob-
 servat1on: "The guns of the fleet would
 have annihilated Colonel Thompson's ad-
 vance on the left along the sea-shore." In
 truth it is as hard thing to 'annlhl ate"
 body of troops as it is to kill a scandal In
 literary sense there Is scarcely record ot
 such a catastrophe If used in hgurat1ve
 sense to signify loss so great as to put the
 force suffering it hors de combat, there IS
 amazing testimony to the quantity of ''annl. .
 hilation" good troops have accepted without
 any such hapless result. Here are four 1n- stances taken almost at random. The Con
 federates, out of 6S, GOO men engaged at
 Gettysburg, lost 18,000, but Meade neio his hand from interfering with the1t order ly retreat. Of that battle the climax was the assault of Pickett's division, 'the flower of Virginia against Webb's front on the left of Cemetery Hill. Before the nerolc Armitaze called for the 'scold steef' ana car
 ried Gibson's battery with rush, the ol'l- sion had met with variety of experiences during it's mile-and. 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 sheiled, and the double canisters had been reserved for it's nearer approach. An enfilading fire tore through it's ranks the musketry blazed forth against it with deadly effect" This is the evidence
 of an eye witness on the opposite side, who adds, .'but it cane on magnifcently." Yes' it came on to cold steel and clubbed mus
 kets, and, after desperate struggle IL went
 back foiled, to the accompanlments which l had marked its advance. But heavy as were | ita losses. it was not ssannihilated. 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 Appomattox Court l house. At Mars Ia Tour, Alvensleben's two | infentry divisions, numbering certainly not l over IS, GOO men (for they had already lost basviIv at the Spicheren Bsrg) sacrificed l within few of ,OOO during the long sum-
 mer hours while they stood unsupported athgsrt the course of the French army re l treating from Metz. But so far were they l from being annihilated that forty-eight hours | later they made their presence acutely felt | on the afternoon of Gravelotte. In the
 July attack on Plevns, of the LOGO men | with whom Krudoener and Schahovskoy went in, they took out under 1000. One | regiment of the latter's command lost 725 killed and 1,200 wounded about 75 psr cent of it's whole number-yet the Russian regiment was not disorderly; and next day | the troops were in resoInte cohesion await l ing what might befaIl them. In the Sep | tember attack on Plevna. of "A, 900 Russo
 Roumanian infantry engaged, the losses | reached 18 900. Skobelef commanded lS,.
 900 men, and at the end of his two days | desperate fighting, not 10000 of these were
 left standing. But there was no annlhlla- | tion either literally or convenfionaily, 1T | one may use the term. The surv1Vors who had fought on the 11th and l2tn of Sep