Mohave County miner., 1891-04-25
SOME FAMOUS MARCHES.
INTERESTING HISTORY FOR oLb
VETERANS:
Pity Miles Day for Several conse6ahts
Days Has Several Times Been
Accomplished by Armies
All ef Infantry.

var Ia, BY no means what II was In
blden tltnes armies are not now kept
marching right and day In order 10
defeat some plan Of the enemy, but are
taken from point 10 point on the rail-
roads, and instead OF being 30 worn
out and iatigued when they come up
| with ths enemy that they actually in
yite defeat they are as fresh as ddislSs.
fha men who fought In the days before
steam power we've hardy set how
| ever, aud during frequent wars 5xes
suted many wonderful marches.
The earliest aud probably greatest
march on record during ancient timer
was that Of the Lncedonlan infantry
from Sparta 70 Marathon (460 b. C,)
W tilte pai't III the great battle OF the
latter place. fheynaroAgd $50 miles
over an almost roadless country In
three days, ifn4er a weight which those
who have seen'rhe helmets and breast
plates OF ancient Greece can easily es-
innate for themselves; they came up
tiio late, however, and mdt6 than one
| histdrian Has limited that 1.-THE incident
happened on purpose" Contemporary
authors have BEEN more generous,
however, and have given them credit
for having honestly done their utmost
to arrive on time.
Durirg ,hs farnons retreat OF Keno
| phon aud his Ten Thousand" Through
| Mcsopotamia In 40l Is. C., many forced
marches were executed. which cqualed,
| and II we take into consideration the
burning heat Of the great central plain
aud iiie,issaat attacks df a hostile force
which wore added I'd the natural diff.
| ficulties Of the way, even excelldd the
] march Of the Spartans.
Less romantic, equally brilliant and
far greater in historical importance
was the march accomplished by
Claudihs Nero during tho second Punic
war in 207 Il. G., when, suddenly
abandoning his watch Of Hannibal's
| army In Apulia, he hastened by forced
| marches into UmbrfBs defeated Has
drubal, on the Metatirus, goo miles
from his starting point and was back
in Apulia before Hannibal had time 70
discover his absence. During the en-
tire march Of 400 miles the army did
not stop once for any length OF time;
night and day they marched taking
their hurried meals and resting by re-
lays In the wagons which the country
people provided, and which followed
in the rear OF the column.
In POI B. c., Hannibal himself ac-
complished an even more rapid, though
e.. ,iaaVs a., l.fo t.r-
treat upon Carthage after the fatal
battle Of ZGma SO quickly did he
march that he reached Adrumetum,
sixty-three miles from the battlefield,
between sunrise and sunset, while the
pursuing Romans are said to have ac-
| complished sixty miles Of the journey
in the same time. II Is recorded that
during one OF the latter campaigns In
Gaul Cesar's Tenth legion achieved
similar feat.
Let us now Jump from ancient his
| tory 10 moro recent times, In which
we will find these exploits fully equaled,
striking as they are.
In his march from York TO meet
William the Conqueror at Hastings,
the Saxon King Harold covered 220
miles In five days-a most remarkable
| feat when we remember what the
roads Of Saxon England were like.
A few years later William himself
| equaled this feat. when, after defeat
ing one body Of Saxon rebels at Stat
ford, he crushed another near York
before even the news OF his coming
reached them, and then shooting like
cannon ball across the whole breadth
of England he overwhelmed the invad-
ing Welch under Blethwallon, near
| Chester.
In 1896 Sultan Baiazet advanced
with such amazing speed on the Chris
tian confederates near Nilsopolis that
an old historian speaks of 1t not az "a
march. but leap" The distance
covered was 1l5 miles in two days.
The celebrated march OF Gustayus
Adolphus through northern Germany
in 1851 is familiar 10 every student OF
history. and gave rise 10 the saying
that ''the Snow King Gas he was called
by his enemies) had become an av-
alanche."
Lord Peterborough's wonderful
| march over the Catalan mountains for
$50 miles in the depth OF the severe
| winter Of 1705-8 has been immortalized
by Pope's graceful lines to him as one
who
Tames the stubborn genius OF tho plain
Almost as quickly as he conquered Spain.
In I7l0 the Due de Vendome COM
pletely eclipsed Peterborough's work
by marching from Talavera, covering
100 miles in four days, swimming the
nooued Henares. and utterly routing
the unprepared British at Brihuega.
Frederick the Greats marches dur
ing the seven years war were the won
der Of all Europe. At one time, in
| 1880, he marched his army for fifty
hours with only two intervening halts
of two hours each. Again in 1850, he
| kept his army marching for ten hours
on ore OF the hottest days in the year
without single halt, nearly 300 OF his
men dropping dead In the line OF march
| from sheer exhaustion.
The Kalmuck Tartars, at the outset
of their memorable fight from Russia
10 the Chinese frontier in l77l, accom-
piished the $50 miles between the Vol
ga and the Trial, over a snow-coyered
plain, In seven days, an average OF
| forty five miles day.
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