Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1891-06-10

Archibald Forbes contributes TO The
Nineteenth Century some of the results
Of his Investigations into warfare and
battle campaigns. He tells us plainly in
the beginning that modern fighting,
compared with that of the past, is
feeble and dilatory. He says that the
first five and half decades Of the cent
ury were smoothbore decades. Then
the old smoothbores were changed into
rifles, while the past twenty-five years
constitute the breechloading period.
With such improvement in firearms.
with railway transportation and machine
gunnery, the fighting of the present day
ought to be all that is short, sharp and
decisive. So far from this being the
case, however, the fact remains that in
the old srnoothbore period battles were
shorter, sharper and more decisive than
they are now, and in spite of inferiority
OF weapons more men were killed than
are now, and since killing is the object
of war. the warfare of fifty years ago
must therefore be considered superior to
that of today.
Campaigns were conducted with celer-
ity in the smoothbore period, whereas
they are now dragged out to tedious
length. The Franco-German war lasted
81 months, hut Napoleon conquered all
Austria in % months In the Russo
Turkish war of 1S77-S it took the Rus
slams "eight weary months" to fight their
way from the Danube to Constantinople,
but fifty years earlier a Russian general,
Diebitch, marched from the Danube to
the Egean sea in 81 months, fighting as
he went. The feeble and dilatory mod
ern warfare is nowhere more strongly IL
Illustrated than in the reduction of fort
tresses. In this respect the comparisons
made by Forbes are as ''odious" as in the
case of the smoothbore and rife period
Mr.. Forbes does not pretend to explain
the reason of this degeneracy. He passes
to the more agreeable task of picturing
the coming warfare.
With the magazine and machine guns
and changed fighting methods the Of
fensive will get the worst of it at the
hands of the passive defensive Maya
zine and machine guns also seem to
sound the knell Of possible employment
of cavalry in battle. French cavalry
never got within yards of German in
fantry, even in loose order, and the mag
azine or repeating rifle held reasonably
straight will stop the most thrusting
cavalry that ever heard the charge
sound"
AS to the fortress of the future, which
would play so important part in a war
between any two of the states of Europe,
Mr.. Forbes writes:
The fortress of the future will probably be in
the nature of an fntrenched camp. The In
terror of the position win provide casemate ac-
commodation for an army of considerable
strength. Its defenses will consist of q circle
at intervals of about 600 yards, of permanent
redoubts which shall be invisible at moderate
ranges, for infantry and machine guns, the
garrison OF each redoubt to consist of q half
battalion Such a work was in 1886 constructed
at Chatham in thirty-one working days, 20 hold
q garrison of 800 men housed in classmates built
In concrete, for less than $500, and expert
ments prove that il would require a "prohibi-
serious damage by artillery fire. The support
ing defensive armament will consist OF q power
full artillery rendered mobile by means of
tramroads, this defense supplemented by field
force carrying on outpost duties and manning
field works guarding the intervals between the
redoubts. Advanced defenses and exterior OBJ
atacles of as formidable character as possible
will be the complement of what in effect win
be an immensely elaborated Plevna, which,
properly armed and fully organized, will full
fill all the requirements of the defense" while
possessing important potentialities of offensc.
In the event OF Franco-German war, II, in
stead OF the immensely expensive Gordon of
fortresses with which the French have lined
their frontier. they had constructed. say, three
snch intrenched camp fortresses as have been
sketched, each Quartering 5000 men, it would
appear that they would have done better for
themselves at far less cost. Each intrenched
position containing a field army 5000 strong
would engross u beleaguering host OF 10000
men. The positions of the type outlined are
claimed to be impregnable; they could contain
supplies and munitions for at least a year. de-
tanning around them for that period 10000 OF
the enemy. No European power except Russia
has soldiers enough to spare so long such
mass OF troops standing fast. and simultane-
ously prosecute the invasion of first rate
power with approximately equal numbers.
France at the cost OF 10000 men would be hold
ing supine on her frontier double the number
OF Germans-surely no disadvantageous trans
action.