The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-20
disaster. But with a Napoleon for an ad-

disaster. But with a Napoleon for an ad-
versary, would Moltke have adopted that
plan? I distinctly answer no. Therein
lies one of the secrets, one of the greatest
difficulties, in the practice of war. But.
under the circumstance as they existed
when the two Prussian armies crossed into
Bohemia, with many railways II tele-
graphs to assist in the operation. l believe
that Marlborough, Frederick the Great,
Wellington, and Napoleon, each and all
would have acted as Moltke did then.
But, urges the Book warrior, was Moltke
telegraph which connected him with each
of the two armies during their passage of
these mountains into Bohemia? Might not
the wires nave been easily cut along their
respective lines of communication? l
don't think 80, and if the routes tneyy, fol-
evident. But, if they had been cut
sin,e mounted messengers seS asu' riding hard
would take to cover twenty or
even thirty miles-would have suficed to
nave fully repaired and once more put
them in working order. Immediately be-
hind each army, say, for one or even for
two marches distance, there may have
been only a single wire connecting it with
the permanent lines OF the commercial and
n~ationa! telegraph system in rear. But
along that distance. it may be
safely ,,mo assun 'maossib i fo %oo tao en nanv
to have cut the wire, owing to the
number of troops then necessarily moving
along the roads so close to tho armies then
in motion. Moreover, until the break had
been repaired, the messages could be car
| lied over the gap by mounted mon, and re-
transmitted, either backwards or forwards,
from a temporary Office. l have seen the
| military operator easily carry in his pocket
| III, instrument Designed to meet this con-
| tingency. Messages could also be sent
over the gap whilst it was being repaired,
by means of ordinary flag signals.
In fact, both these armies were bound to
keep ODER. and consequently to protect their
respective lines of communication. IT those
lines were intercepted by the enemy, neither
| army could have advanced. for their food
and supplies came by them. They lay along
| railways that had to be carefully guarded
and protected. But the protection SO af-
| fordedto the railways was sufficient to guard
also the lines of telegraph along them. and
without which telegraph those railroads
themselves could not have been worked.
SO much rs regards the telegraph line
! immediately in rear of the armies COM
manaed by the crown prince and by Prime
lines of telegraph along which orders were
sent to those two armies from Berlin, and
| reports OF their movements were trans
mitted back to the Kings headquarters.
there were also the ordinary commerclal
lines OF electric telegraph, not only of
| Prussia and Saxony. but, l may
say, of all Europe. Before the
| crown princes army entered the noun
tains, 1t operated through u region closely
interlaced with telegraph wires erected for
commercial purposes. It would have re-,
| CURED n hostile army to have out, and held
| them cut, for any lengthof time. Distance
in acknowledgements as concerns the repe-
| tition of messages when transferred from
! one main line to nnother--is not an element
| in this problem. During one OF the great
| bli22ards in New York, which
temporarily destroyed the telegraph
lines aud stopped all the road
| traffic, the distant quarters OF the
| city communicated with Wall street through
| England, and vice versa, by sending mes
sages over the several Atlantic cables which
could he respectively reached from those
two severed parts of the city. SO close is
now the network of te,earaph lines IN all
| civilized counties, that il II or more lines
be cut in front, you can almost always send
! your message buck over some line, that will