Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1891-04-30
FAMOUS MARCHES.
Great Distances That Soldiers Have
Gone IN Time of War.


Gone IN Time of War.
The earliest and probably greatest
| march on record during ancient times
was that of the Lacedonian infantry from
Sparta to Marathon (490 B. CO. to take
part III the great battle at the latter
place. They marched 100 miles over an
almost roadless country in three days,
under weight which those who have
seen the helmets and breast plates OF
ancient Greece can easily estimate for
themselves; they came up too late, how
ever, and more than one historian has
limited that "the accident 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.
During the famous retreat of Keno
phon and his "Ten Thousand" through
Mesopotamia in 401 b. G. many forced
marches were executed, which equaled,
and if we take into consideration the
burning heat of the great central plain
and incessant attacks OF hostile force
which were added to the natural diff
ticulties of the way, even excelled the
march of the Spartans.
Less romantic, equally brilliant and
far greater in historical importance was
the march accomplished by Claudius
Nero during the second Punic war in
207 b. c., when, suddenly abandoning
his watch Of Hannibal's army in Apulia,
he fastened by forced marches into UNI
bria, defeated Hasdriibal on the Metau-
rus, 200 miles from his starting point.
and was back 10 ApgBi2 before Hannibal
had TING 70 discover als Absence. Dur
ing the entire @2zfcL Of 900 miles the
army did not step Oags for any length of
time; night and d4F EheF marched, tax
ing their hurried meals and resting by
relays IN the wagons 8Hg5ch the country
people provided, and which followed in
the rear Of the column.
In POI y. e. Hannibal himself accom-
piished an even more rapid though far
iess triumphant march in his retreat up
On Carthage after the fatal battle of
Zama. So quickly dld he march that he
reached Adrunetum, sixty-three miles
from the battlefield, between sunrise
and sunset. while the pursuing Romans
are said to have accomplished sixty
miles Of the journey in the same time
1t IS recorded that during one of the
latter campaigns in Gaul Caesars Tenth
Legion achieved similar feat.
Let us now jump from ancient history
to more recent times, in which we will
find these exploits fully equaled, strik-
ing as they are.
In his march from York to meet Will
liam the Conqueror at Hastings, the
Saxon King Harold covered 800 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 defeating
one body of Saxon rebels at Stafford, he
crushed another at York before even the
news of his coming reached them, and
, then shooting like a cannon ball across
the whole breadth of England he over
whelmed the invading WEIGH under
Blethwallon, near Chester
In 1896 Sultan Baiazet advanced with
such amazing speed on the Christian
confederates near Nikopolis that an old
historian speaks of it not as "a march,
but leap" The distance covered was
115miles in two days.
The celebrated march of Gustavus
Adolphus through northern Germany in
1851 is familiar to every student of his
tory, and gave rise to the saying that
"the Snow King, las he was called by
his enemies, had become an avalanche. u
In 1910 the Duke de Vendome com
pletely eclipsed Peterborough's work by
marching from Talavera, covering 16C
miles in four days, swimming the flooded
Henares, and utterly routing the I'M
prepared British at Brihuega.
Frederick, the Greats marches during
the seven years war were the wonder OF
all Europe. At one time, in 1889, 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 one of the
hottest days of the year without single
halt, nearly 800 of his men dropping
dead in the line of march from sheer ex-
haustion.
The Kalmuck Tartars, at the outset of
their memorable flight from Russia to
the Chinese frontier in 1771, accom-
pllshed the 3l5 miles between the Volga
and the Ural, over snow covered plain,
in seven days, an average of forty five
miles day.