The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-04-30

French, so did Shiloh to the north.
Shiloh was saved by the opportune ar
rival Of division Of supports when all
seemed lost; SO. too, Marengo. The van
quished at Marengo were the assailants,
and theirsRlan carried to the point Of rout-
ing their opponents; just so at Shiloh.
The defenders at Shiloh fought stubbornly
and gave ground inch by inch as the de-
fende1s did at Marengo. At Shiloh the
commander Of the assailants fell at the
moment when victory seemed within his
grasp, and at Marengo the commander of
the assailants left the field owing to fatigue
and feabseness when victory was all but
certain. Finally, Shiloh gave the cause of
the victoTs a wonderful impetus; SO also
did Marengo, and as Shiloh made the fame
of a Budding general whose previous sue
cesses had been transitory, so Marengo
doomed Napoleon as imperator and gen
eral wasan his lucky star was his chief
capital. From a personal point of view
Grant had to win Shiloh in order to get
into the race for glory with such seniors as
Mcclellan, Buell. and Halleck, and Ma
poleon had to win Marengo to compete
with his well intrenched rivals, Mereau
and Massena. Had Shiloh ended as at one
time seemed inevitable, Grant would prob
ably have dropped into obscurity, and the
same with Napoleon had Marengo gone
against him.
Marengo-fought June ID, 1so0-was a
forlorn hope for Napoleon, although not for
France. His success in Italy, in the cam
pnign of 1876, and his campaign in Egypt
made him first consul, but that appoint
ment removed him from the army. In
plain English, he had been shelved so far
as active military leadership was concerned.
In opening the campaign against Austria,
in 1900, he had either to give the place Of
honor to Moreau or Massena, by sending
their araies to the field, or to create new
army if he would lead himself, eve 1omi-
nally. As first consul he was commander
in chief-muoh as the president of the
United States is-and might accompany
an army in the field, but not actually
onAand it. To accompany the armies
under Moreau or Massena would be to yield
the glory of an achievement to other hands
At least this is the view of his critics.
Bat as usually happens in crisis. the
public had no time to note the purely per-
sond events. Austria took the initiative
France was IN danger. Who was to lead
the rescue? Moreau's army, 10000 strong,
was guarding the frontier on the Rhine
Massena was as Genoa guarding the pass
from Italy Into southeastern France below
the Apennines. He had 10000 troops in
Genoa and 5000 under Gen. Suchet on the
strip of frontier north Of Nice toward the
Alps. The Austrians attacked Massena
with 10000 men, besieging Genoa with
$4,000, confronting Suchet's frontier guard
with 10000, and leaving the remaining 40.
0eo in garrison guarding communications.
OF course it touched a sore spot in Ma
poleon to have northern Italy, which he
had wrested from Austria in 1875, again
brought under her domination and made
the base Of operations against France Be-
sides, it was among the probabilities that
the Austrians in Italy would break through
Massena's ranks, turn the southeastern
provinces from their allegiances to repub-
Neanism, and then let loose upon the
Rhenish frontier an army Of LOO, 600 men to
overcome Mneeau.
The campaign was opened vigorously by
the Austrians in Italy in April, 1900, and
Napoleon needed to act promptly. For
some time there had existed, on paper, a
body of troops known as the Grand Army
of Reserve of France. 1t was byword
throughout Europe, and was freely lam
pooned at home and abroad aa consisting
of corporal's guard of decrepit old men
and of weak stripings. Napoleon secretly
fostered this view of it, and also secretly
assembled at Dion, in eastern France,
s., 900 of the despised reserves under gen.
erals personally devoted to the First Consul.
On the 18th of May he set this army in mo-
zion to cross the Alps for destination I'M
known except to himself. Engineers re-
ported that the Alps were 'bareIy passa-
bic" for artillery. 1T is passsble; let us
Etart, thenr' exclaimed Napoleon. Rations