Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-08-26
THE GREAT (t>iLItI.
COmparisOmOf the Armies With
 the Great Ones of Europe.
A MOST REMARKABLE WAR.


 A MOST REMARKABLE WAR. Battles Not Exceeded In Fierceness Dur
 ing This Century The Lives Lost Would
 Have PeOpled Great Cities and Furnished
 the Bone and Sinew of Great States.
 Enormous Cost of the War In Treasure.
 The South Devoured Itself In the Strug- gle-The North Expended the Full Value
 of All the Seeded States.
 lCopyrEht, 1885, by American Press Associa-
 tion.
 Tho twenty ninth annual encampment of the Grand Army of tho Republic at Louisville, Sept. 9 to II, will be an event of unusual interest. The reunion will tako place in the leading city of border state, whose people were in both armies, and tho whole nation, north and south alike, can but rejoice at this op- portunity for former antagonists to shake the fratcrnal hand.
 For nation of busy people the Amer jeans devote a surprising amount of at tentiOn to a War that ended 80 years ago In the minds of the unfortunate few who are not alivo with patriotic feelings and instincts this may appear childish. Men ill whom emotion is wanting or is under full control would wish to see others as calm and philO- sophical as they themselves aim to be. But this sentiment of vcneratiOn seems
 
 this new world can scarcely be said to be farfctChCd or 0vCrdOnc Both i'll the classic and popular form of song and story the deeds of martial heroes have been celebrated since the dawn of liter aturc. Poems and dramas having war for their themes take deepest hold upon the mind and heart.
 Remove the war element from history, and who would read it? Tho fact is that tho American civil war was one of the great, of the very, very few great, wars of modern times. It came upon the country as d new experience. It was be- licVrd that it would be short and trivi- al; it developed into one of the ficrccst and hluodrst of the era, SD that men made haste to forget it when it was over. But it involved the whole cOun- try, interested the entire population and shook socictysfrum the foundation up; hence memories of it are hereditary, and interest in it cannot die out until the great event iS UvCrShadoWcd by one still greater On the battlefield enough men wrre eshot dead to furnish tho whole male population of some of the chief cities and ,f somo old and populous states. The treasure expended would buy out two of tho richest states i'll the Union today, and the lives lost ill the War, including deaths from all causes, would furnish tIo entire male popula tiOn of tho greatest city in tho land to- day.
 Great Armies of History.
 Franco EaS been the ono famous fight ing nation If the century. Her wars have filled the annals of European peo- pies with themes for the brightest pens, with pictures that challenge those of classic ages as subjects for the artist to place ill enduring stone.
 Tako Napoleon from the stage of the world between 1900 and 1915 and what remains: In th0So 15 years of war Franco lost 5000, 900 men. The north alone lost equally ill proportion from 1861 to 1NG1. During her periods of greatest martial activity Franco never put into the field at any one stage more mon than the north had under arms the last twelve months .G the war; and the average in each of 'IEc years from 1862 to lS65, inclusive, was about tho same as in France in h"r years of warfare. But i'll order tu got a comprehensive view of the magnitude of the conflict one must go h,A und the figures idpnti- fled With any s%!gle nation for paral lrl
 On tho battlefield of BurOdino, long considered ono of tho blOOdicSt ill mod ern times, thcrO were 210, 900 men en- gagged, representing the powerful na- tiOnS of France and Russia At Gcttys- burg there were lGS, GOO mon present, 1 all of ono nation, for a civil War means | the conflict of a divided household. At | the very same time there were ll5, ,00O men cunttnding at NiCkSburg. and at | Port Hudson and Helena, above and be- ] low NiCkSburg, thero were 50, ,0O0 more | of these same brethren of one household | battling for control of tho great river. | This means. then, that while Napoleon, | invading Russia. and the cZar, stem ming the tide, mustered in all 2J0, ,000 l men, the American nation, i'll the mas | terly struggles over Washington and the great highway of the west, brought in to action 333, 900 soldiers
 But there is parallel more startling still A year after Borodino the allied peoples arose ill their might to wipe out | Napoleon and France. There were six of the greatest misunderstanding out Aus tria-involved, and it was, for France, and also for her enemies, Russia, Eng land, Prussia, Spain and Sweden, q war to the death. They met at Leipsic and fought three days, bringing to the bat | tletield the enormous muster of 465, 900 men. One year after Gettysburg Amer ica' belligerent sons, the blue and the ! gray rallied for the grand encounter in | front of Richmond and before Atlanta. For 100 days they fought steadily over the course between the Rapidan and tES James; for 100 days there was thrust and parry within the mountain glens and the thicket passes of Georgia, and the armies ill the field marshaled under the l banners of Grant and Lee, of Sherman and Johnston, numbered half a million of men, more than the six ancient na- tions of Europe brought together with six ancient crowns hanging ill the bal ance Neither were the Americans want ing in those qualities which ill warriors deeply excite the veneration of those who review their deeds. They fought to tho limit of human endurance, and their record on the battlefield compare favorably with that of modern Euro pean soldiers.
 Fierceness of the Combat.
 Following are 13 notable battles 0 the century, where the loss i'll killec and wounded exceeded 10 per cent O