Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-04-01
MODERN WARFARE.
long Campaigns VIII Give Place to
Single But Decisive Encounters.


Single But Decisive Encounters.
Summing up the whole question, as
between any two European peace
trained armies of the present day, the
extreme percentage of loss to be an
tieipated, locally, i. e., on particular
brigades and divisions, viii not exceed
one in three (of which one is killed to
four wounded), whereas for whole
armies of a quarter of million and
over one in ten is the very outside pun
ishment we may reasonably expect.
Compared to the slaughter OF the
Seven Years war, and the best con-
tested of the Napoleonic period, this
is very little indeed. At Zorndorf the
Russians left 21 900 out of 50 900 on the
ground, and this is undoubtedly the
bloodiest battle recorded since the in
PRODUCTION of portable firearms. Ey-
lau, Friedland, Wagram and Borodino all
exceed the figures for any pitched bat
tie since the breech-loader appeared in
the field. Moreover, the horror of the
whole thing is not to be measured by
figures of percentage only, but by the
density in which the killed and wound
ed lie, and the fate of the latter after
ward. In modern battle 0,0G0 men
will fall in an area of about 20 square
miles; at Zorndorf the p GOO Russians
and $4,000 Prussians lay on a single
square mile, and of the wounded not
one in three survived; whereas, in 1870,
nine out of ten recovered, and the Prus-
sian medical staff anticipated even bet
ter results next time.
py1@l ho hot 10 fall sr,l 20
the least of the two evils the soldier
has to face. There, is death on the line
of march and in hospitals along the
road. Whereas, formerly, particular
" under Napoleon, ten would die on
the way for one who fell in action, in
the last Franco-German war only one
man died of disease for two killed in
action. Indeed, the health of men in
the prime of life was actually slightly
better in the field than in quarters.
1t may, however, be argued, that,
even granted that battles and marches
may be less destructive, there will be
more of them, because every able-bod-
led man being trained for war the re-
Sistance will be more prolonged than
formerly, but this prolonged endur-
position that the leaders on both sides
are hopelessly incompetent, and both
fear to stake all on single collision
a supposition that nothing tends to jus
tify. On the contrary, every leader
brought up in the modern school is
taught to understand the vulnerability
of all modern military organizations,
and is penetrated with the conviction
that one downright Knockout" blow eff
fects more than weeks of purposeless
sparring, and where both start deter
mined to bring matters to a climax
the decision cannot long be delayed.
Judging from what we know of the
relative efficacy of continental armies,
we believe that the first round of the
great encounter will also be the last, for
the momentum of the blow which de-
cides will simply paralyze every nerve
of the opponents body, and, adding up
all sources of casualties that can occur
in short campaign of this description, !
we conclude that at the very worst
the actual cost of human life to the |
powers engaged will not amount to
more than five per cent. of their sew
era1 populations.-Pall Mall Gazette.