The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1897-04-23
WARFARE
Long Campaigns VIII Give Place to Single
But Decisive

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 antici-
pated locally, j. e., on particular bri-
gades and divisions, will not exceed
one in three (of which one is killed to
four wounded), whereas for whole ar
mics of a quarter of a million and
over one in ten is the very outside pun
ishment we may reasonably expect.
When a paper speaks of Munkac-
Compared to the slaughter of the seven
years war, and the best contested fields
OF the Napoleonic period, this is very
little, indeed. At Zorndorf the Rus
slams left $1,000 out of $4,000 on the
ground, and this is undoubtedly the
bloodiest battle recorded since the in
PRODUCTION of portable firearms. Eylau,
~Friedland, Wagram and Borodino all
exceed the figures for any pitched bat
tie since the b~reechloader appeared in
the field. Moreover, the horror of the
whole thing is not to be measured by
hgures or percentages only, but by the
density in which the killed and wound
ed lie, and the fate of the latter after
wards. In a modern battle 10000 men
would fall on an area of about twenty
square miles: at Zorndorf the q, 900
Russians and 10000 Prussians lay on a
single square mile, and of the wounded,
not one IN three survived; whereas, in
1871 nine out Of ten recovered, and the
Prussian medical staff anticipated ever
better results neXt time. But death OF
the battlefield is by far 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, particularly under Napoleon,
ten would die by the way for M who
fell in action. In the last Franco-Ger-
man war only one man died of disease
for two killed in action. Indeed the
health of men in the full prime of life
was actually slightly better in the field
thar 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
S'SJ oCAo-OOu1cu ud1 UcluS lldlutu
for war, the resistance will be more
prolonged than formerly, but this pro-
longed endurance is only conceivable
under the supposition that the leaders
on both sides are hopelessly incompe-
tent, and both fear to stake all on a
single collision-a %supposition that
nothing tends to justify. On the con-
trary, every leader brought up in the
modern school is taught to understar
the vulnera bility of all modern mil
tary organizations, and is penetratel.
with the conviction that one downright.
knockout blow effects more than
weeks of ~purposeless sparring, and
where both start determined to bring
matters to a climax, the decision can
not long be delayed. Judging from
What we know of the relative efficiency
OF continental armies, we believe that
the first round of the great encounter
will also be the last, for the
tum of the blow which decides will sim
ply paralyze every nerve of the oppo-
nent's body, and, adding up all sources
of casualties that can occur in a short
campaign of this description, we con-
clude that at the very worst the actual
cost in human life to the powers en-
gagged will not amount to more than
five per cent of their several popula-
tons.