The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-07-30
A TON OF SHOT.
Every Bullet Has Not It's Billet in
These Days


The popular idea that modern war;
fare Is more deadly and bloody than
fighting was in the past is not support
ed by available facts. With armor-
plated ships, twelve-mile cannon. Max
i'm guns firing 1000 shots "a min
ute. and magazine rifles with a range
OF three miles, war now is undoubted-
~ scientific. but to parody we'll
known phrase, lit is not buggy"
In the days of hand-to-hand fight
ing. when missiles were employed but
little and the contest was decided by
sword play, the vanquished were gem
orally almost annihilated and the VIC
tors suffered enormously. At Cannae
$4,000 Romans out of $4,000 were killed;
at Hastings the victorious Normans
lost 10000 out of &C 600: at Crecy 10000
Frenchmen out of 100000 were killed,
without reckoning the wounded while
at Bannockburn 1875, 900 men fought and
$4,000 were killed
But the mortality in the Crimean
war was very slight when the number
OF shots fired are remembered 1t is
estimated that the British troops fired
lj,U0),000 shots and killed u 900 Rus
slams, or too shots for every death. The
French fired $4,000 coo shots and killed
81, 5000 Russians, or 500 shots for every
death. while the Russians fired $4,000
900 shots and killed $4,000 of the allies.
or every 9l0th shot was successful
In the Italian campaign of 1850 rifles
were used on both sides and the num-
Der of casualties at Magenta and Sol
fcrino was 80 per 1000 combatants.
The Franco. Prussian war of 1901
was the first in which breech- loading
rifles were used, and, strange as it may
seem, their Introduction only Corro-
borated the foregoing facts that scien-
tittc war is less deadly than natural
Thus the invention of gunpowder re-
duced the proportion of killed and
wounded among the troops engaged
from about one-third to between ONE
fourth and -ffth-from $50 per /, 900
to between 80 and 200 per 1,00O And
the adoption of brecch-loading rifles
diminished IL to about one ninth CIl
per 1000. though that is greater than
the mortality in the Franco Prussian
war. Military authorities now hold
that rapidity of fire is more essential
to success than range and precision;
craftsmanship, indeed, courts for little
in battle, AMI modern arms are certain
ly less deadly than ancient The old
proverb that every bullet has it's billet
has given place to the military maxim
that it takes a ton of shot to kill
man. This applies equally to artillery
and rifle fire.
War does not increase the mortality
among soldiers so greatly as one would
expect In South Africa in 1879 81 per
1000 British soldiers died or were killed
while in Egypt in 1885 the death rate
in battle averaged a trihe over 1 per
10000. In twelve years of small wars
1859 British soldiers were killed out
of $3.50 engaged Il shade over Is per
cent. The returns for the American civ
il war were made out with great care,
and they showed that the total deaths
during the FIVE years were 1858, and
averaged 20 Per 1000 of the force en-
engaged during the seven months. Otfi-
mortality was 30 per 1000 of the troops
engaged during the seven months. Off
cial statistics show that l16,S12 German
soldiers were wounded. OF these 90
566 recovered, 1,023 died in hospital
and 6,223 on the field of battle. 1t ap-
pears that soldiers lower limbs are
most frequently wounded
Few men are killed outright. nova
days and the wounded generally re-
cover, whereas in the days of the sword
and lance men were killtd outright or
finished off after the battle was won.
In fact. there would be more slaughter
in battle between the Ancient Brit
ons ana the Romans, armed respective
ly with stone axes and short swords,
than between two modern armies
eouipped with magazine rifles, smoke
less powder and powerful artillery; the
question would be settled just as salts
factorily and with less expense. for it
costs fl 400 TO slay a man in modern
warfare.