The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-17
CHANCES OF DEATH IN BATTLE.
soldiers Have a Thousand Times the
Best of the Fatal Bullet.
From the Cleveland Plain Deal

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
AS is well known, the soldiers risk of
death in battle is not nearly as great as of
finding a grave as the result of disease.
The most competent authorities state that
on the average 1t takes t. n of shot to
kill one man. For instanceg 1t has been
| estimated that in the Crmean war the
| British and French troops fired between
| them the enormous amount of $4,000 000
| projectiles, resulting in the death of nearly
| 5lOOO Russians, while on their side the
| Cars adherents killed some $4,000 of the
| allies with an expenditure of over $1,000, coo
| projectiles, this representing a death for
every 1,087 shots fired.
| The American Civil War returns which
were got out with very great care, show
| ed that the Toss of both the Federals and
| Confederates was about per cent. Of the
| forces engaged, to bring about which in
| VolVed the expenditure of nearly p cwt.
| of ammunition per man.
AT the siege of Mezieres, in the Fran
| co-German war, the Prussians threw no
fewer than $4,000 projectiles into the ILL
| fated town, but. strange TO say, less than
400 people were killed by them. Then, at
| Trouvilfe, two people only We're killed
after some 27,O00 odd shell had been dis
| charged. At Sedan, however, the aim of
| both The Germans and the French showed
q
| projectiles had been fired nearly 5000
| French and Prussians were killed.
For the Spanish-An1erican war the re-
| suits showed a tremendous amount of
shot and shell fired for very meager re-
suits. OF course, in this case, although
| the mortality was not great, the damage
to earthWorks, fortifications and govern
ment buildings generally was enormous,
and there can be little doubt that If the
| Spanards had not made themselves scarce
| the death roi would have been appalling.
Again, when the American marines land
| ed at Santiago, during a fusilade upon the
| enemy lasting two nights, the machine
| guns and rifles alone accounted for the
| consumption of over 5000 rounds of am
munitiOn. Slxty-eight dead Spaniards were
| found as result of this enormous expen-
| diture of ammunition.
Great Britains experience in recent
years has been very little If any better
than the results just recorded. Take, for
| instance, the Chartered Company's expe-
| dition into Matabeleland Every one will
| remember how the warriors of Lobengula
were moved down by the Maxim guns
| like sklttles, but even in this instance,
| which perhaps is the most effective on
record. as the impi advanced on the Brit
| ish lines in solid masses, it would have
| puzzled blind man to have missed shoot
| ing some of them. The mortality was very
| small considering the, vast number of car
tridges expended, but this is accounted for
| by the fact that on examination some
| of the dead bodies contained more than
| fifty bullets each. On another occasion,
| at an attack on a lager some twenty
| miles south of Buluwayo, 14,O00 rounds of
ammunition were disposed of with result
| of 346 dead Matabele.
Military authorities now regard rapidly
| of fire as being more essential than range
and precision and content themselves
with giving general orders to aim low, and
| this perhaps accounts for the fact that
most wounds are inflicted on the enemy ;
lower extremeties, statistics showing that
on the average As per cent. of wounds oc-
cur In the legs, 80 per cent in the abb
domen, q per cent in the arms and chest
and only ] per cent. in the head.