The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-12-30
WoLsELEY ON OUR WARS.
Rebellion Could Have Been Crushed
Much Sooner.
From the London Chronicle.

From the London Chronicle.
The commander in chief has written
an able Introduction to the monumental
work of Colonel q. T.. T.. Henderson,
which was published a year ago, and
n second edition of which has now been
called for through Messrs. Longmans.
"Storewall jackson and the American
Civil War" is packed in every page Of
its two volumes with lessons alike for
the statesman. the soldier and the pub
licist. The text of the work seems 10
have remained untouched.
We may. therefore. pass by the text
today, and turn our attention to the
fresh matter of Lord Wolseleys intro
duction. During the war of secession
he was mostly employed in America,
and visited both the great camps into
which the people of the reunited states
were divided Some had even hoped
that he would have found time to in
ditc Il study of the succession of cam
pIigns alike on the Potomac and the
Mississippi, aud the great march
through Georgia. But as we were NOT
10 have that he gives us a lead TO his
Views on the various phases of the
operations which took such long time
and cost SO much blood and treasure,
partly through sheer inautitude ana
partly through unpreparedness The
main lesson Lord Wolseley would drive
homo is that if there had been single
army corps In the hands of the Wash
ingtun statesmen the secession move
mcnt would have been crushed before
the year of its inception was out.
The second is-and his point is EN-
phasiZed by the experience of the
United States in the recent Spanish war
that civilian administration is not
efficient, and that interference with the
general selected for any special mis-
sion is sure to be disastrous 1t is an
old story with Lord WolselcY that the
army in constitutional countries is too
! often made the battlefield of rival poll
| tiCians, and at the same dime he would
! be ore of the first To admit that states
| men and not soldiers must decide when,
! and i'm some measure how, the army
must he employed in the interests OF
! the people. He has also before drawn
y the perfectly true lesson that Volun-
! teers. newly raised on half trained, cam
! not be depended upon in tough tight
! ING, while in the interests both of the
nation and the private soldier it is Of
the first importance that the officers
SHOULD Dt' lllbl l'uEliN 'NIN'll III lll'll
work, since lack of judgment at Il
critical moment may induce a panic
which would lead to the destruction of
the army and might involve peril To
the nation
The lesson Of the American civil
war that is most telling is that the
volunteers who bolted at Bull Run
were just the same class Oh men rs
| ban r,,upfhpI
calmly to death in the Richmond PEN
insula and over the bluffs of Nicks-
burg. The meddlrSomeness Of some Of
the politicians, both in the north and
in the south. was responsible for great,
grevous and unnecessary delays, fOr
the prolongation of human suffering,
and the waste of millions of treasure.
Mcclellan had To train his soldiers
when they ought To have been fight
ing, and Lee and jackson had To put
up with alienation of their dispose
tions made by Mr. Benjamin, who,
though a very able lawyer, was as
ignorant as a child Of the merest ele-
ments of warfare,
The soldier knows that his
art is most difficult, that to apply
stratcgical principles correctly eNpe-
| llence, study, knONltuBe OF men, anu
an intimate acquaintance with ques-
tions of supply, transport and the
movement of the masses are absolute
ly necessary.
"He is aware that what may seem
matters of small moment to the civil
ian-such as the position of a brigade,
the strength Of a garrison, the COM
mand of a detachment-may AFFECT the
whole course of a campaign, and, con-
sequently, even if he had not the his
toric examples of Aulic Councils and
other such assemblies to warn him he
would rebel against the meddling Of
amateurs.
Let it not be forgotten that an enor-
NOUS responsibility rests on the shoul-
dcrs of a commander i'm the field the
honor OF the army committed to hi"
charge, the lives of the brave men
under him, perhaps the existence of
his country, and that failure, even II
ne can plead that he only obeyed the
orders of his government, or that ne
was supplied with inadequate means,
: will be lald at his door"