Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1900-04-12
LOSSES GROW LESS.
SCME LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE
ANGLO.EOER WAR.
As Effectiveness of Weapons Increases,
Fatalities in Battle Apparently de-
crenseCom pa rison of Casualties In
some of the Worlds Greatest Conflicts.


| The South African war has demon
| strated some things about up-tO@late
lighting machines. one important fact
brought out Is that. for creating ex-
telsiye cemeteries and making bloody
history. the old-fashioned fighters, with
their old-fashioned short-range weap-
Ons, still hold the championship. Dy-
Mantle bombs and lyddite shells. bullet
sitting machines and long-rnnge smoke
less powder guns have not feazed the
worlds record for carnage an iota. The
civilized nations stand aghnst at the
fall Of Il few score Of officers in a single
fight as though it We're an unheard Of
thing and that science had rendered
warfare too frightfully CORY for it to
be tolerated among human beings.
Probably the almost blOouless victories
of our navy at Manila Bay and Santiago
have led people to look for enormous
gains OH minimum of investment
These were marvellous exceptions. War
means fighting, and fighting in war
worthy of the name means killing on
both sides.
The effectiveness Of the long range
weapons used in the South African war
and the mortality which is looked upon
by the laymen us something excessive
attract the notice Of military men who
have had actual experience in war.
Under the regime Of magazine rifles the
battle usually begins ut 1850 or 1,GOO
yards, and may close down to LOO or
1000 yards. At the latter range the tire
Is supposed to he very effective. Artil-
lery Is, Of course. effective to break up
solid lines of infantry, but 1t Is impos-
sible to make artillery fire effective
against troops who are covered behind
height for instance, or by the lay Of
the land or by rock and trees.
Gen. Sickles said recently that he
never had much faith in the effective
ness Of long-range weapons, for once
you teach troops that they can send
bullet mile, it takes away their in
his army by causing the soldiers to
think that the long-range breechloading
chassepot and the mitrailleuse would
defeat the enemy. 1t took all the elan
out Of them and made them mere ma
chimes. The Germans. who, by the
way. also had their breechloading long
range rifle, the needle gun. rushed to
close quarters. and the result was dis
astrous to the French.
Civil War Fatalities.
Gen. Nelson A. Miles said, apropos of
the subject of modern improved weap-
ons and projectiles In relaton to battle
field casualties, Losses diminish in
proportion as man-killing devices pro-
gress" This is fact, as shown by fig
ures, and Is well known to close stu
dents of warfare. Take, for Instance.
the Federal attack upon the Confeder-
ate stone wall at Fredericksburg in
1862. The experience of the Seventh
New York tSteubem regiment In that
charge is typical. The Seventh went
in after other brigades had been re-
pulsed in front OF the stone wall so that
it dill not receive the fierce outburst Of
Confederate fire. but in twenty minutes.
OF at the outside thirty minutes, out Of
twenty-five officers in the regiment ten
were killed and eight wounded, and ont
OF 45O men $40 were killed and wound.
ed. All Of these casualties came from
bullets fired from the stone wall. This
loss in officers killed was never excee.]-
ed put once in the whole civil war. and
that was In the case Of the Seventh