The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1904-08-03

1t may be laid down as rule tnSV
ruder the weapons necesSlUaVlng
the closer approach of the comoatants'
each to the other, in battle, the great
err the carnage. When men fought
with spears. swords and axes hand to
hand. the slaughter WAS terrible.
There was few circumstantial ac-
counts of the losses in early battle but
all the annalists tell of the trightful
destruction of human life in those con-
ficts. The historian Polybius recltes
the details of the losses in the battle OF
Cannae fought in the year 2l6 b. w.
between Hannibal and his Carthagln'
ians and Spaniards, against the Ro'
mans under Aemilius Paulus, when
Hannibal invaded and maintained him
self in Italy for Is years.
Hannibal, who was probably the
most brilliant soldier that ever IlYed,
had 10000 foot and 10000 horses. The
Romans had so, 900 foot and 6,OO9 horse
Polybus. who was 10 years old when
the battle was foughta and subsequently
devoted himself to writing history
of the war with the Carthaginians, re-
lates that in the battle of Cannae the
Romans lost $1,000 infantry aid all
their cavalry except 300, including
their general-in- chief, Aemilius, Han
nibal's losses were $500 foot and 2Oo
horse.
The battle of Chalons, in France, in
the year 451 A. D., when the Romans
and Visigoths united to resist the ter
rible furnish invader, Attila, was
fought by great armies on both sides.
The Huns were defeated and while no
definite figures of the losses are given,
they are supposed to have aggregated
in killed and wounded quite lOO,OOO
men.
The battle at Tours, France. 1872 A.
D., between the Saraceus from Spain,
under the Sultan, Abderrahman, and
the French under Charles Martel, was
one iof the most noted events in the
history of Europe between the fall OF
the Roman power and the discovery OF
America. The Mohammedan Arabs,
having oyerrun the whole of northern
Africa, crossed oyer into Spain and
conquered that country. Pushing their
way through the rugged passes OF the
Pyrenees mountains they formed them
selves in France, which they also re-
solved to conquer. The French soldiers
under Charles Martel, met the invad-
ers near the city of Tours. The Sara
cenic forces are variouslY put at from
SO, 900 to 100000. The struggle was
terrible, but it ended in defeat OF the
invaders, with loss that has been de-
clared to be over 100000. Among the
killed was the Saracen Sultan.
All the battles fought before the if
teenth century were done with hand
to-hand weapons, BOWS and slings. II
was only after the beginning of that
period that firearms we're known IN
Europe. In the beginning the gun
were fred by lighted match held Ii
the hand. The fint-lock musket came
in about the year 100, and the percus'
sion lock about 1880.
All of Napoleon's wars were fought
with the fint-lock firearms; so were
those of the United States up to that
with Mexico, when the percussion gun
came into use. The civil war OF 1861
1866 was fought chiefly with percus'
sion muzzle-loading guns, although the
federal cavalry was to a considerable
extent supplied with Sharp's breech-
loading carbines. and with the Spencer
magazine gun. The confederate cav
airy depended on the federal cavalry
for supplies of these improved arms
Magazine and machine :guns 1.-THE mi
trailleuse) were the weapons in use in
the Franco German war of 1870, and
since then great improvements in both
large and small arms have been made,
the range of the weapons having been
enormously increased.
But the more destructive the weap-
OBS the less bloody are the wars. Fire