The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-10-31


has enabled an armed struggle 10 be de-
cided without the former necessity Of
prolonged close quarter fighting and
the deadly weapons Of the melee.
1t cannot be charged that men are
less courageous nowadays than when
they were called upon to face much
more terrifying implements of warfare.
But the fact remains that the Lee-En-
field the Mauser, quick firing artillery
and high explosive shells are product~
I've of nothing like such slaughter as
the long bow. the battle AK and the
sword in the hands Of our lighting an
cestors.
If We take battles like Colenso and
Kinchau since the employment Of mag
azine rifles and quick-iring artillery,
compare them with engagements such
as Cracy. Poitiers of Agincourt we
cannot fail to be impressed with the
astonishing discrepancy in the casualty
lists. In General Buffers attack on the
Beers at the battle of COlensO. his men
presented as fair a mark for the &C
ton OF modern firearms as our enemies
could have desired. Yet, as a result of
several hours not fighting, during
which many brave deeds were done
by officers and men, who recklessly eX-
posed themselves to a storm of bullets
than 1000 men out of a force of $4,000
TO 10000, while those Of the Beers were
probably far less.
Compare such a casualty list with
the slaughter at AgincOurt in 14l5, a
battle which lasted for not much long
er than three hours between an English
force of $4,000 men under Henry and
$4,000 French led by their constable. IT
was the longbOWs and the clOthyard
Oh, III, he Oh,
/ and was the most potent agent of de-
! struction on that great day in our
/ military annals. over 10000 French
/ were slain outright, and two or three
/ times that number were wounded.
| With the results of this three hours
! battle it is interesting to contrast the
| sixteen hours struggle in Kinchau be-
! tween the Russians and japanese
! where both sides were armed to the
! teeth with modern weapons and the
! position was taken after successive as
| saults in the face Of an apparently
murderous fire from heavy artillery
| and magazine rifles. At the end of this
/ prolonged contest the losses of the vic
! tors, compelled TO advance through the
4 fire-swept zone in front of Nanshan,
/ were no more than 1000 men, OF whom
only $50 were killed, out of a total Of
! about $4,000.
How infinitely more terrible again
| was the work of the bow aud the bat
| tleax at the battle of Crecy in 1895,
4 when our Edward III and his son, the
! Black Prince, routed the great army OF
| Philip of France. The English army
/ numbered 10000 men, that Of Philip
/ 10000 Again the lOngbOw proved its
| terrible effectiveness. The French
were utterly unable TO sustain the
/ heavy fire of its yard-long prOjectiles,
( against which armor was but an indif-
/ ferent protection, and were routed with
4 the loss of 200 knights, 1.400 esquires
and $4,000 men, of which no less than
/ 30 900 were killed outright. The same
| casualty lists were noticeable at the
battle of Poitiers, where 1900 English
! defeated $4,000 French; and so terrible
/ was the execution done by the Eng
| lish bOWmen that II 600 of their enemy
! were slain outright Both Hastings
and Bannockburn bear additional tes-
| timOny to the formidable and deadly
! character of these old battles. At the
| former 10000 men fell or both sides,
while the latter resulted in total losses
J Of $4,000. in both cases a heavy per-
centage of the combatants.
AS we gradually approach our own
time we shall find not only that the
proportion Of those actually slain i'll
I battle to the numbers of those who
are wounded shows a sensible decrease
but that the total casualty lists are
| almost invariably smaller in proper
ton to the numbers engaged, in spite
of the fact that the weapons of war
| are always described as growing more
and more deadly.
In the campaigns of Marlborough
there was still much handtO-hand
fighting. for, although artillery had
taken its place in the battlefield. the
| infantry irearm was possessed of lit
tie range of accuracy. Accordingly
at Blenheim and Malnlaquet two of
! the most deadly struggles Of later
times, although the slain show a de-
creasing ratio, the losses on both sides,
out of d total of about 150. 900 combat
ants, were, in the former engagement,
$4,000 killed, wounded and prisoners,
while the cost of driving the French
from a strong position at Malplaquet
was 10000 killed and wounded out OF
a force Of about $4,000.
Although in the larger armies OF
more modern times losses have
reached in many instances a high fig
ure, yet the percentage Of slaughter
/ especially of killed to wounded COM
batants, has shown a remarkable de-
crease from the horrible figures of an
cient battles and sieges, before the
discovery of gUnDoWder and the in
creasing perfection of ti"earms-para-
doxical as il may appear-began to di-
minish the butchery which invariably
attended the encounter of armed hosts
in olden times.
The explanation is that fighting is
now carried on at such d distance and
in separate bodies of infinitely great
maneuvering power that the least tao
teal advantage becomes instantly OBJ
vious, while the abandonment of ar
NOR and the pOndeFOus weapons OF
the melee has endowed bodies of troops
with superior mobility, both in ad.
vance and retreat.
In old days, when the effective range
of the lOngbOw was not more thar
eighteen to twenty score yards, a bat
tie could only be decided by armies
coming to close quarters at an early
stage of the combat The consequence
was they became so intermingled that
they could with difficulty be separated
and, indeed. the victor was often quite
unable to feel assured of success I'M
I'll he found no more of his opponents
to slaughter. Moreover. IL was much
more difficult TO make effective use OF
cover then than now, and the bowman
of Agincourt was debarred from the
Use of his weapon in the prone posi-
tion adopted by his successor, the rife
man Of today.