The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-08-20

compelled TO submit 10 the laws of war
IN constituting ourselves prisoners At
different epochs Of our military history,
brave troops, commanded by Massena,
kleber and Gouvion St. Cyr. have ex-
perienced the same lot, which detracts
not from military honor. when like you
they have so gloriously performed their
duty TO the extreme of human endur-
ance. This. when surrendering n
fortress and garrison of the first order
TO a besieging army only slightly
superior in numbers. while guns and
ammunition were plentiful. and food
supplies were at least sufficient for an
other weeks consumption, Napoleon,
on the other hand, made no attempt TO
conceal the finality of his disaster as
he fingered in the garden of the Belgian
weaver's cottage, where negotiations
had been held, a broken, respondent
figure, dressed in a jauhty red cap
with a gold border, a black paletot
lined with red, red trousers and white
kid gloves.
The note OF inevitabiIity was struck
perhaps as fully by General Lee in the
American civil war, although he had
been saved the modification Of pro-
posing surrender by General Grants
letter: The result of the last week, -
ne wrote to Lee on April z, 1865. must
convince you of the hopelessness of
further resistance on the part O. the
army of Northern Virginia in this
was effected at Appomattox, and this
surrender, Of which the victory of Five
Forks was the prelude, practically
ended the war. the remaining armies
of the confederates laying down their
arms one after another. Lee knew
when the end had come. Not so Ma
poleon I, whose. letter to the prince
regent consequent on Waterloo can be
regarded only as a diplomatic attempt
to gain time for a fresh rally of forces.
- fNVnnGa6 the "a xrff fGf r.f
my country, he wrote, and to the
enmity of the greatest powers of
Europe, have closed my political
career, and 1 come, like Themistocles.
to throw myself upon the hospitality of
the British people. l put myself under
the protection of their laws, which
claim from your royal highness, as the
most powerful. the most constant and
the most generous of my enemies"
A manly confession of defeat was that
made by the Duke of Gordon at the
capitulatiOn of Edinburgh castle in 1853
TO the Earl of Leven-. Gentlemen and
soldiers" he said. Il know not wherein
have been unkind to any of yor- hut
If have ever wronged any man in
your ranks let him speak ere we part
forever. Do not brawl with the new
corners, for you are too few TO con-
quer and too many to sacrifice Gem
eral Gordon's message of defiance was:
when you, Mahdi, order the Nile to
''f w. anu VAIN SitIOS0 WIZ your
troops, and come into Khartoum to
ne and take me, then I viii surrender
the town to you, and not before" Lit
tie as we know of the details accom-
panying the fall of Kh2rtoum. il may
be safely assumed that when the relief
expedition reached that city to find il
had fallen into the hands of the Mahdi
two days previously, Gordon had sur
rendered nothing save his life.
An unsatisfactory capture was that
Of Sevastopol, since the enemy had
fled, leaving behind a smoking mass
Of ruins Zutphen fell through ruse
soldiers being introduced into the town
apparelled as Flemish countrywomen,
their baskets filed with swords and
loaded pistols. One of the most blood
less capitulations, considering the i'm
portance Of the forSess surrendered.
was that of Gibraltar, wrested from
the Spaniards in 1904. our total loss
in gaining this important acquisition to
the crown being sixty men killed and
216 wounded. On the other hand Luck
now was the scehe of dreadful blood
shed when the siege was raised by Sir
Colin Campbell. no quarter being Civ
en-. It was said that after the mas
sacre of Cawnpore the soldiers divided
among them the tresses of q murdered
girl and swore that for every hair of
her head one Sepoy should die. At
the surrender Of the Rastfle in the
French revolution there was no fight
ing, the governor, De Launay. after
making hesitating defense, capitu-