The Washington herald., 1914-05-31

| Most OF the Prussians who werS
challenging the veterans OF Austerlitz
never had been in battle and mono evei
had tasted victory. Moreover. although
Napoleon and his commanders had beer
campaigning almost constantly for q
dozen years or more, all but two among
other hand. the Prussian general In
chief. the Duke of Brunswick, was sew.
enty, and no longer able to sit horse
one of his marshals was eighty; near.
: ly half the colonels were more than
sixty;-a third of the majors were pas,
f1fty-f1vo. and the rest were past fifty
And no one in the army ever had held
command in successful campaign.
There was another significant differ-
ence. French Officers had all risen by
merit, mostly from the peasantry or
from the bottom Of the middle class.
while the Prussian onicers owed their
been chosen in accordance with Fred
erick the Greats dictum: Mobiles only
possess in general the sense of honor"
stin another fatal difference between
that the shorter legged Frenchmen
covered more ground in day than
the longer-legged Germans. Where
ss, msoeans to cut n;
cut first would surely win: Tho tradi-
ton had come down to the Prussians
that from twelve to fifteen miles was
a long enough march for an army to
=
Lannes. however, marched sixty five
miles in fifty hours. Bernadotte march
ed his men seventy-fve miles In sixty.
nine hours and Lefebre's command
And the French had another cruel
advantage. They had better maps Of
Germany than the Germans!
The climax of the enemy's disadvan-
tages was the presence with the allied
army of the vacillating and unwarlike
King, whose hesitancy wa. too heavily
overbalanced by the impetuosity Of
Queen Louise. Napoleon. quite ungal-
lantly made Louise the target Of his
tipped with poison. But this early ref
erenee to her was not ill-natured: "As
they say there 10 . beautiful Queen
who wishes to see a battle. let us be
eoIIteGs and let US march without
To Josephine he wrote: by the aid of
God, affairs will take q very terrible
character in q few days. think, for the
poor King Of Prussia. whom / personally
Erfurt with the King. II she wishes to
see battle she shall have that cruel
pleasure:
The French pressed forward in as thin
q wedge as Napoleon could comfortably
ing no more than forty miles wide. The
Prussian-Saxon front, on the other hand.
with only half ~ many men behind 1t.
va spfeaQ out IN tnin hne ninety
The allies had no idea where Napoleon
was until suddenly they were made pain
fully aware of his presence behind them
on their hnes, and then their army turned
As involuntarily, a. instinctively as q dog
when caught by the tail. An army's lines
OF supply have been called its muscles:
when they are cut, the military body is
paralyxed. Paralysis seized upon the
brain Of the allied army when Its leaders
realized that Napoleon, instead Of being
In front Of them. was behind them. Con-
fusion reigned In their councils and conf
dence forsook the conceit of the aristo-
moralized and the poor soldiers. without
fations. were marched and counter
marched In q tangie Of contradictory
plans
Having paraiyxed the head Of the allied
army and spread CONSERVATION through
ne ranks. Napoleon's next object was 70
~ PnruSf an1 - Great Haif3os e