Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-23

DILL SHERIDAN was with the Prussian
i army in 1870 as military representative
Of the United states. AS the French sur
rendered at Metz he watched the proceedings
from his saddle at the side of Prince Charles.
If any man then living was qualified to pass
judgment on the fighting quality of the VIC
torious German army 1t was that same fiery
Phil who but five years before had led thou
sands of Union sabers in their victorious
sweep around Richmond. Ii is on record that
Sheridan turned to Prince Charles and said.
"Give me two divisions of the Sixth Corps
CSedgwicl's) of the Army of the Potomac
and I could cut my way out through your
Prussian army
TTAS Germany forgotten? Certain recent
i events precipitated by American boys in
khaki on the French front should cause the
German general staff to turn to pages of its
war histories and refresh its memory as to
the fighting stuff that was in our fathers of
the Blue and the Gray. For the backbone of
our army today is the collective spine of the
boys who are lineal descendants of an in
fantry that ranked among the very best that
ever marched and fought on this globe. That
is a pretty tall statement, and we will but
tress it with facts. Here are the percentages
of the casualties of the yictors in six of the
worlds severest battles fought on European
soil:
Zorndorf. l75S-Prussians and Austrians,
81 per cent
Eylau, lsO7-French and Russians, 2S per
cent
Borodno, lSl2-French and Russians "a
per cent.
Waterloo 1sl5-Allies and French. 20 per
cent
Nionville, 1S7O--Prussians and French, %
per cent
Plevna, 1S77-Russians and Turks, per
cent.
CSINCE Eylau no single battle in history
- has equaled in percentage of losses the
American casualties at Chickamauga. We
give the percentages of losses of the rictors
in three great Civil War battles:
Antetam, % per cent; Gettysburg, 20 per
cent; Chickamauga ~ per cent.
NNE should note as a side-light an inn
" portant one, that the typical European
struggle of major Importance usually ended
in the complete rout of the vanquished army.
The flight of Napoeon's army from Water
loo is the classic example. In our Civil War,
after Bull Run, there was virtually no retreat
of beaten force in confusion. Lee was
ready, almost willing, to invite Union at
tack after Gettysburg, either on July 1 or 5,
1868, Time and time again defeated Fed
eral or Confederate army stood in its tracks
ready for more punishment, sullen and
awfully dangerous Hilary Herbert. an old
Confederate. said that the one mental at
tribute of the Army of the Potomac that
aroused the admiration of the Army of
Northern Virginia was its steadfast courage
under defeat its Willingness to try and try
again 10 storm impregnable intrenchments,
to light to the last bayonet thrust, although
for months 1t did not know what to expect
from its leader who that leader would be
on the morrow.
TINE men of the Blue and the Gray were
i shock troops" We see with us today
few white-haired remnants of those wonder
full boys of 1916, and we forget that
ll5l43S enlistments in the Union Army
were mere striplings eighteen years old. But
what terrific fighters those boys became in
the red ordeal of war! An historian of the
Battle of the Wilderness tells that the
average age of the thousands of soldiers that
lay dead and dying-Blue and Gray side by
side-during that mournful night in "a was
under twenty years. They were "shock
troops" for they knew but one way to fight,
and that was at close quarters after the
roar of musketry, with bayonets and clubbed
rifles An Englishman, Captain Cecil Bat
tine, Fifteenth Kings Hussars. said a few
years ago. The Americans still hold the
worlds record for hard fighting"
JTAS Germany forgotten? We invite her
u to turn to the records of losses in battle
suffered by Federal and Confederate regi-
ments:
The First Minnesota lost SO per cent of its
men on the second day at Gettysburg in