Year: 1877

OF EVENTS


| 1t is little over two months since the
declaration of war, and events have made
| great progress in this period, despite
| general impression to the contrary. This
impression is founded upon the opinions
Of persons disposed to measure all mill
tary operations by the standards to be
found in the wars Of 1870 and 1866.
| Those wars were between highly CIV
ilized Powers, and occurred in highly
civilized countries, whore military art
was found in its best state on both sides,
and where the appliances Of progress that
are adapted to the furtherance Of warlike
operations were in their best condition. In
structed persons do not require the demon
stration Of the palmer mathematical truths
that may be part Of an argument, and
nations that are wise do not exact
that palpable military superiority
shall be more than fairly shown. They do
not compel their enemies to push to its rig
orous extreme o demonstration in which
they arc themselves the subject expert
mented upon. Hence the early surrender Of
Austria in 1855 The war with France would
have been but little longer if it had lot been
one Of the accidental results of the struggle
to give q temporary precedency in
spirit, incapable of reasoning on
the problems before it. But the present
war is unlike either of those in its material
or intellectual relations. 1t is, indeed,
proverbial statement Of the results Of much
history that q battle with the Turkish
soldiery begins at the point at which it
would be ended with any other soldiers
that is, at the point at which, in its
strictly military aspects it becomes hope
less. In armies of this sort, therefore,
the reasoning of military science is not
taken tor granted where its consequence is
defeat. Russia must not only demonstrate
in one or two glaring instances her COM
plete capacity to whip the Sultan's armies,
but she must perform to its last detail all
the drudgery Of conquest. Were it other
wise the mere fact that she has in the field
half a million good troops against Power
that cannot, with all its efforts, overwhelm
SO small State as Montenegro. would be
sufficient basis for q treaty of peace and
terms Of indemnity.


Measuring the operations, therefore, by
the standard of the more primitive wars that
are applicable to the case it must be con-
ceded that Russia has moved with great en-
ergy, and has exhibited completeness and
efficiency of military organization not hith-
erto shown in her history. 1t is reported,
indeed, that her commissariat is defective
and that it has been necessary to make some
severe examples. The commissary service
is seldom good in large armies, and never
in armies suddenly greatly increased from
peace standard. In English armies the
soldiers are usually half starved, and it
is vivid memory in our own country
that any great movement in our
best organized armies was always
associated with complete dislocation of
the commissary service. If, therefore, the
Russian service is defective in this respect
it cannot be cited as q reproach special to
practically crippled the movements Of the
Cars armies which on the two great thea
tres Of operation are now acting with great
vigor and under the influence Of thoroughly
intelligent conceptions of the purposes
to be accomplished. In Asia the Russians
have SO firm hold upon Armenia that if
peace were now made on the basis Of sti
possideis they would become the practical
possessors Of that country. Only one of its
strong places has been actually carried
by them, but no attempt to carry
any other has been made. All the
reported attempts to storm Batoum
are the misconceptions of an excited
correspondent within the Turkish lines at
that place. The real point Of the Russian
operations in Armenia is the reduction Of
Kars. All other points are subordinate, and
oil movements are to be interpreted by their
relation to that purpose. All the army not
actually engaged in the siege covers the
army SO engaged; and up to the present
time the Turkish armies that the Ottoman
government might have relied upon to
trouble and distress the besiegers and per-
haps eventually to make the siege impos-
sible-have been kept at such distance by
the enterprise and spirit of the Russian
commander that the siege has not been in
terrupted for an hour, while the safety and
existence of the Ottoman army in the field
have been several times palpably menaced.
In Europe the heroic Montenegrins have
kept sixty thousand Ottoman soldiers from
the Danube army, and have put at least
one-third Of that number hoys de combat


In this struggle We see the spirit that free
dom gives people, and we sec also how
barbaric Power prepares its own downfall.
This attempt to crush Montenegro is
not a strategic conception. 1t is the
issue Of vindictive, savage purpose only.
If the Turks could consult strategy rather
than their ferocious impulses they would