Show WHAT A KB L BATTLE 13 opportunity for display of heroic or glory united service keviet Ke A battle docs not consist as many imagine in a gram advance of victorious lines of attack sweep ing everything before them or the belter flight of the unfortunate defeated defeat fd the historian must eo present it in his lions the artist in his paintings EACH the writer of an official account must limit himself to the presentations of euch moments as demand special treatment or such episodes aa involve important and instructive tactical movements all those events which are less striking which pass more quietly but which nevertheless contribute to the final result cannot be cepro danced without too much expansion those incidents wh ch no account of the battle official or unofficial takes any note of the thousand and one events observed only by the direction and conti ol glide out of the hands of the officers these are the little drops of water that make the mighty ocean of bat tie and determine victory or defeat the opening of the day of a great battle is generally very prosaic alter an uncomfortable night passed in wet or cold bivouac the men wrapped in their overcoats have been gathered shivering about the camp fire try aug in vain to get warm after the simplest ot breakfasts of which the draught of poor cold water was the only palatable constituent the soldier goes forth to battle there be may never even bee the enemy indeed unusually long halts uncomfortable standing still under shrapnel fire or useless camping in mud and under email arm fire await him the feeling of being exposed to the invisible missiles of the enemy mingled with the uncertainty as to what is going on to right and left often prodoc a in the best of troops great depression and a consequence falling off in offensive strength even when the battle in general is making splendid progress in such mo ments tactics are exhausted and it is only a question of grit and sense of duty sheridan tells us indeed the battle of chickamauga was some thing like that of stone kiver victory resting with the side that had the grit to defer longest its field more pressing is the appeal to the moral of the troops when an unfortunate termination of the battle forces an army which has done its duty to retire exhausted to its last gasp its resistance pushed to the highest pitch gives way and frightful reaction the resistless masi plunges to the rear this ia to day no longer an organized retreat from position to position as our predecessors taught and tided but an uncontrollable current like the mountain torrent which fraught with havoc and disaster its banks woe to the land that can oppose no other dama to this dream than strategy tactics and the instruction of thal troops these will be washed away like sand heap by the roaring waters |