| Show WARS OF A CENTURY in these days of wars and rumors of war the statistics on martial subjects presented by an officer of the austrian army are of special interest he starts out with the surprising assertion that during the nineteenth century europe has had only twenty nine peaceful years the most serious wars were fought in the first fifteen years during that period at least three powers were constantly fighting and in 1813 all the european states were involved the largest armies were in the field during curing the german french engagement and the next largest during the battles in 1813 with napoleon the armies were generally small ull till the end of the previous century if the vast hordes that followed the persian conquerors are not counted at present the armed forces at the command of tha great powers are enormous russia ikea the lead with soldiers sen hen comes germany with arance austria hungary and italy but these numbers umbers Ak do not include all the available forces which would be put into the field in case cas e of an emergency statistics prove however that the numbers in the are or of less importance than the military training of the soldiers in six wars of twenty the numerically weaker power carried the victory by superior tactics As the greatest generals of the world the austrian statistician classes alexander hannibal caesar gustavus adelo hus napoleon turenne prince eugene and Pre frederick derick thle the great the age in which great generals have achieved their victories is an interesting question alexander at 21 conquered the balkan nations hannibal was 28 years old when he subdued jagunt caesar was 42 gustavus adolphus 27 turenne 33 and aa napoleon 26 when they became famous on the other hand bluecher was a 91 great general at the age ace of 70 gained his great est st victories when 81 years old and moltke was 70 years old when conducting in the against france I 1 ue the losses of armies generally are amater from sickness than f from rom wands in battles when napoleon W marched into russia he had men five months later he returned with men and yet he had not had an opportunity to fight any battle in the crimean war there were men killed and wounded of which died later but ut were siak and of these 69 JOO 00 died while every fortieth soldier tell in battle every sixth died of disease in the bohemian campaign 69 per cent of the fatalities in the prussian army were due to cholera and during the siege of metz german soldiers diers were stricken with various kinds of sickness it la in believed that in the battles of the future vast numbers will be engaged though statistics do not prove the superiority perio rity of numbers it is also believed that the infantry will be more numerous in proportion to the cavalry than formerly in the ian lan campaign there were only two or three of the infantry to each horseman in the franco german war there were fourteen attacks by cavalry have proved fatal at worth the french cuirassiers were almost annihilated at Vio vionville onville Vi uville a prussian regiment of dragoons perished dished d and at sedan the african chas deurs were sacrificed to no purpose emperor william during the last maneuvers uy era ordered or dered a cavalry attack and this it win it is claimed was regarded as a I 1 great military blunder it is believed if the attack had taken place during an actual engagement not a man or a horse would have escaped alive the author further points out that battles last longer now than formerly although it would appear that the terrible effect of the modern arms would have a tendency to shorten them it to is believed that future battles not infrequently will last several days when opponents equally strong meet in combat at the same time actual losses on the battlefield seem to be decreasing the victorious general often counts heavier losses than the enemy in the battle at Frauten au the imperial army had fourteen per cent dead and wounded but the prussians only had lost four per cent which however was sufficient to compel them to retreat another fact seems to be that deaths harvest is greater in proportion to numbers among the officers than among the men with regard to the deadly effects of the rifle balls it has been found that in the war between prussia and austria every missile found a victim but this is regarded as exceptional in the sanguinary battle at gravelotte Gra every shot hit while at mars la tour only every performed its deadly mission everything considered modern warfare is less deadly than the ancient combats in which foe met foe and fought at arms length till one or both were no more |
