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Show H HOW BATTLES ARE LOST AND WON. Hij The Russians officially admit a loss of 87,000 kI mtn in the battles around and retreat Kj from Muckden. They lost about that number in V one day at Borodino, hence they advertise thtir recent misfortunes as light by comparison. But they ought not to have lost Muckden. Either someone blundered or there was something lacking. lack-ing. The account gives the number of cannon lost and says all siege guns were shipped north two days before the retreat began. That would be an indication to the ordinary man that they expected ex-pected defeat from the first. It is a clear case that had General Meade withdrawn his heavy guns and shipped them away the night before the day on which General Pickett made his charge, he would have lost Gettysburg. The spirit that causes a commander to conclude, two days in advance, that he is going to lose a battle is the kind that always loses.. If a jockey rides a race and expects from the start that he will come in second or third, he will never win a race unless his horse runs away with him. After Shiloh, General Buell asked General Grant if it was right good generalship to make his camp on the bank of a big river giving an enemy of unknown force an unobstructed march to his front, and with no means of withdrawal with-drawal in case of a repulse except two little gunboats which could not have carried across more than 40,000 men. Grant's reply was: "They would have been plenty had I been repulsed." After the war an officer of the war was presented pre-sented to General Sheridan. Sheridan asked him where he served. The officer named several sev-eral battles, and of one he said with a blush: "I lost my guns in that battle, general." Quick as a flash Sheridan took and shock the officer's hand, and said: "When an officer cannot bring away his guns it shows he was there. I lost a few guns at Stone river myself, but every horse was killed and every man but seven.' The inference is that had Grant and Sheridan been at Muckden they might have been defeated, but would never have said later, that, anticipating defeat, they had shipped their heavy guns away two days in advance of the catastrophe. There would have been more dead men before they fled and the guns would have been eft on the field. Certain it is that the armies that win battles are the ones who are determined to win before the battles are set in array. |
