Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1878 — BATTLES OF LONG AGO. [ARTICLE]

BATTLES OF LONG AGO.

Trifling Losses in the Continental Wars ns Compared With Those of Later Tears. [From the OornhUl Magazine.] It was the glorious epoch, that of the peninsular war! Nine-tenths of the names embroidered in golden letters on our regimental colors were won in the five years intervening betweeen 1809 and 1814 k The story of that time has still power to recall to us memories full of the glories of battles won from Napoleon’s greatest captains, of sieges in which the terrible valor of our soldiers was pre-eminent, of marches and feats of endurance never paralleled in our modem history, before nor since. But, though the battles of the peninsular war, and still more the crowning victory of Waterloo, are household names among us, we have wholly lost sight of a fact that, at the time, did much to influence the national joy over our victories; that fact was our long-continued failure in any portion of Europe to oppose the legions of the republic or empire. On the coast of France, in the low countries, in Flanders, in Sicily, in Corsica, in Naples, at Genoa we had utterly failed to maintain our own attacks. In Egypt alone had our land forces been successful, and in Egypt every element of success was on our side. From 1793 to 1809 we had not a single result to show on the continent of Europe for the £300,000,000 which we had added to the national debt in that period. Our expeditions to France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Italy and Corsica had all ended in complete failure. It was on this account that the victories of the following years appeared so glorious. The nation’s faith in its army had reached its lowest ebb, and the reaction of victory was proportionately great. But the greatness of the success in Spain and at Waterloo did much toward hiding from view then and since the actual losses we sustained. When we here state that our entire loss in killed in Spain, Portugal and Flanders, including all battles, engagements, skirmishes, sieges, and sorties did not amount to the loss in killed suffered by the Germans in the two battles of Gravulotte and Sedan, we state a fact which will doubtless astonish many readers. Yet it is nevertheless true. A statement of our actual losses during the ye'ars from 1808 to 1815 inclusive will be read with interest in these days of breech-loaders : 180 S; including Bolica and Vimlera 192 1809, including Talavera 777 1810, including Busaco, etc 159 1811, including Barossa, Albuera,et- 1,401 1812, including Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Burgos, etc 1,990 1813, including Vittoria, Pyrenees, San Sebastian, Nivelle and Nive 2 23t 181', including Orthez, Toulouse 672 1815, including Quartre Bras and Waterloo... .1,829 9,254 But from this total must be taken 1,378, the number of foreign soldiers killed in our service, leaving 7,876 as the entire loss in killed during the whole war in Spain and Portugal, together with that of Quartre Bras and Waterloo. Six thousand men killed in the entire peninsular war ! Not half the Russian loss at Eylau, less than the Russian loss before Plevna, less than half the French dead at Waterloo.