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THE WASHINGTON GAZETTE.
JAS. A. WRIGHT, AGENT.
THE WASHffIfiTON GAZETTE.
Teems—Three Dollars a year, in advance
From the London Timet, July 4.
MILITARY EXPERIENCES.
BREECH-LOADING RIFLES IN ACTION, AND
VAST SUPERIORITY OF THE PRUSSIAN
SMALL ABM.
Tbe great lesson to be learned by mili
tary men from tbe present war in Ger
many is the irresistible superiority of
breech-loading rifles in action. The Aus
trian army in Bohemia was supposed to
be numerically stronger than the Prussian ;
it contained a far larger proportion of vet
eran soldiers and probably of scientific of
ficers , it waa commanded by a man second
in reputation to no general in Europe, it
was fighting on the defensive for a cause
which, as against the invaders, is a good
one, and in a country of which the popula
tion is loyal to the House of ITapsburg,
and yet it has gradually been driven back,
with a loss estimated by the Prussians at
thtrly to forty thousand men , and is now
said to be greatly dispirited by the series
of reverses which it has sustained. It was
for some time supposed that “strategical
reasons" of an unexplained and mysterious
nature might hare induced Marshal Ben
edek to fall back, point by point, towards
a position selected by himself for a general
engagement. This supposition is no longer
tenable. It is altogether incredible that
such a resistance as was offered by tho Aus
trians at Skallez, Trautenau, and Mun
chengratz was a feint, after all, or that
Gitschin was allowed to be stormed, and
Prince Frederick Charles to effect a junc
tion with the Crown Prince, in the hope
of drawing the enemy to tbe battle-ground
between Koniggratz and Joseptbstadt,
where nothing but a decisive victory fcOtlVl
avail Austria, and where a crushing defeat
might open to the Prussians a way to
Vienna. In these sanguinary conflicts the
Austrian troops fought obstinately and
well, but they were fairly beaten—and
they were beaten, according to all tho ac
counts that have reached us— by the snore
rapid fire of the Prussian infantry. —
From first to last it is tbe needle gun that
has apparently carried the day, and the
needle gun is simply a breech-londing rifle
of very indifferent quality. In principle,
as well as in oonstruction, it is not to be
compared with several breech-loading ri
fles manufactured by English makers; but,
imperfect as it is, it has proved quite good
enough to secure victory for the Prussians
in almost every encounter. If we refer to
the letter of our correspondent at the
headquarters of the First Prussian army,
we find ample proof of its extraordinary
effect. It was this which mainly enabled
(be Prussians to force tbe passage of tbe
bridge over the Ist,, at Podoll, between
Turnau and Munchengratz. Tbe Austrians
had occupied the village through which
the road passes towards the bridge, and
commanded all the approaches from win
dows and barricades thrown np across the
street. But tbe Prussian riflemen “fired
about three times before tbe Austrians,
armed only with muzzle loading rifles, were
able to reply." This more than compen
sated for any disadvantage in numbers or
position, ana the Austrians seem to have
been completely overmatched. “In the
street, the Austrian soldiers, huddled to-
gether and encumbered with clumsy ram
rods, were unable to load with ease, and
conld return no adequate fire to that of the
Prussians, while these, from tbe advantage
of a better arm, poured tbeir thick volleys
into an almost defenceless crowd.” It
was the same at the railway bridge, .about
two hundred yards distant, where a like
struggle was going on simultaneously.—
"Here too,” says our correspondent, “tbe
needle gun showed its advantage over the
old fashioned weapons of tbe Austrians,
for tbe latter fell in tbe proportion of six to
one Prussian.” At last the former retreat
ed, leaving moat, if not all, of their killed
and wounded on the field; and it was found
that not only was the number of Austrian
dead much greater, but that in tbe bospi
k tals u the proportion of wounded Aus
trians to vsoundeS Prussians was. as five
so one?
These are startling results, and yet they
are noAmore than any one unfettered by mili
tary prejudices would have anticipated.
WASHINGTON, WILKES COUNTY, GA, FRIDAY MORNING, AUGUST 3,1866.
There may be still more lingering doubts
among old bands as to whether a breech
loader shoots as “hard”—in other words,
carries quite as far—as a muzzle-loader,
but tbe better opinion is that if held
straight it is fully equal to its awkward ri
val in this respect, while no one ever ven
tured to doubt that it does much greater
execution. Now, a battle strongly resem
bles a battue, with this difference, that cool
ness and self-possession are far rarer and of
far more importance. If sportsmen are
often flurried by the difficulty of loading
fast enough while birds are getting up on
all siJes, how can young soldiers be ex
pected to keep their heads clear and their
hands steady in the process of ramming
down while they are themselves under
firo? From this point of view, another
remark made by our correspondent with
the Prussian army deserves serious consid
eration. It is not only in rapidity of dis
charge and in safety of loading that breech
loading rifles surpass muzzle-loadeis, but
also in the average direction of aim. ‘‘A
man with a musket on the nipple of which
he has to place a cap naturally raises the
muzzle in the air, and in the hurry and ex
citement of action often forgets to lower it,
and only sends his bullet over tbe heads of
the opposite ranks, while the soldier armed
with a breech-loading musket keens his
muzzle down, and if in hasto he fires it off
without raising the butt to his shoulder his
shot still takes effect, though often low; and
a proof of this is that very many of the
Austrian prisoners are wounded in the
legs." The only objection, indeed, which
is urged against the breech-loading system
for weapons to be ÜBed in war is one that
answers itself. It is said that regiments
would fire away their ammunition so fast
that it would be impossible to keep them
supplied. This is as much as to say that
soldiers must be exposed to the certainty
of being mown down by enemies firing three
shots to their one because ammunitiou
might otherwise be wasted, and the means
of transport must be increased. It might
be sufficient to reply that in the Prussian
army these obstacles are not found insu
perable, but where common sense is de
cisive of a question it seems needless to in
voke experience.
Without experience, however, no reform
involving considerable expense is likely to
fiod favor with heads of departments in
this country. It is on this ground that we
hare invited attention to the experiments
which have lately been tried on the largest
scale in real warfare, and we now most
earnestly represent the urgent necessity of
profiting by them. It was but last month
that Marshal Benedok encouraged his
troops to despise the alleged superiority of
Prussian firearms , and to rely on the bay
onet, and we already see the consequents.
Every one knows that bayonets are seldom
actually crossed; when they are crossed it
by no means follows that those who carry
tbe worst rifles will give the most vigorous
thrust, and before they are crossed it is
certain that rapidity of fire will tell fatally.
With these facts before us not a day should
be lost in arming our own infantry with
breech-loaders of the best available pattern.
There is no official in the War Department
who would himself think of using a muz
zle loader in cover shooting if he had the
option of a breech-loader, or who would
like to confront with tbe farmer an enemy
provided with the latter. Then why delay
to place the better weapon in tbe hands of
our army I The smaller the force we
maintain as compared with our neighbors
and the greater the difficulty we experience
in recruiting is, the more essential it is that
we should forthwith appropriate an im,-
provement which multiplies its effective
strength, and makes one man, under cer
tain circumstances, a match for two or
three. Whether the single breech-loader,
or some repeating rifle, like that of Spen
cer, adopted in the United States, would on
tbe whole be more serviceable, is a matter
to be discussed by professional connois
seurs. Spencer’s rifle is a “seven shoot
er,” and all seven charges are put in at
once into a chamber in the stock, but as
tbe breach must be opened after each shot
to get rid of the empty cartridge it is pos
sible that very little lime i3 gained and
some risk of derangement incurred by this
additional complication. Such points may
safely be left to the judgment of scientific
officers, but the expediency of substituting
breech-loaders for muzzle loaders is anoth
er affair. Scientific officers will never suc
ceed, by themselves, in forcing the change
upon the authorities, and tho only power
capable of doing so is the power of public
opinion.
HORRORS OF POINT LOOKOUT AND EL
MIRA.
We have been anxious, says the Char
lottsville, (Va.) Chronicle, to see from
some competent hand an account of tbe
manner in which our Confederate soldiers
fared as prisoners of war, and we are, there
fore, happy to announce that Mr. M. A.
Kelley, of the Petersburg Index, has pub
lished in a small Rnd very readable volume,
his experience of a protracted confinement
at Point Lookout and Elmira. There is
so much said about Andersonvillo and
Sauiisbury, that it is well to know how
these things wore managed by the parties
whose virtuous indignation has been so
much aroused against Captain Wirz and
Major Gee.
It is proper, however, to bear in mind
that tbe opportunities for providing some
tolerable degree of comfort to those held
as prisoners of war were very different at
he North from what they were at the
South. For the last two years of the war
the population of the Southern Confedera
cy were not only deprived of the luxuries
of life, but it was really a struggle to pro
cure food of the plainest kind, Most per
sons consumed no tea, coffee or sugar;
many lived without meat. Clothing was
of the rudest material, aud the wardrobes
of tho wealthiest exceeding scanty. By
rigid blockade the Federal ships and troopß
rendered it difficult to procure medicines,
which, if obtained, sold at fabulous
prices.
It is woll known also that our armies
subsisted on the scantiest rations and that
frequently they were almost in a starving
condition.
At the North there was eveiything in
abundance—oorn, wheat, pork, beef, veg
etable, woolen and cotton fabrics, medi
cines, wines, fruits, tea, coffee, &o -
Notwithstanding this, at the piisons of
Point Lookout and Elmira, where thou
sands of prisoners were confined, our men
were always hungry, and in the winter
were uever protected from tho cold.
Mr. Kelly gives the following as tho bill
of fare at Point Lookout: For breakfast,
four or five ounces of moat (pork or beef)
and a slice of bread and “rather over half a
pint of watery slop by courtesy called
soup.” This was all a man got to eat in
twenty-four hours.
At Elmira the ration of bread was a
pound per day. Tbe meat rations on tbe
other hand was invariably scanty. “It
sometimes happened that the same man
got bones only for several successive days.”
Rats were eaten in numbers. ‘I had seen,’
says our author,‘a mob of hungry ‘Rebs’
beseige tbe bone cart, and beg from tbe
driver fragments on which an August sun
had been burning for several days.’
At Point Lookout the water was ‘so im
pregnated with some mineral as to offeud
every nose, and induce diarrhoea in almost
every case. It colors everything black in
which it is allowed to rest, and a scum
rises on the top of a vessel if it is left
standing during the night, which reflects
the prismatic colors as distinctly as the sur
face of a stagnant pool.’ There are ‘wells’
outside tbe prison pen from which the
Federals supplied themselves with good wa
ter.
Speaking of this same prison, tbe writer
says: ‘During the scorching summer,
whose severity during tbe day is as great
on that sand barren as anywhere in tbe
Union north of the Gulf, and through the
hard winter, which is more severe at that
point than anywhere in the country south
of Bostqri, these poor fellows were confin
ed here in open tents on tbe naked ground,
without plank, or a handful of straw be
tween them and tbe beat or the frost of the
earth. And when, in the winter, a high tide
or an easterly gale would flood the pen,
and freeze as it flooded, the sufferings of
tbe half clad wretches may be easily imag
ined. Many died outright, etc. Even the
well clad sentinels, although relieved every
thirty minutes) instead of every two hours,
as is tbe army rule), perished, in some in
stances, and others iost the feet and hands
through the terrible eold of tbe season.’
‘During all this season the ration of
wood allowed to each man was an armful
for five days, and this had to cook for him
as well as well as warm him,’
This was not all. Only one blanket was
allowed to each man. There were regular
inspections, and every extra blanket waa
seized.
You could receive nothing in the way
of clothing without giving up the corres
ponding article which you might chanco to
possess. All money was also taken away.
Every third day thero were negro sen
tinels on duty, whoso ‘insolence and bru
tality were intolerable.’ If a prisoner
crossed the dead line, tbeir warning was
the olick of -the lock, sometimes the dis
charge of the musket.
The shelter at Point Lookout was at the
rate one ‘A tent, —covering about six feet
square—to each squad of five; or one
Sibley tent—diameter fifteen feet—to eve
cry eighteen men.
The author was transferred from Point
Lookout to Elmirs, where a number of the
officers in command were civil and kind,
and a number of them were brutes and
villains. One Captain Bowden, at this
prison, had before him, on one occosion, a
prisoner named Hale (of tbe old Stonewall
brigade) for drunkenness, and besought to
know where he got his liquor. Hale re
refused to tell, as it would compromise
others. He was accordingly tied up by
the thumbs, suffering exquisite torture, but
ho refused to peach, and called on his fel
low prisoners to remember this when they
got home.—Bowden grew exasperated,
eu4 attempted t» gag. him by fastening a
heavy oak tent-pin in his mouth sufficient
ly—a diffioult operation. He struck him
in the face with the oaken billet, a blow
wbicb broke several of bis toeth and cov
ered his mouth with blood I
At Elmira the most scandalous neglect
existed in the hospitals in the matter of
providing tbe patients with proper food.
‘I do not doubt that many of them per
ished from actual starvation-’
There was also ‘an inexcusable deficien
ciency in medicine.' Several weeks, in
which dysentery and inflammation of the
bowels prevailed, there was not a gram of
any preparation of opium in tho dispensa
ry, and many a poor fellow died for the
want of this medicine- The doctors were
also extremely ignorant. Tbe mortality
which took place exceeded even the report
ed mortality at Andersonville.
At Andersonville, out oi a population of
36,000, 0,000, or one-sixth of all, died,
from February 1,1804, to August 1, ltjt>4.
At Elmira, the quota was not made up till
the last of August, so that September was
tbe first month during which any fair esti
mate of tbe morality could bo made.
Now, out of less than 9,500 persons on
the first of September, 300 died that
month. At Andersonville, it was one thir
ty-sixth of the whole per month; at El
mira, it was one twenty-fifth. At first it
was less than three per cent, per month ;
at the latter it was four per cent, per
month.
Our article is already extended. "We
commend Mr. Kelley’s book—it is called
“In Yinculi; or, tbe Prisoner of War”—
to our readers as the production of an in
telligent, well informed and truthful wri
ter.
Odors of Disease. —The odor of small pox
has been compared to tbe smell of a bo
goat; that of measles to a fresh plucked
goose; scarlatina to cheese. The smell of
plagoe has been compared with the odor of
May flowers, and that of typhus with a
Coßsack. That the typhus ammonia has
often been observed, and the best and most
recent investigators agree that it is a com
pound of ammonia. Probably the more
intense the smell tbe more operative tbe
poison; hence the necessity on tbe part of
attendants to avoid inhaling this concentrat
ed poison.
Isaac McLaughlin, of Piatt County, 11.
linois bought bis neighbor’s cattle on cred
it, raised $15,000 on the animals, and (
much to his own discredit, cut both ooun
ty and creditors.
VOL. I.—NO. 15.
GXN. HILL'S MAGAZINE.
The second and Juba * number of “The
Land We Love,” exhibits the same pleas
ing character as its predecessor. The edi
tor continues his remarks upon education
in the South, discussing in tbe present
paper the sparse population in the South
compared with New Eogland and Great
Britain; enlarging upon the rewards whiob
the latter country has bestowed upon her
scholars, inventors, artista, literary men, and
men of science, and comparing this with
the past course of the South, as fol
lows:
Our authors have had to take their man
uscripts North, or leave their hooka un
published. Henoe, literature haa dwind
led down from folios aud quartos to polit
ical pamphlets or ephemeral newspapers.
Our Washington Alston had to go to New
England with his pictures, and painting
ceased to be cultivated at the South. Our
Audubon had to take his drawings to Eu
rope, and no such student of nature has
arisen since. Our Holmes and Bachman
have more reputation abroad than at home,
and natural science has languished for
Want of sympathy and encouragement
Our McCormick had to go North with
his reaper, which now cuts the harvest of
the world. Our John Gill, of New Berne,
N. C., had to turn over his great inven
tion to Colt, which, under better manage
ment, has revolutionized the whole system
of warfare. Gill died in poverty, while Colt
made his millions; He died unhonored;
*but the wise British policy rewarded Aim
strong for a less invention with knighthood
and bounties. Our Brooke solved the prob
lem of tho deep-sea sounding apparatus
upon which the scientific men of Europe had
labored; bat Brooke would have starved to
death at the South in a purely scientific
balling.
Our Wells explained the theory of dew,
of which the world had been ignorant for
nearly six thousand years; but be bad to go
across, the ocean to make his discoveries
known. Can language be found strong
enough to condemn our eriminal neglect
of talent? It has not been an error merely;
it has been a great and egregions sin.
The artiole closes with a notice of the
skill and ingenuity whioh necessity devel
oped to such a great degree in the South
duriDgtbe war.
Recently in a town not a thousand
miles from Columbus, a young man who
loved wisely and well, proposed, was accept
ed, and proceeded to procure tho marriage
license from the proper official in the coun
try town. He was a little sensitive on the
point of publicity, and left home for a
horseback ride to said county seat, dressed
apparently in his old every-day clothes.
Under' these, however, he wore bis “Sun
day-go-to-meetins,” and on nearing the
point of destination, bitched his horse, laid
off bis old clothes, and tripped lightly over
the bridge into town, a very dandy in un
ruffled smoothness. It so happened that
he shed his clothes and tied his horse near
a stream of considerable depth. Men dis
covered both, end soon concluded that some
reckless young man had been drowned.—
The subject was thoroughly oanvassed,and
preparations made to drag tbe steeam for
the body. A large crowd had collected
by this time, and tbe excitement was in
tense. The proceedings were stopped by
an excited individual plunging across the
bridge, springing on tbe borse, and gallop
ing away. The inference at once was
that the young man had stolen the horse
and several farmers started immediately in
pursuit. Young man saw them and whip
ped up to fall speed. The race was a close
one for several miles, when he dodged
them by taking a bypath through the
woods. He was again discovered, how
evr, and again tbe chase by many new
comers with fresh horses. Pell-mell, rough
and tumble, tbe pursuedf and pursuers
went through tbe county for many mues
creating everywhere excitement. At last
the young man neared tbe residence of big
intended bride. He rode at once to the
gate, dismounted, and plunged into the
house, as the pursuing party dashed up, he
declaring that they “couldn’t have his
license without riding hard for them,” and
that be wouldn’t give them up without a
fuss. Explanation sucoeeded explanationjand
there was a hearty laugh at the expense of
tbe unsophisticated youth who had been
pursued as a horse thief, bnt who only
labored under tbe misapprehension that
bis pursuers wanted to rob him of hb
marriage license.— Ohio State Journal.