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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.