THE ART OF WAR.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3602, 27 January 1883, Page 4

THE ART OF WAR.

lii his " Soldier's Pocket-book" Sir Garnet Wolseley gave some curious statistics about the number of men who actually fight m a great battle, or who are at any time under fire. During the great battles of the FrancoGerman War, the numbers engaged were so great that seldom more than two-thirds of those present were ever under fire at all At Sadowa, in 1860, the Prussians brought 221,000 men into the field, but only 129,000 came under fire. In the same battle,'the defeatedAustrians brought 215,000 men into the field, but no less than 65,000 of these were over in action. When we consider the tremendous fighting in 1870 and the number of battles, it is surprising to loam that only 7000 men were killed and less than 50,000 men woiuided in the German army timing the whole war by rifle bullets; and still more remarkable that only 700 men ere d and Uio mounded by artillery fire. When we compare the losses incurred at such battles as Gravelotte and Sedan with those incurred in the smoothbore days of Borodino and Waterloo, it is plain that increased facilities for destroying are not accompanied by. a corresponding amount of destruction. At Gravelotte the Germans lost 1.60 per cent, in killed, and 5.46 per cent, in woiuided. At Borodino the Russians lost" 10 per cent, in killed and 30 per •■cut i v wounded ; the French, who were the victors, having a still higher proportion.