Miscellany: The Horrors Of War

The following extract from a review of AtiPON'6 lüstory of Enrópe, in a late number of the " minister Review" presenta a most appaüing picture of tbe horrors of war} "Historians," snys the rcviettef, have never given a fnll and fair analysisof what war ís. Tliey have desCribed the marches, the sieges, the able manoeuvres the ingenióos strat agems, thé galiant enterprisps the desperate conflicte, the mnsterly combinations, t!ie acts of heroic daring, w%b whicrr war aftouads, nnd they liave aumiued up thosc descriptions of battïes which we rend with breatliless interest, by informmg os that the victory was gainsd with a loss of so mnny thousand killed and wounded- so roany thousands taken prisoners- and so many siandards and pieces of artillery taken from thé enemy. But all this is only the outside coloring of war, and goes Jitlle way towards making us acquaïnted with its real diameter. Historiara rarely teil ns of the privation suffbred- the diseases engendcrert- the tortures undergone during a campaign;- still less the vices ripened, the elfiiihness confinned, the hearts Inrdened by this lemporary repeal o( all the principies of virtue. They do nol speokof the ties brolten - of the peasants ruined- of the heartbs made desolate - of grief never to bn ccunforted. - of shame never to be wiped away - of theburden of abiding affictiiowbrought upon many a happy hosehold- of all the nameless atrocities onb of which. in peaceful times-woulff moke our blood run cold, but which jn'War are commitled daily by thousand, with impunity. Historians rarely ever present us with bucIj pictures as the following; and yet these ara tho inevitable aecómpaoiments of war;!'"Such was the terrible battle of Éylau, fought in the depth of winler midst ice and snow, under circumstances of unexampled horror. The loss on both sides was immense; and never in modern times has a field of battle been strewn with such a multitudeof'sJoin. On the side of the llussians 24.000 had fallen. of whom above 7,000 were already no more; on that of the Frenen upwards of 30,000 werc killed or wounded, and neaily 10,000 had left their colore under pretence of altending to the wounded. Never was aspectacle so dreadful np the field presented on the following morning. Above 50,000 raen Iay in the space of two leagues, weltering n blood. The wounds were, for the most part, of the eeverest kind, from the extraordmary quantity of canaon batís which had been discharged during the action, and the close proximity of the contending masses to the deadly batteries which spread their grape at half-musket ahot thro their ranks. Though stretched on the cold snow, and exposed to the severity of anarctic winter, they were burniBg with thirst, and piieous cries were heard on all sides for wa ter, for ossistance to extricate the wounded men from the heaps of slain, or the load of horses by which they were crushed. Six thousand of these noble animáis encumbered the field, or mnddened wiih pain, weresbrieking nloud amid the stifled groans of the wounded." - fAlison, vi„ d. 8i.On Sunday forenoon I fonnd a crowd collected round a car in which wounded soldiere lind just returned from Russia, No grenade, or grape could have 8o disfigured these victims of the cold. One of them had lost upper joints of all his ten fingere, and he ehowed us the stumps. Another wanted both ears and noee. More horrible wos The look of a third, wliote eyes iïcl been frozen; the eyelids hung down rotting, th6 globes of the eyes were burst.and protruded from iMrsockets. It was awfu'ly hideous: but a speüísc yet more dreadful was to present iteelf. Out tf te straw in the bottom of a car, I now bcheld ti figure creep painfuliy, which one could scarce y believe to be a human being, 60 wild and distorted were feattires : the lips werc rotted away, the teeth etood exposed: he pulled the clothf'rom his mouth, and grinned on us likea death's head."- [Alison, iv.f 112. Tlie followíng is a descripción of the state of the town bCl gnrrioo of - troásij ■ mThe ravages vvhich a contagioua fever (the consequences of their privation,) made on the inhabitants, added to the public drstress. Not less than three hundred were carried off by it in a week, among fie citizens alone. - Two hundred dead bodies were every day brought out of the military hoEpiials Such was the accuniulation in the churchyards that the grave -diggers could not inter them and they we e taid naked. in gha6tly rows, along the place of the sepulture. The bodies were heaped in such numbers on the dead carts, that they frequently feil from them, nnd the wheels gave n frightful sound in cracking the bones of the bodies which thus lay upon the streels. The hospital atiéndante and cartero trompled down the corpse in the carts, like baggage or etraw to make room f'ir more; and not unfrquently some of the bodies guve Bigns of life, and even uttered shrieks under this hnrsh usage. Several bodies thrown ïnlo the Elb for dead, were revived by the budden immersion incold water, and the wretchee were seen struggling in vain in the waves, by which they were soon swallowed up. - Medicines nnd hospital stores there were none, and al most all the surgeöns and apothecaries were dead.- [Alison, ix., 643.