Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918: Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2Various
History
Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918: Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2
Various
World War, 1914-1918
Hannibal at Cannae, in 216, had 50,000 veterans against Varro's 50,000
Romans, who were drawn up with their backs to the sea, and were thus
unable to withdraw before Hannibal's overwhelming onslaught. Julius
Caesar at Alesia had 50,000 Romans against 80,000 Gallic infantry and
15,000 cavalry. At Pharsalus, in the civil war, the Pompeians, with
60,000, were routed by the Caesareans with 25,000, losing 15,000, while
Julius Caesar lost only 200. Augustus Caesar formed a standing army of
300,000, his legions consisting of 3,000 heavy infantry, 1,200 light
infantry, and 300 cavalry each.
Genghiz Khan began with a small force of 6,000, with which he fought and
conquered his father-in-law, who had 10,000. At the Battle of the Indus,
Genghiz Khan commanded a huge army of 300,000 Tartars. At the battle of
Karakin, in 1218, he led 700,000 Tartars against 400,000 Kharismians,
completely defeating them. Oliver Cromwell's army, in its most complete
form, numbered about 80,000. The army of Frederick the Great, at its
highest point of efficiency, numbered 200,000, while the army of Louis
XIV. numbered 240,000 men.
In 1793, when Republican France was threatened with invasion, and Carnot
was "organizing victory," the effective French forces probably numbered
300,000, though the total number available under the newly introduced
system of conscription was four times as many, about a million and a
quarter. At the battle of Auerstadt-Jena, on Oct. 14, 1806, Napoleon had
a French Army of 160,000, against some 140,000 Prussians. About this
time Napoleon made the army corps the practical unit instead of the
division, as formerly. The Grand Army, which invaded Russia in 1812,
totaled 467,000, but this included 280,000 foreign troops. At the battle
of Leipsic, a year after the retreat from Moscow, Napoleon, with
155,000, faced 160,000 Austrians, 60,000 Prussians, and 60,000 Swedes
under the recreant Frenchman Bernadotte, the ancestor of the present
King of Sweden.
At Waterloo, the French Army is said to have numbered 72,000, against
whom were drawn up, at the beginning of the battle, 24,000 British and
43,500 Dutch and Belgian troops. The Dutch and Belgians withdrew before
the end of the battle, their place being taken by Blücher's contingent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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