Wabash Express

A Glance at the Past—Battles in Europe

As a matter of interest, at present we give the following results of desperate battles fought in Europe since 1812:

On the heights, four miles from Salamanca in Spain, the English and Spaniards under Wellington, totally defeated the French under Marmont, on the 22d July, 1812. The allies lost 5000 men, and the French 16,000.

At the battle of Smolensko, in Russia, in 1812, the French loss was 17,000, and that of the Russians 10,000.

At Borodino, on the 7th September, was fought a desperate battle between the Russians and French. The French lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners, 50,000, and the Russians about the same number. The survivors of the French army, from the Russian campaign, were not more than 35,000 out of an army of 500,000 men.

At Lutzen, in Prussian Saxony, on the 2d of May, 1813, the allied Russian and Prussian forces were defeated by the French under Napoleon, the French losing 18,000, and the allies 15,000.

At Bautzen, in Saxony, on the 21st and 22d May, 1813, a battle took place between the allies and the French, in which the French loss was put down at 25,000 men, and that of the allies at 15,000.

At Dresden, in Saxony, on the 16th and 17th August, 1813, the allies were defeated by the French. The loss of the allies was about 25,000 killed, wounded and prisoners, and that of the French about 12,000.

At Leipsic, in Saxony, in October, 1813, a desperate battle was fought, which lasted three days, and the French were totally defeated by the allies. Napoleon lost two marshals, twenty generals and 60,000 men. The allies lost 1790 officers and about 40,000 men.

At Vitoria, in Spain, on the 21st June, 1813, the English and French fought a battle in which the French lost 7000 and the English 5180.

At Toulouse, in France, Wellington defeated the French under Soult, on the 10th April, 1814. The French loss was 3790; allied army's loss 4580.

In the indecisive battle at Quatre Bras, in Belgium, on the 16th of June, the day before that of Waterloo, the allies lost 5200 men, and the French 4000.

At Waterloo the total loss of the allies was 15,636 men. Napoleon's loss was about 40,000.

Neither the Austrians nor Prussians can derive much encouragement from history to engage in a war with France. The French troops have only been matched in these wars by the English, the Spaniards and the Russians—scarcely by the last named.