THE stupendous character of the battle of Picardy is realized when the
numbers engaged in previous noted battles of history are considered.
Setting aside the mythical five millions of the army of Xerxes and the
ten thousand of Xenophon, accurate figures in Greece are recorded for
the campaigns of Philip of Macedon and his more famous son. At
Cheronaea, fought in B. C. 338, Philip had 30,000 infantry and 2,000
cavalry, the latter led by Alexander, then 18 years old. Alexander's
cavalry attack on the flank won the battle, driving back the Athenians
and Thebans, who were slightly outnumbered. At Arbela, in October, 331,
Alexander the Great, with 47,000 Macedonians, defeated a Persian force
three or four times as great, piercing between the Persian left and
centre. Pyrrhus of Epirus had, at Asculum, in the year 279, 45,000
infantry against an equal number of Romans, but he had elephants,
practically equivalent to artillery.
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.
The forces commanded by George Washington were always numerically small,
a few thousand only, and were in ceaseless flux. In 1790, the American
Army consisted of 1,216 men. In the war of 1812, the invading force,
which burned the national capital, numbered 3,500 men. At the beginning
of the American civil war, the regular army numbered 15,300. Between
April, 1861, and April, 1865, the total Federal forces enrolled amounted
to 2,759,049, while the Confederates enrolled about 1,100,000, making a
total of practically 4,000,000 from a population of 32,000,000; this
would be equivalent to an army of from 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 with the
present population of the United States. The total furnished for the war
with Spain was 10,017 officers and 213,218 men.
The Austrian Army at Sadowa numbered 200,000; the French Army at Sedan
some 120,000. At the battle of Mukden, Russians and Japanese each had a
force of about 300,000, the largest number in any modern battle up to
that time, though greatly outnumbered by Genghiz Khan.