A Little Garrison
A REALISTIC NOVEL of GERMAN ARMY LIFE of TO-DAY
By FRITZ VON DER KYRBURG (Lieutenant Bilse) · Translated, Edited and with a Special Introduction by WOLF VON SCHIERBRAND Author of “Germany: the Welding of a World Power,” “The Kaiser’s Speeches,” etc., etc.
NEW YORK · FREDERICK A.
STOKES COMPANY · Publishers
Copyright, 1904,
By Frederick A. Stokes Company.
All rights reserved.
This edition published in January, 1904.
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
Contents
Introduction
In his book, Le Débâcle, Zola shows in a vivid and intelligible manner the downfall of Napoleon III. and his army, and paints in his usual matter-of-fact tints the actual condition of the great host led forth to destruction. He makes us read in the soul of the common French soldier and in that of his commanding officer. The keen analysis of the characters he portrays enables us humanly to understand the catastrophe on the plains of Sedan. The whole Second Empire undermined by corruption; the army, head and front, honeycombed with loose morals, favoritism, and boundless conceit,—we begin to perceive the main reasons underlying the utter defeat of a gallant nation. And this all the more when, side by side with the sombre painting of Zola, we read the God-fearing letters written home from the reeking battlefields by William I. and his Iron Chancellor.