Elements of Military Art and Science - Or, Course Of Instruction In Strategy, Fortification, Tactics Of Battles, &C.; Embracing The Duties Of Staff, Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, And Engineers; Adapted To The Use Of Volunteers And Militia; Third Edition; With Critical Notes On The Mexican And Crimean Wars.

Henry Wager Halleck

Informations

• Publié par: pheys
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 31
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Elements of Military Art and Science
by Henry Wager Halleck
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Elements of Military Art and Science
Or, Course Of Instruction In Strategy, Fortification,
Tactics Of Battles, &C.; Embracing The Duties Of Staff,
Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, And Engineers; Adapted To
The Use Of Volunteers And Militia; Third Edition; With
Critical Notes On The Mexican And Crimean Wars.
Author: Henry Wager Halleck
Release Date: July 1, 2005 [EBook #16170]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ART ***
Produced by Graeme Mackreth and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net.
ELEMENTS
OF
MILITARY ART AND SCIENCE:
OR,
COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN STRATEGY,
FORTIFICATION, TACTICS OF BATTLES, &c.
EMBRACING THE DUTIES OF STAFF, INFANTRY, CAVALRY,
ARTILLERY, AND ENGINEERS.
ADAPTED TO THE USE OF VOLUNTEERS AND MILITIA.
THIRD EDITION.
WITH CRITICAL NOTES ON THE MEXICAN AND CRIMEAN WARS.
BY
H. WAGER HALLECK, A.M., MAJOR GENERAL, U.S.A.
NEW YORK:D. APPLETON & COMPANY,
443 & 445 BROADWAY.
LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN
1862.
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846, BY D. APPLETON
& COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for
the Southern District of New York.
I. INTRODUCTION.—Dr. Wayland's Arguments on the Justifiableness of War
briefly examined.
II. STRATEGY.—General Divisions of the Art.—Rules for planning a
Campaign.—Analysis of the Military Operations of Napoleon.
III. FORTIFICATIONS.—Their importance in the Defence of States proved by
numerous Historical Examples.
IV. LOGISTICS.—Subsistence.—Forage.—Marches.—Convoys.—
Castrametation.
V. TACTICS.—The Twelve Orders of Battle, with Examples of each.—Different
Formations of Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, and Engineers on the Field of Battle,
with the Modes of bringing Troops into action./p>
VI. MILITARY POLITY.—The Means of National Defence best suited to the
character and condition of a Country, with a brief Account of those adopted by
the several European Powers.
VII. DEFENCE OF OUR SEA-COAST.—Brief Description of our Maritime
Fortifications, with an Examination of the several Contests that have taken
place between Ships and Forts, including the Attack on San Juan d'Ulloa, and
on St. Jean d'Acre.
VIII. OUR NORTHERN FRONTIER DEFENCES.—Brief Description of the
Fortifications on the Frontier, and an analysis of our Northern Campaigns.
IX. ARMY ORGANIZATION.—Staff and Administrative Corps.—Their History,
Duties, Numbers, and Organization.
X. ARMY ORGANIZATION.—Infantry and Cavalry.—Their History, Duties,
Numbers, and Organization.
XI. ARMY ORGANIZATION.—Artillery.—Its History and Organization, with a
Brief Notice of the different kinds of Ordnance, the Manufacture of Projectiles,
&c.
XII. ARMY ORGANIZATION.—Engineers.—Their History, Duties, and
Organization,—with a Brief Discussion, showing their importance as a part of a
modern Army Organization.
XIII. PERMANENT FORTIFICATIONS. Historical Notice of the progress of this
Art.—Description of the several parts of a Fortress, and the various Methods of
fortifying a Position.
XIV. FIELD ENGINEERING.—Field Fortifications.—Military Communications.
—Military Bridges.—Sapping, Mining, and the Attack and Defence of a Fortified
Place.
XV. MILITARY EDUCATION.—Military Schools of France, Prussia, Austria,
Russia, England, &c.—Washington's Reasons for establishing the West Point
Academy.—Rules of Appointment and Promotion in Foreign Services.—
Absurdity and Injustice of our own System.
EXPLANATION OF PLATES 409
PREFACE
The following pages were hastily thrown together in the form of lectures, and
delivered, during, the past winter, before the Lowell Institute of Boston. Theywere written without the slightest intention of ever publishing them; but several
officers of militia, who heard them delivered, or afterwards read them in
manuscript, desire their publication, on the ground of their being useful to a
class of officers now likely to be called into military service. It is with this view
alone that they are placed in the hands of the printer. No pretension is made to
originality in any part of the work; the sole object having been to embody, in a
small compass, well established military principles, and to illustrate these by
reference to the events of past history, and the opinions and practice of the best
generals.
Small portions of two or three of the following chapters have already appeared,
in articles furnished by the author to the New York and Democratic Reviews,
and in a "Report on the Means of National Defence," published by order of
Congress.
H.W.H.
MAY, 1846.
ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ART AND SCIENCE.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Our distance from the old world, and the favorable circumstances in which we
have been placed with respect to the other nations of the new world, have
made it so easy for our government to adhere to a pacific policy, that, in the
sixty-two years that have elapsed since the acknowledgment of our national
independence, we have enjoyed more than fifty-eight of general peace; our
Indian border wars have been too limited and local in their character to
seriously affect the other parts of the country, or to disturb the general
conditions of peace. This fortunate state of things has done much to diffuse
knowledge, promote commerce, agriculture, and manufactures; in fine, to
increase the greatness of the nation and the happiness of the individual. Under
these circumstances our people have grown up with habits and dispositions
essentially pacific, and it is to be hoped that these feelings may not soon be
changed. But in all communities opinions sometimes run into extremes; and
there are not a few among us who, dazzled by the beneficial results of a long
peace, have adopted the opinion that war in any case is not only useless, but
actually immoral; nay, more, that to engage in war is wicked in the highest
degree, and even brutish.
All modern ethical writers regard unjust war as not only immoral, but as one of
the greatest of crimes—murder on a large scale. Such are all wars of mere
ambition, engaged in for the purpose of extending regal power or national
sovereignty; wars of plunder, carried on from mercenary motives; wars of
propagandism, undertaken for the unrighteous end of compelling men to adopt
certain religious or political opinions, whether from the alleged motives of
"introducing a more orthodox religion," or of "extending the area of freedom."
Such wars are held in just abhorrence by all moral and religious people: and
this is believed to be the settled conviction of the great mass of our own
citizens.
But in addition to that respectable denomination of Christians who deny our
right to use arms under any circumstances, there are many religious
enthusiasts in other communions who, from causes already noticed, have
adopted the same theory, and hold all wars, even those in self-defence, as
unlawful and immoral. This opinion has been, within the last few years, pressed
on the public with great zeal and eloquence, and many able pens have been
enlisted in its cause. One of the most popular, and by some regarded one of the
most able writers on moral science, has adopted this view as the only one
consonant with the principles of Christian morality.
It has been deemed proper, in commencing a course of lectures on war, to
make a few introductory remarks respecting this question of its justifiableness.
We know of no better way of doing this than to give on the one side the
objections to war as laid down in Dr. Wayland's Moral Philosophy, and on the
other side the arguments by which other ethical writers have justified a resort to
war. We do not select Dr. Wayland's work for the purpose of criticizing so
distinguished an author; but because he is almost the only writer on ethics whoadvocates these views, and because the main arguments against war are here
given in brief space, and in more moderate and temperate language than that
used by most of his followers. I shall give his arguments in his own language.
"I. All wars are contrary to the revealed will of God."
It is said in reply, that if the Christian religion condemns all wars, no matter how
just the cause, or how necessary for self-defence, we must expect to find in the
Bible some direct prohibition of war, or at least a prohibition fairly implied in
other direct commandments. But the Bible nowhere prohibits war: in the Old
Testament we find war and even conquest positively commanded, and
although war was raging in the world in the time of Christ and his apostles, still
they said not a w