Elements of Military Art and Science

Elements of Military Art and Science

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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
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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.

CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE 5
I. INTRODUCTION.--Dr. Wayland's Arguments on the Justifiableness of War briefly examined. 7
II. STRATEGY.--General Divisions of the Art.--Rules for planning a Campaign.--Analysis of the Military Operations of Napoleon. 35
III. FORTIFICATIONS.--Their importance in the Defence of States proved by numerous Historical Examples. 61
IV. LOGISTICS.--Subsistence.--Forage.--Marches.--Convoys.-- Castrametation. 88
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. 114
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. 135
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. 155
VIII. OUR NORTHERN FRONTIER DEFENCES.--Brief Description of the Fortifications on the Frontier, and an analysis of our Northern Campaigns. 210
IX. ARMY ORGANIZATION.--Staff and Administrative Corps.--Their History, Duties, Numbers, and Organization. 235
X. ARMY ORGANIZATION.--Infantry and Cavalry.--Their History, Duties, Numbers, and Organization. 256
XI. ARMY ORGANIZATION.--Artillery.--Its History and Organization, with a Brief Notice of the different kinds of Ordnance, the Manufacture of Projectiles, &c. 275
XII. ARMY ORGANIZATION.--Engineers.--Their History, Duties, and Organization,--with a Brief Discussion, showing their importance as a part of a modern Army Organization. 300
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. 327
XIV. FIELD ENGINEERING.--Field Fortifications.--Military Communications.--Military Bridges.--Sapping, Mining, and the Attack and Defence of a Fortified Place. 342
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. 378
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. They were 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