Book Description

Excerpt from A Treatise on Field Fortification: Containing Instructions on the Methods of Layingout, Constructing, Defending, and Attacking, Intrenchments; With the General Outlines Also of the Arrangement, the Attack and Defence of Permanent Fortifications Much that appertains to the Engineer's Art is but an affair of feet and inches; facts which are the results of long usage, holding, in many instances, the important position of principles. His experience has taught him that those authors are the clearest who enter into the minutiae of their subject; and that with pupils of superior minds, a thorough knowledge of details is an invaluable aid in unravelling the difficulties, and retaining the principles of the Art; whilst, with those of limited capacities, a want of such detail leaves them with the most vague and unsatisfactory notions. Having said thus much of the plan of the work, a few words, respecting its object, may not be misplaced. The importance of a knowledge of Field Fortification, to officers of all arms in the regular army, need not be insisted upon; the daily occurrences of a campaign demonstrate this too clearly. To the militia officer, this knowledge is even of more importance than to the regular; for called upon, in many cases, to act without the co-operation of regular troops, in the defence of his own fire-side, he will require all those conservative means which add strength and confidence to irregular forces when brought for the first time before an enemy. To suppose irregular forces capable of coping on equal terms with disciplined troops, is to reason, not only against all probability, but against a vast weight of testimony to the contrary. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."