Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ... NOTES ON THE EVOLUTION OF INFANTRY TACTICS. CHAPTER I. M Discipline " means "collective will-power"--Its importance better understood formerly when war was chronic--Battles won by collective action of masses, not by the skill of individuals--Impossibility of conducting a "battle" in individual order--Causes of existing confusion of thought--Fire has always, since the days of Gustavus Adolphus, been the prime factor of success--How generals have striven to obtain it--Defects of various methods--Origin of the slow march--General method of attack previous to the French Revolution--Its difficulties--The disappearance of skirmishers and its cause--Their reappearance in Prussia under the name of " Freischaaren "--Attempts to regulate their action--Differences of opinion between the "Line " and " Skirmisher" schools--Entrenchments in the first half of the eighteenth century--Causes which led to their adoption--The lines of Weissenburg--Miiller's 'Elements of Field Fortification'--Fire and obstacles to be faced in the old days--Yet the assault frequently succeeded--Conclusions--Our forefathers were no "butchers"--. Recruiting difficulties restrained them--Skirmishing in North America--Advantages of the Colonists--The first "khaki" battalion--German Staff officer on British red uniforms--Tactical and strategical considerations influencing the choice of colour for uniforms--Officers as rallying points--General Jacob and the Scinde Horse--Colonial ideas filter into receptive French minds--Social causes at work in French army--Paper warfare between the partisans of "Fordrc mince and Pordi-eprofonde"--The camp at Vassieux--Outbreak of the wars of the French Revolution. Ever since firearms became the decisive factor on the field of battle, the...