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by Henry Wager Halleck

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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.

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. 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 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 who advocates 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 word of its unlawfulness and immorality. Moreover, the fathers of the church amply acknowledge the right of war, and directly assert, that when war is justly declared, the Christian may engage in it either by stratagem or open force. If it be of that highly wicked and immoral character which some have recently attributed to it, most assuredly it would be condemned in the Bible in terms the most positive and unequivocal.

But it has been said that the use of the sword is either directly or typically forbidden to the Christian, by such passages as "Thou shalt not kill," (Deut. v. 17,) "I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also," (Matt. v. 39,) &c. If these passages are to be taken as literal commands, as fanatics and religious enthusiasts would have us believe, not only is war unlawful, but also all our penal statutes, the magistracy, and all the institutions of the state for the defence of individual rights, the protection of the innocent, and the punishment of the guilty. But if taken in conjunction with the whole Bible, we must infer that they are hyperbolical expressions, used to impress strongly on our minds the general principle of love and forgiveness, and that, so far as possible, we over come evil with good. Can any sober-minded man suppose, for a moment, that we are commanded to encourage the attacks of the wicked, by literally turning the left cheek when assaulted on the right, and thus induce the assailant to commit more wrong? Shall we invite the thief and the robber to persevere in his depredations, by literally giving him a cloak when he takes our coat; and the insolent and the oppressor to proceed in his path of crime, by going two miles with him if he bid us to go one?

Again, if the command, "Thou shalt not kill," is to be taken literally, it not only prohibits us from engaging in just war, and forbids the taking of human life by the state, as a punishment for crime; it also forbids, says Dr. Leiber, our taking the life of any animal, and even extends to the vegetable kingdom,—for undoubtedly plants have life, and are liable to violent death—to be killed. But Dr. Wayland concedes to individuals the right to take vegetable and animal life, and to society the right to punish murder by death. This passage undoubtedly means, thou shalt not unjustly kill,—thou shalt do no murder; and so it is rendered in our prayer-books. It cannot have reference to war, for on almost the next page we find the Israelites commanded to go forth and smite the heathen nations,—to cast them out of the land,—to utterly destroy them,—to show them no mercy, &c. If these passages of the Bible are to be taken literally, there is no book which contains so many contradictions; but if taken in connection with the spirit of other passages, we shall find that we are permitted to use force in preventing or punishing crime, whether in nations or in individuals; but that we should combine love with justice, and free our hearts from all evil motives.

II. All wars are unjustifiable, because "God commands us to love every man, alien or citizen, Samaritan or Jew, as ourselves; and the act neither of society nor of government can render it our duty to violate this command."

It is true that no act of society