, 1862-09-20

The Count Gurowski has published an ar
ticle entitled " War;" in which he contends
that it has one cardinal, absolute rule
''Rapidity of Movement" This has been
illustrated by the success of Burnside, Pope,
Curtis and Mitchell, on our side, and by
that of Price and Jackson, Ito say nothing
of Ashby) on tie other. The deepest hu-
miliations we have suffered have resulted
from an opposite policy, witness Bowling
Green, Corinth, Manassas, Yorktown and
Richmond. Says the Count:
To rapidity of movement all the great
captains owe their fame, their victories and
conquests, recorded in history. From Cy-
rus down to Stonewall Jackson, rapidity of
movement and its result, surprise of the en-
envy, assured all the victories. business of
eye, quickness in appreciating the exigen-
cies on a craven field of battle, rapidity 70
profit by the eventual faults of the enemy,
the inspiration of the moment, this highest
gift and attribute of a military genius, all
are corollaries to the above-named golden
rule. Always all-deciding, all-powerful, it
remained the same with the various tactics
1t was decisive for the Macedonian phalanx,
for the Roman legions, and for our modern
regiments, brigades and divisions
To this Lightning g-like rapidity of move
ments, Alexander the Great was indebted,
not only for his victories on the Granicus
aud on the plains of Arbela, but also those
conquests from the Nile to Bactria and In
dus Hannibal surprised the Romans by
the rapidity of his march from Spain to It.
ally, and by that other with which he
pounced upon them on the Ticino, at Trasl-
meme, at Canne. Any one familiar with
Caesars annals admires the almost unsur-
passed rapidity with which he moved his
legions in Gallia-a country then without
roads-and afterward in all parts of the
world or the Roman Empire.
Gustavus of Sweden, with a force oi
about 10000 men, moved in all directions
of Germany, between the Rhine and the
Elbe, dealing blow after blow at his panic
stricken enemies.
d" Charles XII, for years owed his success
to his restless military mobility. Frederick
the Great, a sovereign of about 100000
of subjects, had at one time on his hands,
France, Austria, Russia and Saxony, with
an aggregate of about 63, 900, 900 of finhab-
itants With his little army he moved,
shuttlelike, from Brandenburg to Silesia,
Bohemia and Saxony, boarding and whip
ping his numerous enemies.
4" Napoleon terrified the Old World by
the torrent-like rapidity with which he
rushed from the Alps, flying rather than
marching from the frontiers of France to
those of Istria and Tyrol. His campaigns
of Marengo, Ulm, Austerlitz and Jena are
one uninterrupted conservation of the gold
en- rule When Napoleons rapid move
ments were crowned by taking Mack and
his army prisoners at Ulm, the French sol
diers taunted their leader by saying thai
hitherto he had won battles with their arms
but now he won them with their legs. Oul
only successes are won by the rapid move
ments of Pope, Grant, Mitchell and Nor
gan (in Tennessee and our disasters are
inflicted by the ubiquitous Stonewall Jack
son.
" Any student of the Napoleonic cam
paigns will find that even he handled with
greater ease smaller than larger numbers
So in his first Italian campaign, so at Ma
rengo, so at Austerlitz. Reason and logic
establish that it must be so, as the longer
the line, the larger the numbers, the more
difficult to make them move as one man
the more numerous the physical and the in
tellectlal impediments." i"