Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-09
LAND AND WATER MARCHES.
Col. Bigelow Talks About the Trans
portation Of Troops.


Col. Bigelow Talks About the Trans
portation Of Troops.
TIE RELATIVE SPEED or nAMRoADs, sTHANKns
AND PEDEsrRIANs-rHH CAPACITY or RAIL
ROADS FoR MOVING TRooPs--wHxX x1x ON
FOOT HAvR THE ADVANTAGE.
Col. John Bigelow, IT,, acknowledgement Of
the national 0ard of the District, devoted his
last lecture to officers of the national guard
largely to an interesting discussion of the sub
ject OF communications and transportation. He
said: The seizing OF relatively rapid line Of
transportation may render all other lines
which would otherwise be available to the
enemy practically useless to him and thus con-
vert a dangerously open country into a
defensive obstacle. The principal communica-
tions OF theater Of war may usually be classed
under the three heads of roads, water and rail.
On good road good walker can easily do
miles an hour, but this far exceeds the powers
OF SOLDIER moving as one of a mass of men
loaded down IN the knapsack and overcoat, a
| gun and about 100 rounds of ammunition.
Furthermore, the soldier on the completion OF
his march does not find comfortable bed and
abundant dinner; he often has to 60 on out
post duty at once, and perhaps every third or
|
the ground and has spare and ill-cooked meal.
Notwithstanding all this, however, bodies of
troops can in cases Of emergency, be marched
for short distances at the rate of an ordinary
pedestrian.
Travelling on ordinary roads an army or a
mixed force of infantry cavalry. and artillery
with its baggage makes on an average about 2
miles an hour. and assuming it to observe the
elght-hour law of civil life, averages 16 miles
day. To compare this rate of travelling with
that LAT MAJ no Il
ON RATS and scows with neither steam nor sail
| to tow or to propel them. The rate of an ordi-
nary river current il miles an hour. the same
as that OF an army on a road. But while an
army can tramp it on an average but eight
hours out of twenty-four, a river
MARCHES EVERY HOUR,
day and night. In the time, therefore, that an
army makes a march of 16 miles on road an
ordinary river current would have carried il
As Thus the embarkation of an army to float
with the Gu, rent Of an ordinary river is equiv
alent to making it literally indefatigable on the
march.
Surprising an army on land to make long
days march, or 20 miles in twenty-four hours,
fast river current would in the same time
have lit " miles, or more than three-and-
a-half times as far. A foot march of over 20
miles in twenty -four hours is a forced march.
When it comes to the use of sail and steam,
the kind OF craft is so important and SO vari-
able factor that only the toughest estimate
can be made OF the rate of travel. A fair aver
age one for steam transports would be IL miles
an hour. For every ordinary days march that
an army makes on foot it would make the equiv
alent Of eighteen such marches (2SS miles) by
steamer.
TRAVEL By RAIL.
The rate of travel Of railroad trains convey
ing troops may be taken at twenty miles an
hour. Hence, in single day such train
would make the equivalent of thirty foot
marches $50 mlles). In this comparison be-
tween foot marches on one hand and water and
rail marches on the other, no account is taken
OF time necessary for assembling troops at the
place OF embarkation, collecting vessels and
rolling stock, fitting them up. preparing piers,
platforms, &C., embarking and debarking. or.
| finally, of the time-intervals between the
several conveyances as they leave the initial
point. Nor, on the other hand. is any account
taken of the days of rest and delays from
breakdowns. bad roads and other causes con-
nected with foot marching, which are obviated
or reduced to comparative unimportance in
marches by rail.
HOW 1T IS CALCULATED.
Where the number of troops to be moved
bears more than a certain proportion to the
number of miles to be travelled, no time is
gained by the use of rail or water transporta-
ton. Sir Garnet Wolseley estimates for Eng
lish double line railways, 600 sabers and bayo-
nets with their proportion of guns and baggage
as the maximum to the mile OF distance to be
made that can be advantageously moved by
rail. Probably the greatest feat of water trans
portatlon on record is the transference, in
1862, of General McClellans army from Wash
ington to his base on the peninsula.
'On the 9th of February, Mr.. Tucker, of the
War Department was placed in charge of the
undertaking, and commenced the collection
OF the necessary transports.
''On the 9Th of April he had transported to
Fort Monroe from Washington, Perryville and
Alexandria, distance of 1873 miles, I2l, 500 men,
1882 animals, l,l50 wagons, A batteries. "A
ambulances, besides ponton bridges telegraph
materials and the enormous quantity Of equip
age, DC, required for an army of such magni-
tude. The means by which this work was done
were: l13 steamers, 1873 schOoners, SS barges.
1t will be observed that it took exactly the same
transports, which it afterward took to embark
the troops and move them"
The movement Of Gen. Emory's corps from
Fort Monroe to Washington in 1854 was accom-
plished IN two days, or one-tenth the time it
took to move McClellan's army the same dis
lance. But Emory's corps numbered only
1900 men, about one-tenth as many as Nc
Clellans army 1t moved, moreover, wholly in
steamers, and when ordered to start was already
embarked, having just arrived from Louisiana.
HOW GEN. soHoEIELD's CORPS DID IT.
During our civil war the use of water and
rail transportation attained proportions which,
considering the distances moved over. have
never been surpassed Promine mt among those
movements is that of the twenty-third corps.
commanded by General SchofeId. the present
major general of the army.
The twenty-third army corps, after fighting
at Nashville in the midst of ice and snow in
December, 1864, was, on the conclusion of the
campaign in the west, transferred from the val
ley OF the Tennessee to the banks of the Po-
tomac, moving by river and rail down the Ten
nessee, up the Ohio, across the snow-cOvered
Alleghanies, distance Of 1,4O0 miles, and in
the short space Of eleven days was encamped
on the banks OF the Potomac, then blocked up
with the ice Of most severe winter Vessels
were collected to meet this corps, the obstacles
interposed by the ice were overcome and
early in February, the troops composing it
were fighting before Wilmington, on the coast
Of North Chrolina." REPORT Of Secretary Of
Warl
The principal factors in the transportation Of
armies by rail are:
/. The capacity Of train.
2. The time necessary for loading
8. The time-interval between trains
4. The rate of running.
8. The time necessary for unloading.
6. The number of railroads available
A consideration, too, Of some strategic i'm
portance Is the extra time required to assemble
the troops at the railroad stations or places of
embarkation, aud, upon their debarkation, to
redistribute them. or dispose of them anew,
upon the strategic chess-board.
In regard to the rate at which large bodies of
troops can be moved on q double-track line of
railroad, General Haupt, the superintendent of
rAilwava in orr iupa in ;ry;v;. a~o.o...n