Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-07-10
THE FUTURE OF WAR.
New Guns will NeceSSitate {
Change in Tactics.
WHAT GEN. FITZHUGH LEE SAYS.
Defensive Battles VIII Be at a Premium
and Defensive Warfare VIII be
Simplif1ed.

The modern guns will make great
changes in the art of war, and the plans
employed in former campaigns by the
greas commanders will receive many
notifications. Defensive battles will
be at premium, and defensive war
fare will be simplified Armies will
vancouver for position, and the gen.
erals commanding them will gain fame
by arrangements skillfully conducted to
concentrate their scattered battalions at
the proper time, with the purpose OF
forcing an antagonist to give rather
than to accept battle. If campaign
with designated objective point is
planned, and the strategy is offensive
on the part of one of the commanders,
if possible his tactics will be defensive.
Hostile armes will keep at greater dis
tances and in open country out of sight
of each other. unless they can take up
line at night and lntrench; and
direct flank movements will not be
attempted where troops are visible be-
fore the assault. Field balloons will
locate the position. and photography
mark the formation, of contending
forces, while telephones and electricity
will play prominent parts in the war
drama. Night marching and night at
tacks will be more frequent, and col
umns of troops organized to charge
stationary positions will be moved
under darkness to close points so that
the charge at dawn will occupy the
shortest time possible.
Raging battles will be fought by in
fantry and artillery. and one of the
problems will be the protection of the
horses that draw the guns. Temporary
field-works cannot shelter them, and
unless hills afford protection they will
perish in the leaden hail. Cavalry
will not be employed on the main field
of battle, but ON the tanks of armies
against cavalry. Cavalry ohieftains
will no longer assail infantry or artil-
lery, and no more charges will be re-
corded like those of Ponsonby at
WATERLOO or Murat at Jena. This
arm will still be effective in recon
naissances, picketing, guarding trains,
and as escorts; but except in small
bodies it's use for advance and rear
guards will be diminished. The target
presented is too large to be risked be-
fore field guns firing with great rapid
ity, even if several miles distant, as
we'll as before infantry rifles incessant-
ly flashing a mile away.
Maneuvering cavalry corps with,
say, $1,000 horses ON future battle
field would be a high type of cruelty
to animals; but the regiments. bri-
gades, and divisions composing it can
still render good service. They can be
moved with celebrity long distances, and
the troopers, except the horse-holders,
can be dismounted and used as infan-
try, their modern carbines being
nearly as effective as the magazine.
rifle of the infantryman; it will be
most difficult to protect the horses
while locating them in such position
as to reach their riders or be reached
by them quickly, when necessary.
Perhaps the most interesting problem
to be solved by those who organize
armies in the future is the disposition
and arrangement of the immense am.
munition. trains. The greedy guns
must be fed, and great will be theil
capacity. Next to the commanding
general and his principal assistants
will rank in Importance the field CHIEF
of ordnance. who has the location Of
supply depots and the management OF
the transportation Of large and small
cartridges to the combatants. The
continual replenishing of caisson and
timber boxes. the smaller charges fol
infantry during actual conflict, and
the safety and efficiency of vast trains
where electric or steam roads cannot
be constructed, will require a brave,
enterprising, cool, vigilant officer OF
conspicuous ability and executive
capacity.
The medical departments, too, must
be reorganized and enlarged to convey
the disabled to field hospitals, or field
ambulances cannot be placed close tc
battle lines, and the numbers of the
wounded will be greatly increased.
The great captains of future wars
will be those who fully comprehend
the destructive power of improved can
non and small arms. and whose calm
and fertile intellect will grasp the i'm
portance of so man9uvering as to force
the antagonist to give offensive battle,
and who will never be without a
"clear conception of thu object to be
achieved and the best way of achiev-
ing it." They will parry and fence
like great swordsmen, but they will
thurst only when the enemy PUSHES
upon them. Fitzhugh Lee in
the July Century.
The Grand Duchess of Hesse is doing