Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1895-07-24
THE FUTURE OF WAR.

THE FUTURE OF WAR.
The modern guns will make great
changes in the art of war, and the plans
employed in former campaign by the
great commanders will receive more
notifications. Defensive battles will
be at a premium, and defensive WAR
fare will be simpliied. Armies will
maneuvre for position, and the gener-
ais commanding them will gain fame
by movements 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 a designated objective point is
planned, and the strategy is offensive
on the part of one OF the
commanders, ifpossible his tactics will
be defensive. Hostile armies will keep
at great distance, and in open country
out of sight of each other, unless they
can take up a line at night and en-
trench; and direct flank movements
will not be attempted where troops are
visible before the assault. Field bal
looms will locate the position and pho
Biography mark the formation of con-
tending forces, while telephones and
electricity will play prominent parts in
the war drama. Night marching and
night attacks will be more frequent
and columns of troops organized to
charge stationary positions will be
moved under darkness to lose 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 fanks of armies,
against cavalry.
Cavalry chieftains will no longer as
sail infantry or artillery, and no more
charges will be recorded like those of
Ponsonby at Waterloo or Murat at
Jena. This arm will still be effective
in reconnoissances, picketing, guarding
trains and as escorts but, except in
small bodies its use for advance and
rear guards will be diminished. The
target presented is too large to be
risked before field guns firing with
great rapidity, even if several miles
distant, as well as before infantry rifles
necessarily flashing a mile away.
Maneuvering cavalry corps with,
say, 10000 horses on a future battle
field would be high type Of cruelty
to animals, out the regiments, brigades
and divisions composing it can still
render good service. They can re-
move with celerity long distances, and
the troopers, except the horse holders,
can be dismounted and used as infantry,
their modern carbines being nearly as
effective as the magazine rifle of the
infantryman; but it Will be most diff
cult to protect the horses while locat-
ing them in such position as to reach
their riders or be reached by them
quickly when necessary.
Perhaps the most interesting probl. m
to be solved by those who organi
armies in the future is the dispositi, n
and arrangement of the immense an
munition trains. The greedy gul
must be fed, and great will be their re-
pacity. Next to the commanding ger
eral and his principal assistants wi !
rank in Importance the field chief 4
ordinance, who has the location tf
supply depots and the management of
the transportation of large and small
cartridges.
The continual replepishing of caisscn
and timber boxes, the smaller charges
of infantry during the actual conflict
and the safety and efficiency of vast
trains where electric or steam roads
cannot be constructed, will require q
brave, enterpr;sing, cool, yigilant ofh-
Ger, of conspicuous ability and execu-
tive capacity.
The medical departments, too, must
be reorganized and enlarged to convey
the disabled to field hospitals, for field
ambulances cannot be placed close to
battle lines, and the number of the
wounded will be greatly increased:
be those who fully comprehend the
destructive power of improved cannon
and small arms, and whose calm and
fertile intellect will grasp the impor-
tance OF so manoeuvering as to force
the antagonist to give offensive battle,
and who will never be without ''clear
conception of the object to be achieved
and the best way of achieving it." They
will parry and fence like great swords
men, but they will thrust only when
the enemy rushes upon them.-Gen.
Fitzhugh Lee n, the Century.
A False Diagnosis.