Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1915-10-08

may become a possible theater Of
war is thoroughly mapped out and
the maps filed away in the tsteel
cases of some war college. Not
only is the terrain plotted, but.ithe
physical resources of each country
are accurately estimated, that an
invading army may know where to
lessen the amount of supplies of
certain kinds to be forwarded by
the line of communication service,
by knowing what may be secured in
the country itself.
From the maps and this data each
possible campaign is forecast in
minute detail. During the piping
days of peace the staff Eclasses de-
vote hours day to working out
these details, and when they are
completed and approved, the plans
are filed away, to be unearthed upon
the approach of war or altered, to
post to date.
in these plans the bridge trains
are considered. The maps show
where the rivers are. The science
of war predicts where wise enemy
will have. destroyed his permanent
bridges, and the plans of the gener-
al staff, ever seeking to make the
line of communication and transport
columns as light as possible, call for
the dispatching of bridge trains to
proper points at the proper time.
AS used to-day, the ponton bridge
is scarcely century old, yet it has
been used in warfare IN some lesser
form, almost since there was war by
forces with any pre:ense of organi-
zation. In the early days of Britain,
the tousel-headed savages used, as
a river crossing eXpedient, the skins
of animals, inflated, tied, and bound
together, to form rough RATS, on
which the wild sodiery effected a
passage. And exactly at the same
time, the legions of Rome used the
same method, supplemented by the
craft of commerce.
Most Of the lessons which are ap-
piled to pontoneering to-day come
directly from the American civil
war. During those horrid days,
when the soldiers of a divided ma
tion claWed at one anothers TIN oats,
| the science of pontoneering was
developed to its highest phase, and
the use of bridge trains was SO con-
slant, that foreign observers gave
particular attention to the way in
which the problems were worked
out in warfare, and the present al
most universal system has resulted.
One of the greatest lessons of
the service has carried the convic-
tion that ponton bridge may not be
thrown across a river held by the
enemy, in daylight, unless under
cover of a fog. Time and again it
was tried during the Civil War, and
disaster always resulted. The at
tempt at Fredericksburg, by Burn
side, to force the Rappahannock in
the face of the Confederate fire, a
mere handful of Barksdale's sharp
shooters, was such a hopeless fail
ure, that, pressing as the necessity
for crossing was, the plan was
abandoned until the fall of night.
In any case, losses must be sus-
tanned, so the lesser evil has been
chosen. In modern times, when il
is of paramount necessity that a
river be crossed by daylight, in the
face of the enemy, the pontons are
used as bateaux, and detachments
are ferried across at the safest
points to clear the opposing troops
away, while the friendly artillery
endeavors to cover the ferriage.
When the opposite bank is once
held, in spite of the enemy's fire
the erection of the bridge may us
ually proceed.
The situation depicted on the
cover page represents surprise at
tack upon a party of pontoniers
from masked battery, and not al
attempt to put a bridge across
stream in the face of shrapnel fire
There is little difference between
the bridge trains of various powers