If a bad road or a hilly country has to be marched over, all these
calculations as to time and distance undergo such modifications that it
is difficult to estimate, with any certainty, in any particular case,
the time required for a march; much less, then, can any general theory
be established. All that theory can do is to direct attention to the
liability to error with which we are here beset. To avoid it the most
careful calculation is necessary, and a large margin for unforeseen
delays. The influence of weather and condition of the troops also come
into consideration.
Since the doing away with tents and the introduction of the system of
subsisting troops by compulsory demands for provisions on the spot, the
baggage of an army has been very sensibly diminished, and as a natural
and most important consequence we look first for an acceleration in the
movements of an army, and, therefore, of course, an increase in the
length of the day’s march. This, however, is only realized under
certain circumstances.
Marches within the theatre of war have been very little accelerated by
this means, for it is well known that for many years whenever the
object required marches of unusual length it has always been the
practice to leave the baggage behind or send it on beforehand, and,
generally, to keep it separate from the troops during the continuance
of such movements, and it had in general no influence on the movement,
because as soon as it was out of the way, and ceased to be a direct
impediment, no further trouble was taken about it, whatever damage it
might suffer in that way. Marches, therefore, took place in the Seven
Years’ War, which even now cannot be surpassed; as an instance we cite
Lascy’s march in 1760, when he had to support the diversion of the
Russians on Berlin, on that occasion he got over the road from
Schweidnitz to Berlin through Lusatia, a distance of 225 miles, in ten days, averaging, therefore, twenty-two miles a day, which, for
a Corps of 15,000, would be an extraordinary march even in these days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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