The Reality of War: A Companion to ClausewitzMurray, Stewart Lygon
Philosophy
The Reality of War: A Companion to Clausewitz
Murray, Stewart Lygon
Clausewitz, Carl von, 1780-1831. Vom Kriege; Military art and science; War
The fervour and enthusiasm and boundless energy of the Revolution,
which drove the French forward, smashing everything before them, at
the beginning; the ambition, military glory, plunder and greed, which
animated them later on; the patriotism, religious and loyal devotion,
and stern endurance, which nerved the Russian hosts then as now; that
awful Moscow winter campaign, when human nature rose to its highest and
sank to its lowest, when the extremes of heroic endurance and selfish
callousness were visible side by side; the magnificent uprising of the
spirit of liberty and freedom from intolerable oppression in Germany,
which gave to the Prussian recruits and Landwehr the same driving
force that revolutionary enthusiasm had formerly given to the French;
the passing, therefore, in 1813 of the moral superiority, the greater
driving force, from the French to the allies. Clausewitz saw all this;
he conversed intimately with such men as Scharnhorst and Gneisenau,
who saw and guided it, too. All his friends had seen it also. No
wonder, then, that such an unexampled series of warlike phenomena
deeply impressed his reflective mind with the supreme importance of the
moral and spiritual factors in war.
His opportunities for long-continued observation of warlike phenomena
were far greater than those of any writer since his day, and it is to
be hoped they will remain so. For we have no desire to see another
series of wars such as the Napoleonic. It is fortunate for us that
there was then such a man as Clausewitz to sum up for us so simply and
so clearly the accumulated experiences of those long, long years of
carnage and devastation.
_Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Book IV. Chap. 10.
[2] Book IV. Chap. 3.
[3] Book IV. Chap. 3.
[4] Book I. Chap. 8.
[5] Summary of Instruction to H.R.H. the Crown Prince.
[6] Summary of Instruction, p. 120.
[7] Book II. Chap. 6.
[8] Book II. Chap. 2.
[9] Prefatory "Notice" by Clausewitz.
[10] Book II. Chap. 4.
[11] Book II. Chap. 2.
[12] Book II. Chap. 2.
[13] Book II. Chap. 3.
[14] Book I. Chap. 1.
[15] By gaining Public Opinion, Clausewitz means, to force the enemy's
population into a state of mind favourable to submission.
[16] Summary of Instruction to H.R.H. the Crown Prince.
[17] Book I. Chap. 1.
[18] Author's "Introduction."
[19] Book I. Chap. 1.
[20] Book VII. Chap. 5.
[21] Book VII. Chap. 21.
[22] Book VII. Chap. 21.
[23] Book VIII. Chaps. 7, 8 and 9.
[24] Book I. Chap. 1.
[25] Book VIII. Chap. 9.
[26] Book I. Chap. 7.
[27] Book I. Chap. 8.
[28] Book I. Chap. 8.
[29] Book IV. Chap. 1.
[30] Book IV. Chap. 3.
[31] Book I. Chap. 1.
[32] Book IV. Chap. 3.
[33] Book III. Chap. 15.
[34] Book VII. Chap. 13.
[35] Book I. Chap. 4.
[36] Book I. Chap. 5.
[37] Book I. Chap. 7.
[38] Book III. Chap. 3.
[39] Book III. Chaps. 16-18.
[40] Book II. Chap. 1.
[41] Book III. Chap. 11.
[42] Book III. Chap. 8.
[43] Book V. Chap. 3.
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