3. If the Caucasus be excluded, we were engaged on our own soil in only six campaigns, lasting for six and a half years, out of all the struggles during this period, the remainder being waged beyond our frontiers. This conferred great advantages on us, and showed the high state of our preparation in those days as compared with that of our enemies. The offensive has such immense advantage over the defensive that we should always strive, by being as ready as our neighbours, to be in a position to attack. 4. In the twenty-six battles of the nineteenth century, the casualties out of 1,500,000 combatants amounted to 323,000—_i.e._, almost 22 per cent. The heaviest were at Austerlitz—21,000 out of 75,000 engaged; at Borodino—40,000 out of 120,000 engaged; and at Sevastopol—85,000 out of 235,000 engaged. The following table shows our total losses in the two centuries: +----------+---------+------------------------------+ | |Numbers | Casualties. | | |Engaged. | | | | +----------+---------+---------+ | | |Killed and| Sick. | Total. | | | | Wounded. | | | +----------+---------+----------+---------+---------+ |Eighteenth| | | | | | century |4,910,000| 350,000 |1,030,000|1,380,000| |Nineteenth| | | | | | century |4,900,000| 610,000 | 800,000|1,410,000| +----------+---------+----------+---------+---------+ | Total |9,810,000| 960,000 |1,830,000|2,790,000| +----------+---------+----------+---------+---------+ While the numbers engaged, therefore, were practically the same in both centuries, the losses in killed and wounded in the nineteenth were almost double those in the eighteenth; this indicates the more deadly character of war in the former period, and shows also that the losses became greater as weapons became perfected.[41] If we assume that Russia will probably have to put the same number of men in the field in the twentieth century as in the past, and that the growth of casualties will be in the same proportion, we must be prepared to face losses amounting to 2,000,000 killed and wounded—_i.e._, 40 per cent. of those engaged.