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HAVING in the foregoing book examined the subjects which may be regarded
as the efficient elements of War, we shall now turn our attention to the
combat as the real activity in Warfare, which, by its physical and moral
effects, embraces sometimes more simply, sometimes in a more complex
manner, the object of the whole campaign. In this activity and in its
effects these elements must therefore, reappear.
The formation of the combat is tactical in its nature; we only glance
at it here in a general way in order to get acquainted with it in its
aspect as a whole. In practice the minor or more immediate objects give
every combat a characteristic form; these minor objects we shall not
discuss until hereafter. But these peculiarities are in comparison to
the general characteristics of a combat mostly only insignificant, so
that most combats are very like one another, and, therefore, in order to
avoid repeating that which is general at every stage, we are compelled
to look into it here, before taking up the subject of its more special
application.
In the first place, therefore, we shall give in the next chapter, in
a few words, the characteristics of the modern battle in its tactical
course, because that lies at the foundation of our conceptions of what
the battle really is. |
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