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Fortification for officers of the army and students of military history
Fortification for officers of the army and students of military history Author:Henry Yule Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I. OBJECTS AND ELEMENTARY FEATURES OF FORTIFICATION. " Hee (Gustavus Adolphm) had the true Art (almoet loat) of encamping, where hee would Ije... more » in ha Trenches in despight of the Euemj, Keeping the Cloake of hiB own Time, and would fight for no man's Pleasure but his own."—FULLER'S HOLT STATE. The art of Fortification has been practised, we may suppose, ever since war has existed among men. Its object is defined by the literal meaning of the term— Fortify, to make strong. It is the art of economising force in war—the art which gives strength to a military position bya right expenditure of labour, and so enables the body of troops which occupies that position to resist a more powerful force. This strength is attained in proportion as, 1st, The defender's position is protected from the observation and missiles of his assailant. 2d, The assailant's access to the position is difficult and obstructed. 3d, The defender's position affords him every advantage in observation of his assailant, and in the direction of his troops and weapons against him. These three conditions are essential to the idea of good fortification. Let us call them briefly Cover, Inaccessibility, and Vantage. Often nature or accident, the form of the ground's surface, or the disposition of buildings already existing, will afford, in greater or less degree, and in suitable situation, these requisites. Where this is the case, the soldier will use the art of fortification to improve the advantages so afforded by nature or accident, and to obtain those in which the position is deficient. Where a place, which it is of importance to defend, has derived from nature or accident none of these advantages, the art of fortification must create them. The application of the art to objec...« less