_“The movements of an army should be characterized by decision
and rapidity.”--Hannibal._
* * * * *
_“In order to escape from a dilemma it first of all is necessary
to gain Time.”--Napoleon._
Thebes having revolted, Alexander the Great marched 400 miles in fourteen
days; attacked and captured the city and razed it to the ground (335
B.C.) sparing only the house and family of Pindar, the poet; massacred
all males capable of bearing arms and sold 30,000 women and children into
slavery.
* * * * *
To gain time to occupy the Strategic center and to cut the communications
with Rome of the army of the Consul Flaminius, Hannibal marched his army
for three days and nights through the marshes of the Po.
* * * * *
Caesar marched from Rome to Sierra-Modena in Spain, a distance of 1350
miles in twenty-three days.
* * * * *
Frederic the Great in order to gain time usually marched at midnight.
* * * * *
Bonaparte finished his first Italian campaign by winning the battles of
St. Michaels, Rivoli and Mantua, marching 200 miles and taking 20,000
prisoners, all in less than four days. In 1805, the French infantry in
the manoeuvres which captured 60,000 Austrians, marched from 25 to 30
miles a day. In 1806 the French infantry pursued the Prussians at the
same speed. In 1814, Napoleon’s army marched at the rate of 30 miles
per day, besides fighting a battle every 24 hours. Retrograding for the
succor of Paris, Napoleon marched 75 miles in thirty-six hours. On the
return from Elba, 1815, the Imperial Guard marched 50 miles the first
day, 200 miles in six days and reached Paris, a distance of 600 miles, in
twenty days.
* * * * *
_“The fate of a battle always is decided by the lack of the
few minutes required to bring separated bodies of troops into
co-operation.”--Napoleon._