As with a fortress, so with many fortified evils. It is often better to
flank them than to exhaust strength by direct attack.
To let a fortress go, so far from being disgraceful, is
often one of the best things a general can do. If MacMahon
had let Metz go, the Germans could not have got round Paris
without tremendous losses and months of fighting. If Lee had
abandoned Richmond in 1862 the war might have been protracted
indefinitely. The greatest mistake Osman Pasha made in 1877 was
holding on to Plevna too long. Napoleon let Genoa go in spite of
the fine defense of Massena, but he soon recovered it after he
had defeated the Austrians in the field. In the American civil
war Burnside was compelled by the press to advance, with the
result of the failure at Fredericksburg and the loss of 12,000
men. A field army should never be risked for a fortress.--Dr.
MILLER MAGUIRE, London _News_.
(166)
See AGGRESSION; SALOON, FIGHTING THE.
=Attainment by Abandonment=--See HIGHER, THE.