Attack of Fortified Places. Including Siege-works, Mining, and Demolitions. / Prepared for the use of the Cadets of the United States Military Academy

Copyright, 1894, BY JAMES MERCUR, West Point, N. Y. Right of Translation Reserved.
In this work an attempt has been made to give in outline the best modern methods of attack upon a fortified position by assault, surprise, blockade, or siege; and also the detailed constructions of those types of trenches, batteries, magazines, etc., etc., which seem best suited to resist the fire of modern cannon, and to afford cover to a besieging force.
It is not supposed that these types will be exactly copied in all cases of actual practice, but that a wise discretion will be used in modifying or combining them when necessary or desirable.
The constructions given are standard types, which have grown up by combining the suggestions and the experience of the military engineers of all civilized nations.
In selecting them I have drawn freely upon the textbooks of the schools of military engineering at Chatham, Fontainebleau, Vienna, and Berlin, as well as upon that of the late Professor Mahan, and the manuals of Duane and Ernst.
The standard work of Gumpertz and Lebrun is frequently referred to in “Military Mining”; and I am also under obligations to General H. L. Abbot, Corps of Engineers, for the use of his unpublished notes on the experimental mines at Willett’s Point, and the result of his experiments upon the mining effects of shells charged with different explosives.
J. M.
West Point, N. Y., October, 1894.
Modern wars have been marked by sharp aggressive campaigns and great battles in the open field, with few close and long-continued sieges.
The subject of siege-works has therefore attracted less popular attention than was formerly devoted to it.
Fort Wagner, Vicksburg, Petersburg, Strasburg, Belfort, Paris, Plevna, and Géok Tépé have shown, however, that at their respective dates regular siege and mining operations were necessary to reduce either permanent or field fortifications, if well equipped and defended.
The volume of fire delivered by the small arms and machine guns now in use has made an open assault upon a well-supplied and well-defended parapet, under ordinary circumstances, a hopeless undertaking, and has necessitated more deliberate methods of attack.