It is from no desire to make innovations that I have modified old terms or made new. In the development of a science, it is wrong for the same word to designate two very different things; and, if we continue to apply the term order of battle to the disposition of troops in line, it must be improper to designate certain important maneuvers by the terms oblique order of battle, concave order of battle, and it becomes necessary to use instead the terms oblique system of battle, &c.
I prefer the method of designation I have adopted. The order of battle on paper may take the name plan of organization, and the ordinary formation of troops upon the ground will then be called line of battle.
The park of Hougoumont, the hamlet of La Haye Sainte, and the rivulet of Papelotte were for Ney more serious obstacles than the famous position of Elchingen, where he forced a passage of the Danube, in 1805, upon the ruins of a burnt bridge. It may perhaps be said that the courage of the defenders in the two cases was not the same; but, throwing out of consideration this chance, it must be granted that the difficulties of a position, when properly taken advantage of, need not be insurmountable in order to render the attack abortive. At Elchingen the great height and steepness of the banks, rendering the fire almost ineffectual, were more disadvantageous than useful in the defense.