TOPOGRAPHY
“The ground is the CHESSBOARD of we cannibals; and it is the selection and use made of it, that decides the knowledge or the ignorance of those by whom it is occupied.”—Frederic the Great.
The highest use of Topography consists in reducing a superior adverse force to the inferior force, by minimizing the radius of action of the hostile Corps d’armee.
This is effected by so posting the kindred corps that in the resulting Strategetic Horizons, impassable natural barriers are presented to the march of hostile corps toward their respective objectives.
On the surface of the earth such natural barriers are formed by mountains, rivers, lakes, swamps, forests, deserts, the ocean, and the boundaries of neutral States.
On the Chess-board these topographical conditions are typified by peculiarities and limitations in the movements of the Chess-pieces, viz.: