“Famous! famous! That Baines would have made a good general!”
“A knowledge of tactics is indispensable to a general and to an admiral; remembrance too, of the common details and evolutions should be kept up, otherwise officers, though their tactics may be good, may make arrangements and give orders, difficult to be executed. The Prussian tactics were, to concentrate power and to attack the chief points of an enemy in succession, whereas French tactics attack all points, with divided forces, at one and the same time.”
“Why, the one is just the contrary to the other.”
“To go back to the days of Rome. At the battle of Actium, Augustus, finding himself inferior to Mark Anthony in the number of his ships, had the sagacity to draw up his line of battle along the entrance of the Gulph of Ambracia, and thereby to make up for his deficiency. This naval manœuvre, as well as that of getting to windward of the enemy, in order to bear down upon him with more certainty and effect, exists to the present day.”
“Augustus acted wisely, for many of Mark Anthony’s ships had not room to fight.”
“In ancient times ships had sharp prows, with which they ran one against another. The battle was then carried on by boarding, but now cannon-shot decides almost every action. Ships now fight broadside to broadside; and whenever a vessel can take another at such a disadvantage as to sweep her decks from stem to stern, this is called ‘raking her fore and aft.’”
“Ay! gunpowder has made a great difference in that respect.”
“The Duke of Saxe Weimar, at the siege of Brissack, practised a stratagem with success. The Imperialists had a strong post on a hill. The duke ordered the drums and trumpets of the different corps to be stationed in a neighbouring wood. When these began to play, the Imperialists, thinking they were about to be attacked in that quarter, left the strong position they occupied on the hill, which was instantly taken possession of by the duke.”
“The duke was too cunning for them a great deal.”
“The Dutch, the Spanish, and the French, have all had their day on the ocean; but they are not likely to have it again at present.”