There are three kinds of route marches, according to the manner in which they are made, viz.: [ordinary], [forced], and [marches by rail].
Ordinary route marches are those made along ordinary roads and where the length of the march in any one day is not greater than 20 miles. Twenty miles is a long march, especially if the body of troops is large, and this distance is taken as the limit for an ordinary march. If the distance marched in any one day is greater than 20 miles, the march is [forced].
Forced marches are extremely exhausting upon the troops and should not exceed 30 miles per day, although greater distances have been overcome by good troops. The number of forced marches made in succession must be few, only two or three, even for the best of troops. They are used but rarely in time of peace, and then only under pressing circumstances. They are much used in war, when a rapid concentration of troops is to be made; when a strategical combination is to be effected, etc.
Route marches by rail are employed both in peace and war. This kind of march includes all those in which the troops do not actually march, but are transported bodily to their destination. Railroads have become in recent years the great factor in rapid and cheap means of moving troops, and the term “rail” is therefore applied to this method of conducting troops from one place to another.
This method is of especial service when the time given to the troops to reach their destination is short, and the distance is great. It is especially used in the case of assembling armies and forwarding the reserves and recruits to the theatre of war. The late war in the United States, the war in 1859 in Italy, the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, etc., all furnish examples.—Prof. J. B. Wheeler.
Marches, Strategical. Marches which made in the theatre of war, near an enemy whose position is not exactly known, having in general for their object the completion of some strategical combination, are designated strategical marches. They are used to conduct an army to a position from which an attack can be made on the enemy, or to a position in which the army can remain and receive an attack; in other words, to a position immediately in the presence of the enemy.
Strategical marches are either [ordinary] or [forced] marches, and are used principally to mass troops at some stated point on the theatre of operations before the enemy can make arrangements to prevent it or can prepare counter-movements to weaken or nullify the effect of the movement. Secrecy, celerity, and good order are therefore indispensable requisites for success in marches of this kind.—Prof. J. B. Wheeler.
Marches, Tactical. Marches made in the immediate vicinity of the enemy, and so near that they may be observed by him, are called tactical marches. Since these marches are made very near the enemy, greater precautions are required to guard against an attack than are necessary in [strategical marches].
Tactical marches differ from [route] and [strategical] marches in one material particular, and that is in the number and sizes of the wagon-trains accompanying the troops on the march. Both in [route] and [strategical] marches the troops are cumbered with long and unwieldy wagon-trains carrying the baggage and supplies of the army, whereas in a tactical march there are none, or the trains are reduced to a minimum. Since the enemy may attack the moving columns at any minute, everything is sacrificed to the important one of being ready to fight at a minute’s notice, and the army carries with it only supplies enough for two or three days, and little or no baggage. Everything not essential for feeding the troops and not necessary for fighting is therefore left behind the army while it is making a tactical march.—Prof. J. B. Wheeler.
Marchfeld. In Austria, where Ottocar II. of Bohemia was defeated and slain by his rival, the emperor Rodolph of Hapsburg, August 26, 1278.