And such ignorance is
widespread. How seldom do we hear a knowledge of strategy referred to
as an indispensable acquirement in those who aspire to high command?
How often is it repeated, although in so doing the speakers betray
their own shortcomings, that strategy is a mere matter of
common-sense? Yet the plain truth is that strategy is not only the
determining factor in civilised warfare, but that, in order to apply
its principles, the soundest common-sense must be most carefully
trained. Of all the sciences connected with war it is the most
difficult. If the names of the great captains, soldiers and sailors,
be recalled, it will be seen that it is to the breadth of their
strategical conceptions rather than to their tactical skill that they
owe their fame. An analysis of the great wars shows that their course
was generally marked by the same vicissitudes. First we have the
great strategist, a Hannibal, or a Napoleon, or a Lee, triumphing
with inferior numbers over adversaries who are tacticians and nothing
more. Then, suddenly, the tide of victory is checked, and brilliant
manoeuvres no longer avail. Fabius and Scipio, Wellington, Nelson,
and St. Vincent, Grant, Sherman, and Farragut, have replaced the mere
tacticians; and the superior resources, wielded with strategical
skill, exert their inevitable effect.
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