Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

STRATEGY A GROWTH. 6Strategy has been a growth, hke other sciences.Its earliestmanifestation was in the rutliless invasion by one barbariantribe of the territory of another, in search of bread,metals, wives, or plunder of any kind.The greater or lessskill or rapidity of such an invasion, by which the popidationattacked was taken unawares or at a disadvantage, meantsuccess or failure. Thus grew offensive strategy. The invadedpeople cut the roads, blocked the defiles, defended thefords of the rivers, lay in ambush in the forests.The abilityshown in these simple ojierations originated the strategy ofdefense.Often the strong, relying on their strength, showedthe least ability ; the weak, conscious of their weakness, themost. From such simple beginnings has grown up the scienceand art of war, which to-day, among the greatest nations,— saving always our own happily exempt America, —embraces aU arts and sciences, and makes them each and allprimarily subservient to its demands.As with strategy, so tactics, logisticsand engineering cameto perfection by a slow growth inancient and modern times.The tactics of organization and drill rose to a high degreeamong the ancients ; the tactics of the battlefield were sometimessuperb. Logistics were simpler, for armies were neitherlarge, nor carried such enormous supplies of material.Engineering, as exemplified at the sieges of Tyre, Rhodes,and Alesia, has rarely been equaled in the adaptation ofthe means at hand to the end to be accomplished. War isscarcely more perfect to-day, according to our resources inarts and mechanics, than it was twenty odd centuries agoamong the Greeks, according to theirs.It is not, however, the purpose of these pages to discourseupon the art of war. It will be a far more pleasant task totell the story ofthe great captains whose deeds have createdthis art, and through them, by unvarnished comment, to lay