S. Army, Chief of Staff of the
General-in-Chief, etc., etc. New York: D. Van Nostrand.
A nation can hardly achieve military success without paying special heed
to its _material_ of war. It is the explicit duty of a nation's
constituted guardians assiduously to apply all the resources of science
and art, of theory and practice, of experience and invention, of
judgment and genius, to the systematic production of the best military
apparatus. Ordnance and ordnance stores, arms and equipments, commissary
and quartermaster supplies, the means of transportation, fortifications
and engineer-trains, navies and naval appliances,--these are the
material elements of military strength, which decide the fate of
nations. If in these we are behind the age, our delinquency must be
atoned by disaster and wasted lives. Civilization conquers barbarism
chiefly by its superior skill in the construction and use of the
material instruments of warfare. Courage and conduct are certainly
important factors in all legitimate successes; but they must work
through material means, and are emphasized or nullified by the skill or
rudeness exhibited in the device and fabrication of those means.
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