The
great contest now in progress has taught us afresh the potency of those
material agencies through which patriotic zeal must act, and we shall
hereafter lack all good excuse for _not_ having the very best attainable
system of producing, preserving, providing, and using whatever
implements, supplies, and muniments our future may demand.
As an aid in this direction, we welcome the truly valuable book which
General Cullum has now supplied on one of the Special brandies of
military _materiel_. We owe him thanks for his treatise on military
bridges, which was nearly as much needed as though we had not already
the works of Sir Howard Douglas, Drien, Haillot, and Meurdra, and the
chapters on bridges by Laisne and Duane. General Cullum's work has more
precision and is more available for practical guidance than any other.
The absolute thoroughness with which the India-rubber pontoon system is
described by him gives a basis for appreciating the other systems
described in outline.
It is hardly too much to say that we owe to General Cullum more than to
any other person the development in our service of systematic
instruction in pontoniering.
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