Our own country, abounding
in rivers of the grandest proportions, will need to be always ready for
applying the highest skill and the best bridge-equipage in facilitating
such movements as may prove necessary. We accept this as an
indispensable part of our organized system of war-_materiel_. Were other
evidences lacking, the experiences of the Chickahominy, Rappahannock,
Potomac, and Tennessee will perpetually enforce the argument. The
generation which has fought the Battle of Fredericksburg, and which has
witnessed Lee's narrow escape near Williamsport, is sufficiently
instructed not to question the saving virtues and mobilizing influences
of bridge-trains.
The chief essentials in a military bridge-system are lightness, facility
of transportation, ease of manoeuvre in bridge-formation, stability,
security, and economy. It necessarily makes heavy demands for
transportation; and on this account bridge-trains have frequently been
left behind, when their retention would have proved of the utmost
importance. Their true use is to facilitate campaign-movements; and
while they should be taken only when there is a reasonable prospect of
their being real facilites, they should not be left behind when any such
prospect exists.
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