connected with it are always to be regarded only as preparations for
fighting; they are certainly nothing more than activities which are very
close to the action, so that they run through the hostile act alternate
in importance with the use of the forces. We have therefore a right to
exclude them as well as the other preparatory activities from the Art of
War in its restricted sense, from the conduct of War properly so called;
and we are obliged to do so if we would comply with the first principle
of all theory, the elimination of all heterogeneous elements. Who would
include in the real "conduct of War" the whole litany of subsistence and
administration, because it is admitted to stand in constant reciprocal
action with the use of the troops, but is something essentially
different from it?

We have said, in the third chapter of our first book, that as the fight
or combat is the only directly effective activity, therefore the threads
of all others, as they end in it, are included in it. By this we meant
to say that to all others an object was thereby appointed which, in
accordance with the laws peculiar to themselves, they must seek to
attain. Here we must go a little closer into this subject.

The subjects which constitute the activities outside of the combat are
of various kinds.

The one part belongs, in one respect, to the combat itself, is identical
with it, whilst it serves in another respect for the maintenance of the
military force. The other part belongs purely to the subsistence, and
has only, in consequence of the reciprocal action, a limited influence
on the combats by its results. The subjects which in one respect belong
to the fighting itself are MARCHES, CAMPS, and CANTONMENTS, for they
suppose so many different situations of troops, and where troops are
supposed there the idea of the combat must always be present.

The other subjects, which only belong to the maintenance, are
SUBSISTENCE, CARE OF THE SICK, the SUPPLY AND REPAIR OF ARMS AND
EQUIPMENT.

Marches are quite identical with the use of the troops. The act of
marching in the combat, generally called manoeuvring, certainly does
not necessarily include the use of weapons, but it is so completely
and necessarily combined with it that it forms an integral part of that
which we call a combat. But the march outside the combat is nothing but
the execution of a strategic measure. By the strategic plan is settled
WHEN, WHERE, and WITH WHAT FORCES a b