proved that
an army ought to carry with it a month's provisions, ten days' food
being carried by the men and baggage-horses and a supply for twenty days
by the train of wagons; so that at least four hundred and eighty wagons
would be required for an army of forty thousand men; two hundred and
forty being regularly organized, and two hundred and forty being
obtained by requisition. For this purpose there would be a battalion of
three companies for the military stores of each division, each company
having its establishment for forty wagons, twenty being furnished by the
commissariat, and twenty obtained by requisition. This gives for each
division one hundred and twenty wagons, and for each army, four hundred
and eighty. Each battalion for a provision-train should have two hundred
and ten men."
5th. An army, while actually in motion, can find temporary resources,
unless in a sterile country, or one already ravaged by war, or at the
season of the year when the old crops are nearly exhausted and the new
ones not ready for harvest; but, even supposing the army may in this way
be partially or wholly supplied, while in motion, it nevertheless
frequently happens that it may remain for some days in position, (as the
French at Austerlitz and Ulm;) a supply of hard bread for some ten days
will therefore be important to subsist the army till a regular
commissariat can be established.
6th. "Supplies of bread and biscuit," says Napoleon, "are no more
essential to modern armies than to the Romans; flour, rice, and pulse,
may be substituted in marches without the troops suffering any harm. It
is an error to suppose that the generals of antiquity did not pay great
attention to their magazines; it may be seen in Caesar's Commentaries,
how much he was occupied with this care in his several campaigns. The
ancients knew how to avoid being slaves to any system of supplies, or to
being obliged to depend on the purveyors; but all the great captains
well understood the art of subsistence."
_Forage_ is a military term applied to food of any kind for horses or
cattle,--as grass, hay, corn, oats, &c.; and also to the operation of
collecting such food. Forage is of two kinds, _green_ and _dry_; the
former being collected directly from the meadows and harvest-fields, and
the latter from the barns and granaries of the farmers, or the
storehouses of the dealers.
The animals connected with an army may be subsisted by regular
magazines, by forc
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