the
same time (Fig. 16) is better than the preceding, especially in an
attack upon an enemy's line strongly arranged and well connected. It may
even be called the most reasonable of all the orders of battle. The
attack upon the center, aided by a wing outflanking the enemy, prevents
the assailed party falling upon the assailant and taking him in flank,
as was done by Hannibal and Marshal Saxe. The enemy's wing which is
hemmed in between the attacks on the center and at the extremity, having
to contend with nearly the entire opposing force, will be defeated and
probably destroyed. It was this maneuver which gave Napoleon his
victories of Wagram and Ligny. This was what he wished to attempt at
Borodino,--where he obtained only a partial success, on account of the
heroic conduct of the Russian left and the division of Paskevitch in the
famous central redoubt, and on account of the arrival of Baggavout's
corps on the wing he hoped to outflank. He used it also at
Bautzen,--where an unprecedented success would have been the result, but
for an accident which interfered with the maneuver of the left wing
intended to cut off the allies from the road to Wurschen, every
arrangement having been made with that view.

It should be observed that these different orders are not to be
understood precisely as the geometrical figures indicate them. A general
who would expect to arrange his line of battle as regularly as upon
paper or on a drill-ground would be greatly mistaken, and would be
likely to suffer defeat. This is particularly true as battles are now
fought. In the time of Louis XIV. or of Frederick, it was possible to
form lines of battle almost as regular as the geometrical figures,
because armies camped under tents, almost always closely collected
together, and were in presence of each other several days, thus giving
ample time for opening roads and clearing spaces to enable the columns
to be at regular distances from each other. But in our day,--when armies
bivouac, when their division into several corps gives greater mobility,
when they take position near each other in obedience to orders given
them while out of reach of the general's eye, and often when there has
been no time for thorough examination of the enemy's position,--finally,
when the different arms of the service are intermingled in the line of
battle,--under these circumstances, all orders of battle which must be
laid out with great accuracy of detail are impracti