alone will explain how her generals sometimes succeeded in destroying an army, and even an entire state, merely by a strategic success."

But we will endeavor to illustrate this by particular campaigns. In 1792, when the Duke of Brunswick invaded France, she had no armies competent to her defence. Their numbers upon paper were somewhat formidable, it is true, but the license of the revolution had so loosened the bands of discipline as to effect an almost complete disorganization. "It seemed at this period," says the historian," as if the operations of the French generals were dependent upon the absence of their enemies; the moment they appeared they were precipitately abandoned." But France had on her eastern frontier a triple line of good fortresses, although her miserable soldiery were incapable of defending them. The several works of the first and second line fell one after another before the slow operations of a Prussian siege, and the Duke of Brunswick was already advancing upon the third when Dumourier, with only 25,000 men, threw himself into it, and, by a well-conducted war of positions, placing his raw and unsteady forces behind inassailable intrenchments, succeeded in repelling a disciplined army nearly four times as numerous as his own. Had no other obstacle than the French troops been interposed between Paris and the Prussians all agree that France must have fallen.

In the campaign of 1793 the French army of Flanders were beaten in almost every engagement, and their forces reduced to less than one-half the number of the allies. The French general turned traitor to his country, and the national guards deserted their colors and returned to France. The only hope of the republicans at this crisis was Vauban's line of Flemish fortresses. These alone saved France. The strongholds of Lille, Conde, Valenciennes, Quesnoy, Landrecies, &c., held the Austrians in check till the French could raise new forces and reorganize their army. "The important breathing time which the sieges of these fortresses," says the English historian, “afforded to the French, and the immense advantage which they derived from the new levies which they received, and fresh organization which they acquired during that important period, is a signal proof of the vital importance of fortresses in contributing to national defence. Napoleon had not hesitated to ascribe to the three months thus gained the salvation of France. It is to be constantly recollected that the republican armies were then totally unable to keep the field; that behind the frontier fortresses there was neither a defensive position nor a corps to re-enforce them; and that, if driven from their vicinity, the capital was taken and the war concluded. The fortifications on the Rhine played a similar part in the campaign on that frontier, and there also her fortresses checked the advance of the enemy till France could raise and discipline armies capable of meeting him in the open field.

In the following year, (1794,) when the republic had completed her vast armaments, and, in her turn, had become the invading power, the enemy had no fortified towns to check the progress of the French armies. Based on strong works of defence, these in a few weeks overran Flanders, and drove the allies beyond the Rhine.

Napoleon's remarks on the influence of the fortifications on the Flemish frontier are most striking and conclusive: “ Vauban's system of frontier fortresses," said he, “is intended to protect an inferior against a superior army; to afford to the former a more favorable field of operations for maintaining itself, and for preventing the hostile army from advancing, and advantageous opportunities of attacking it; in short, means of gaining time to allow its succors to come up. At the time of the reverses of Louis XIV this system of fortresses saved the capital. Prince Eugene, of Savoy, lost a campaign in taking Lille; the siege of Landrecies gave Villars an opportunity of changing the fortune of the war. A hundred years afterwards, at the time of Dumourier's treachery, the fortresses of Flanders once more saved Paris; the combined forces lost a campaign in

taking Conde, Valenciennes, Quesnoy, and Landrecies. This line of fortresses was equally useful in 1814. The allies, having violated the territory of Switzerland, engaged themselves in the defiles of Jura, to avoid the fortresses; and, even while turning them in this manner, they were obliged to weaken their force by detaching a considerable number of men, superior to the total of the garrisons. When Napoleon passed the Marne, and manoeuvred in the rear of the enemy's army, if treason had not opened the gates of Paris the fortresses of the frontier would have played an important part; Swaitzenberg's army would have been obliged to throw itself amongst them, which would have produced great events. In 1815 they would likewise have been of great value. The AngloPrussian army would not have dared to pass the Somme before the arrival of the Austro-Russian armies on the Marne had it not been for the political events of that capital; and it is certain that those fortresses which remained faithful influenced the allies and the conduct of the allied kings in 1814 and 1815.”

The German campaign of 1796 is another admirable illustration of the value of fortifications in military operations, and as such is particularly noticed by both Jomini and the archduke. Previous to this campaign Austria had shamefully neglected the defences of the Rhine, leaving, says the archduke, the principal communications open to the very heart of the country. "The French," says an English historian, "were in possession of the fortresses of Luxemburg, Thionnelle, Mentz, and Saare-Louis, which rendered the centre of their position almost unassailable; their right was covered by Hunningen, New Brisack, and the fortresses of Alsace, and their left by Maestricht, Juliers, and the iron barrier of the Netherlands, while the Austrians had no fortified point whatever to support either of their wings. This want in a war of invasion is of incalculable importance, and the fortresses of the Rhine are as valuable as a base for offensive as a barrier to support defensive operations." Moreau, taking the powerful fortress of Strasburg for his point of departure, and surprising the negligently guarded fortress of Kehl on the opposite bank, effected a safe passage of the Rhine, and thus forced the Austrians to fall back upon the distant and ill-secured line of the Danube. The French, passing the line of their own frontier, "were enabled to leave their fortresses defenceless, and swell by their garrisons the invading force, which soon proved so perilous to the Austrian monarchy." Afterwards, when the archduke, by his admirable strategic operations, forced the French to retreat, he derived considerable advantage from the Austrian garrisons of Phillipsburg, Manheim, and Mayence. But the French line of defence on the opposite side of the Rhine arrested his pursuit, and obliged him to resort to the tedious operations of sieges and the reduction of their advanced posts alone. Kehl and Hunningen, poorly as they were defended, employed all the resources of his army and the skill of his engineers from early in October till late in February. Kehl was at first assaulted by a force four times as large as the garrison; if they had succeeded they would have cut off Moreau's retreat and destroyed his army. Fortunately, the place was strong enough to

resist all assaults.

In the Italian campaign of the same year the general was directed "to seize the forts of Savona; compel the senate to furnish him with pecuniary supplies; and surrender the keys of Gavi, a fortress perched on a rocky height commanding the pass of the Bouhetta." While Napoleon was advancing to execute this plan, the Austrians endeavored to cut off his army at Montenotte, and would have succeeded had not the brave Rampon, with only 1,200 men, in the redoubt of Monte Legino, repeatedly repulsed the furious assaults of 10,000 Austrians. If this fort had been carried, says the historian, "the fate of the campaign and of the world might have changed." After this unsuccessful attack, the Austrians found it necessary to support themselves by a defensive line of fortifications, and insisted upon the fortresses of Tortona, Alexandria, &c., being put into their possession by the Sardinian government. But jealousy of Austria would

not permit this; and Sardinia preferred surrendering them to the French, who were at this time in very critical circumstances, having neither heavy cannon nor a siege equipage to reduce Turin, Alexandria, or the other numerous fortresses of Piedmont, without the possession of which it would have been extremely hazardous to have penetrated further into the country. "The King of Sardinia," says Napoleon, "had still a great number of fortresses left, and, in spite of the victories which had been gained, the slightest check, one caprice of fortune, would have undone everything." So fully persuaded was he of the importance of the works which Sardinia had yielded to him in order to save them from the Austrians, that he said he would not relinquish them, even if directed so to do by his own government. "Coni, Cena, and Alexandria," he wrote to the directory, "are now in the hands of our army; and even if you do not ratify the convention, I will still keep these fortresses." "The King of Sardinia is placed at the mercy of the republic, having no other fortified points. than Turin and Fort Bard." To the remark that these defences were unnecessary to the French, he replied: "That the first duty of the army was to secure a firm base for future operations; that it was impossible to advance without being secured in the rear, and that the Sardinian fortresses at once put the republicans in possession of the keys of the peninsula." "From the solid basis. of the Piedmontese fortresses he was enabled to turn his undivided attention to the destruction of the Austrians, and thus commence, with some security, that great career of conquest which he already meditated in the imperial dominions." Indeed, these conquests were but the legitimate results of his present strategic position.

Afterwards, when the Austrians had nearly wrested Italy from the weak hold of Napoleon's successors, the French saved their army in the fortress of Genoa, and behind the line of the Var, which had been fortified with care in 1794 and 1795. Numerous attempts were made to force the line, the advanced posts of Fort Montauban being several times assaulted by numerous forces. But the Austrian columns recoiled from its murderous fire of grape and musketry, which swept off great numbers at every discharge. Again the assault was renewed with a vast superiority of numbers, and again "the brave men who headed the columns almost all perished at the foot of the intrenchments; and, after sustaining a heavy loss, they were compelled to abandon their enterprise." While the forces on the Var thus stayed the waves of Austrian success, Massena, in the fortifications of Genoa, sustained a blockade of 60 and a siege of 40 days against an army five times as large as his own; and, when forced to yield to the stern demands of famine, he almost dictated to the enemy the terms of a treaty. These two defences held in check the elite of the Austrian army, while the French reserve crossed the Alps, and seized upon the important points of the country.

But while the French were deriving so much assistance from their own works, they were also made to feel the importance of fortifications in the enemy's hands. In the passage of the Alps, the little fortress of Bard, with its twoand-twenty cannon, arrested for some time the entire army of Napoleon, and had well nigh proved fatal to the campaign. The most desperate efforts were made to carry the place, but all were of no avail. "In this extremity, the genius of the French engineers surmounted the difficulty. The infantry and cavalry of Lannes's division traversed, one by one, the path on the Monte Albaredo, and re-formed lower down the valley, while the artillerymen succeeded in drawing their cannon, in the dark, through the town, close under the guns of the fort, by spreading straw and dung upon the streets, and wrapping the wheels up, so as to prevent the slightest sound being heard. In this manner forty-eight pieces and a hundred caissons were drawn through during the night, while the Austrians, in unconscious security, slumbered above, beside their loaded cannon, direcetd straight into the street where the passage was going

forward. During the succeeding night the same hazardous operation was repeated with equal successes; and while the Austrian commander was writing to Melas that he had seen thirty-five thousand men and four thousand horse cross the path of the Albaredo, but that not one piece of artillery or caisson should pass beneath the guns of his fortress, the whole cannon and ammunition of the army were safely proceeding on the road to Ivrea." The fort of Bard itself held out till the 5th of June; and we have the authority of Napoleon for the assertion that if the passage of the artillery had been delayed to its fall, (in other words, if the guards of the fort had not neglected their duty,) all hope of success in the campaign was at an end. Napoleon says, moreover, that "this fort was a more considerable obstacle to his army than the Great St. Bernard itself," and that the enemy's being left in possession of it in his rear fettered his operations and modified his plans; and we know that his dispositions for the battle of Marengo were not made till he heard that its reduction had opened to him a secure line of retreat in case of disaster. When this battle had shattered the main force of the Austrians, these, again yielding to sectional prejudices, instead of taking advantage of the works in their rear to impede the advance of the French, declared it was better to save the lives of their men by armistice "than to preserve towns for the King of Sardinia." Accordingly, the fortresses of Piedmont again fell into the hands of Napoleon without opposition, and he was not slow to understand their utility. He directed his chief engineer, Chasseloup de Laubat, whose admirable arrangement of defensive works had already been of vast assistance to the army of Italy, (and for which he was promoted from colonel of engineers to brigadier general, then general of division, and afterwards count of the French empire, with an ample hereditary endowment,) to revise this system of fortifications, with particular reference to Austrian aggression. By demolishing a part of the old works, and repairing those of Genoa, Roco d'Anfo, Vienna, Legnago, Mantua, Alexandria, and the defences of the Adda, Chasseloup formed two good lines of fortifications, which were of great service to the French in 1805, enabling Massena, with only 50,000 men, to hold in check the Archduke Charles with more than 90,000 men, while Napoleon's grand army traversed Germany, and approached the capital of Austria.

In the German campaign of 1800, Moreau derived the same advantages from his fortified base on the Rhine as in the preceding years, while the Austrians were soon driven back with great loss upon the Danube, where, without defences, their whole army would have been exposed to destruction. But retiring into the fortifications of Ulm, "the Austrian general not only preserved entire his own communications and line of retreat by Donawert and Ratisbon, but threatened those of his adversary, who, if he attempted to pass either on the north or south, exposed himself to the attack of a powerful army in flank. Securely posted in this central point, the imperialists daily received accessions of strength from Bohemia and the hereditary states; while the French, weakened by detachments necessary to preserve their communications and observe the Prince of Reuss in the Tyrol, soon began to lose that superiority which, by the skilful concentration of their force, they had hitherto enjoyed in the campaign. The Austrians soon reaped the benefits of this admirably chosen stronghold; the soldiers, lodged in excellent quarters, rapidly recovered their strength; while the morale of the army, which had been extremely weakened by the rapid disasters of the campaign, as quickly rose when they perceived that a stop was at length put to the progress of the enemy." Moreau, on the contrary, "found himself extremely embarrassed, and six weeks were employed in the vain attempt to dislodge a defeated army from their stronghold; a striking proof of the prophetic wisdom of the Archduke Charles in its formation, and the importance of central fortifications in arresting the progress of an invading enemy."

When the great victories of Napoleon, in the campaign of 1806, had overthrown the Prussian armies in the open field, there was still a dormant power in the fortresses sufficient to hold in check the French till the new organized forces, acting in concert with the Russian army, could have re-established the Prussian monarchy in its ancient greatness. The works on the three great lines of the Oder, the Elbe, and the Weser, were fully capable of doing this, had they been properly repaired, garrisoned, and defended. But it seemed, say the historians of that period, that fate or treason had utterly blinded the intellect and paralyzed the energy of the entire Prussian army. Stettin, Custrin, Glogau, Magdebourg, Spandau, Hameln, Nienbourg, &c., were, to the joy and astonishment of Napoleon and his generals, surrendered without waiting, in most cases, even the form of a siege. "Spandau," said he, in the 19th bulletin, "is an inestimable acquisition. In our hands, it could sustain two months of operations. But such was the general confusion, that the Prussians had not armed the batteries." The possession of these fortifications was of immense value to the French in their ensuing operations against the Russians. All the historians of the war notice their influence on the campaigns of Friedland and Tilsit. We quote the words of Alison as peculiarly appropriate: "The Polish winter campaign demonstrates, in the most striking manner, the ruinous effects to the common cause, and in a special manner the interests of their own monarchy, which resulted from the disgraceful capitulation of the Prussian fortresses in the preceding autumn. When the balance quivered at Eylau, the arrival of Lestoq would have given the Russians a decisive victory, had it not been for the great successes of Davoust on the left, and the tardy appearance of Ney on the right; yet, if the governors of the Prussian fortresses on the Elbe and Ŏder had done their duty, these corps would have been engaged far in the rear-Ney around the walls of Magdebourg, Davoust before Stettin, Custrin, and Glogau. Saragossa, with no defence but an old wall and the heroism of its inhabitants, held out fifty days of open trenches. Tarragona fell after as many. French marshals had, in like manner, been detained two months, or even six weeks, before each of the great fortresses of Prussia, time would have been gained to organize the resources of the eastern provinces of the monarchy, and Russia would have gained a decisive victory at Eylau, or driven Napoleon to a disastrous retreat from the Vistula."

If the

At the treaty of Tilsit, Napoleon, notwithstanding the protests and entreaties of the king and queen, insisted upon retaining possession of the Prussian fortresses, as a pledge of peace. "The campaign of 1809," said he, afterwards, "proved the prudence of my policy." They then effectually prevented Prussia from joining Austria in kindling again the flames of war. But these were not the only fortresses from which Napoleon derived assistance in this war. His garrisons on the now vastly extended frontiers of the empire served as so many safe rallying points around which the several contingents were collected, before converging to the general rendezvous at the fortresses of Ingolstadt or of Donawerth. Davoust was to concentrate his immense corps at Bamberg and Wurtzburg; Massena at Strasburg and Ulm; Oudinot at Ausburg; Bernadotte at Dresden; the Poles upon Gallicia; and the troops of the Rhenish confederacy were to concentrate upon the strongholds of the Danube. "Thus from all quarters of Europe, from the mountains of Austria to the plains of Poland, armed men were converging in all directions to the valley of the Danube, where a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers would ere long be collected; while the provident care of the Emperor was not less actively exerted in collecting magazines upon the projected line of operations for the stupendous multitude, and providing, in the arming and replenishing of the fortresses, both as a base for offensive operations, and a refuge in the probable events of disaster." This concentration of his vast army, secured by his fortifications, soon produced the retreat of the Austrian army, and Napoleon's advance to Vienna.

H. Rep. Com. 86-21