account of the campaign, there
is no gain remaining from this victory, if such a result can be called
a victory. Therefore the overcoming the enemy, that is, placing him in
such a position that he must give up the fight, counts for nothing in
itself, and for that reason cannot come under the definition of object.
There remains, therefore, as we have said, nothing over except the
direct gain which we have made in the process of destruction; but to
this belong not only the losses which have taken place in the course of
the combat, but also those which, after the withdrawal of the conquered
part, take place as direct consequences of the same.

Now it is known by experience, that the losses in physical forces in the
course of a battle seldom present a great difference between victor and
vanquished respectively, often none at all, sometimes even one bearing
an inverse relation to the result, and that the most decisive losses
on the side of the vanquished only commence with the retreat, that is,
those which the conqueror does not share with him. The weak remains of
battalions already in disorder are cut down by cavalry, exhausted men
strew the ground, disabled guns and broken caissons are abandoned,
others in the bad state of the roads cannot be removed quickly enough,
and are captured by the enemy's troops, during the night numbers lose
their way, and fall defenceless into the enemy's hands, and thus the
victory mostly gains bodily substance after it is already decided. Here
would be a paradox, if it did not solve itself in the following manner.

The loss in physical force is not the only one which the two sides
suffer in the course of the combat; the moral forces also are shaken,
broken, and go to ruin. It is not only the loss in men, horses and guns,
but in order, courage, confidence, cohesion and plan, which come into
consideration when it is a question whether the fight can be still
continued or not. It is principally the moral forces which decide here,
and in all cases in which the conqueror has lost as heavily as the
conquered, it is these alone.

The comparative relation of the physical losses is difficult to estimate
in a battle, but not so the relation of the moral ones. Two things
principally make it known. The one is the loss of the ground on which
the fight has taken place, the other the superiority of the enemy's. The
more our reserves have diminished as compared with those of the enemy,
the more force we have