d-rate importance there are many
examples to be found of such retaliatory battles; but great battles have
generally too many other determining causes to be brought on by this
weaker motive.

Such a feeling must undoubtedly have led the noble Bluecher with his
third Corps to the field of battle on February 14, 1814, when the other
two had been beaten three days before at Montmirail. Had he known
that he would have come upon Buonaparte in person, then, naturally,
preponderating reasons would have determined him to put off his revenge
to another day: but he hoped to revenge himself on Marmont, and instead
of gaining the reward of his desire for honourable satisfaction, he
suffered the penalty of his erroneous calculation.

On the duration of the combat and the moment of its decision depend the
distances from each other at which those masses should be placed which
are intended to fight IN CONJUNCTION WITH each other. This disposition
would be a tactical arrangement in so far as it relates to one and the
same battle; it can, however, only be regarded as such, provided the
position of the troops is so compact that two separate combats cannot be
imagined, and consequently that the space which the whole occupies can
be regarded strategically as a mere point. But in War, cases frequently
occur where even those forces intended to fight IN UNISON must be so far
separated from each other that while their union for one common combat
certainly remains the principal object, still the occurrence of separate
combats remains possible. Such a disposition is therefore strategic.

Dispositions of this kind are: marches in separate masses and columns,
the formation of advance guards, and flanking columns, also the grouping
of reserves intended to serve as supports for more than one strategic
point; the concentration of several Corps from widely extended
cantonments, &c. &c. We can see that the necessity for these
arrangements may constantly arise, and may consider them something like
the small change in the strategic economy, whilst the capital battles,
and all that rank with them are the gold and silver pieces.

CHAPTER VIII. MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING AS TO A BATTLE

NO battle can take place unless by mutual consent; and in this idea,
which constitutes the whole basis of a duel, is the root of a certain
phraseology used by historical writers, which leads to many indefinite
and false conceptions.

According to the view of the writers to