the oblique order is as old as Thebes and Sparta, and I have seen it used with my own eyes. This assertion of Napoleon's seems the more remarkable because Napoleon himself boasted of having used, at Marengo, the very order of which he thus denies the existence.
If we understand that the oblique order is to be applied in the rigid and precise manner inculcated by General Ruchel at the Berlin school. Napoleon was certainly right in regarding it as an absurdity; but I repeat that a line of battle never was a regular geometrical figure, and when such figures are used in discussing the combinations of tactics it can only be for the purpose of giving definite expression to an idea by the use of a known symbol. It is nevertheless true that every line of battle which is neither parallel nor perpendicular to the enemy's must be oblique of necessity. If one army attacks the extremity of another army, the attacking wing being reinforced by massing troops upon it while the weakened wing is kept retired from attack, the direction of the line must of necessity be a little oblique, since one end of it will be nearer the enemy than the other. The oblique order is so far from being a mere fancy that we see it used when the order is that by echelons on one wing, (Fig. 14.)
As to the other orders of battle explained above, it cannot be denied that at Essling and Fleurus the general arrangement of the Austrians was a concave line, and that of the French a convex. In these orders parallel lines may be used as in the case of straight lines, and they would be classified as belonging to the parallel system when no part of the line was more strongly occupied or drawn up nearer to the enemy than another.
Laying aside for the present further consideration of these geometrical figures, it is to be observed that, for the purpose of fighting battles in a truly scientific manner, the following points must be attended to:—
- An offensive order of battle should have for its object to force the enemy from his position by all reasonable means.