had as a keep a large city surrounded by loopholed walls, armed and defended by a number of desperate men.
Dresden, in 1813, had for a keep a bastioned enceinte, one front of which, however, was dismantled and had no other parapet than such as was suited to a field-work. The camp proper was protected by simple redoubts, at considerable distances apart, very poorly built, the keep giving it its sole strength.1
At Mayence and at Turin there were continuous lines of circumvallation; but if in the first case they were strong, they were certainly not so at Turin, where upon one of the important points there was an insignificant parapet with a command of three feet, and a ditch proportionally deep. In the latter case, also, the lines were between two fires, as they were attacked in rear by a strong garrison at the moment when Prince Eugene assailed them from without. At Mayence the lines were attacked in front, only a small detachment having succeeded in passing around the right flank.
The tactical measures to be taken in the attack of field-works are few in number. If it seems probable that a work may be surprised if attacked a little before day, it is altogether proper to make the attempt; but if this operation may be recommended in case of an isolated work, it is by no means to be expected that a large army occupying an intrenched camp will permit itself to be surprised,—especially as the regulations of all services require armies to stand to their arms at dawn. As an attack by main force seems likely to be the method followed in this case, the following simple and reasonable directions are laid down:—
- Silence the guns of the work by a powerful artillery-fire, which at the same time has the effect of discouraging the defenders.
- Provide for the troops all the materials necessary (such as fascines and short ladders) to enable them to pass the ditch and mount the parapet.