overwhelm the enemy while a part only of his army shall have passed. Imitate the Duke of Vendôme at Cassano, and the Archduke Charles at Essling in 1809,—the last example being particularly worthy of praise, although the operation was not so decidedly successful as might have been expected.
In Article XXI. attention was called to the influence that the passage of a river, in the opening of a campaign, may have in giving direction to the lines of operations. We will now see what connection it may have with subsequent strategic movements.
One of the greatest difficulties to be encountered after a passage is to cover the bridge against the enemy's efforts to destroy it, without interfering too much with the free movement of the army. When the army is numerically very superior to the enemy, or when the river is passed just after a great victory gained, the difficulty mentioned is trifling; but when the campaign is just opening, and the two opposing armies are about equal, the case is very different.
If one hundred thousand Frenchmen pass the Rhine at Strasbourg or at Manheim in presence of one hundred thousand Austrians, the first thing to be done will be to drive the enemy in three directions,—first, before them as far as the Black Forest, secondly, by the right in order to cover the bridges on the Upper Rhine, and thirdly, by the left to cover the bridges of Mayence and the Lower Rhine. This necessity is the cause of an unfortunate division of the forces; but, to make the inconveniences of this subdivision as few as possible, the idea must be insisted on that it is by no means essential for the army to be separated into three equal parts, nor need these detachments remain absent longer than the few days required for taking possession of the natural point of concentration of the enemy's forces.
The fact cannot be concealed, however, that the case supposed is one in which the general finds his position a most trying one; for if he divides