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CHARACTER OF THE MODERN BATTLE.
ACCORDING to the notion we have formed of tactics and strategy, it follows, as a matter of course, that if the nature of the former is changed, that change must have an influence on the latter.

If tactical facts in one case are entirely different from those in another, then the strategic, must be so also, if they are to continue consistent and reasonable.

It is therefore important to characterise a general action in its modern form before we advance with the study of its employment in strategy.
What do we do now usually in a great battle?
We place ourselves quietly in great masses arranged contiguous to and behind one another.

We deploy relatively only a small portion of the whole, and let it wring itself out in a fire-combat which lasts for several hours, only interrupted now and again, and removed hither and thither by separate small shocks from charges with the bayonet and cavalry attacks.