"The history of a battle is not unlike the history of a ball. Some individuals may recollect all the little events of which the great result of the battle is won or lost; but no individual can recollect the order in which they occurred, which makes all the difference ...
But if a true history is written,
what will become of the reputation of
half of those who have acquired
reputations, and who deserve it for
gallantry, but who, if their mistakes and
casual misconduct were made public,
would not be so well thought of?"
"The real war will never get into
the books."
'For the first time in my life I have
seen 'History' at close quarters, and I
know that its actual process is very
different from what is presented to
posterity.'
"The real way to get value out of
the study of military history is to take
particular situations, and as far as
possible get inside the skin of the man
who made a decision, realize the
conditions in which the decision was
made, and then see in what way you
could have improved on it."
And a few on Orders
"Order, counter-order,
disorder."
'Remember, gentlemen, an
order that can be misunderstood will
be misunderstood."
"A commander must train his
subordinate commanders, and his
own staff, to work and act on verbal
orders. Those who cannot be trusted to
act on clear and concise verbal orders,
but who want everything in writing, are
useless,"
And Just for Laughs
"Be sure to give out a number of
orders. It will at least show the troops
you. do not forget them. The more
trifling they are, the more it shows your
attention to the service; and should
your orders contradict one another, it
will give you an opportunity of altering
them, and find subject for fresh
regulations,"
Back to Dispatch June 2000 Table of Contents
Back to Dispatch List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2000 by HMGS Mid-South
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com