Part 526

Offensive war must be long meditated on in private before it be openly entered upon; when the success will depend upon two essential points: that the plan be justly formed, and the enterprize conducted with order. It should be well and maturely considered and digested, and with the greatest secrecy, lest, however able the leaders or council may be, some of the precautions necessary to be taken, be discovered. These precautions are infinite both at home and abroad.

Abroad, they consist in alliances and security not to be disturbed in the meditated expedition, foreign levies, and the buying up of warlike ammunition, as well to increase our own stores as to prevent the enemy from getting them.

The precautions at home, consist in providing for the security of our distant frontiers, levying new troops, or augmenting the old ones, with as little noise as possible; furnishing your magazines with ammunition; constructing carriages for artillery and provisions; buying up horses, which should be done as much as possible among your neighbors; both to prevent their furnishing the enemy, and to preserve your own for the cavalry and the particular equipages of the officers.

Defensive war, may be divided into three kinds. It is either a war sustained by a nation, which is suddenly attacked by another who is superior in troops and in means; or a nation makes this sort of war by choice on one side of its frontiers, while it carries on offensive war elsewhere; or it is a war become defensive by the loss of a battle.

A defensive war which a nation attacked by a superior enemy sustains, depends entirely upon the capacity of the general. His particular application should be, to chuse advantageous camps to stop the enemy, without, however, being obliged to fight him; to multiply small advantages; to harass and perplex the enemy in his foraging parties, and to oblige them to do it with great escorts; to attack their convoys; to render the passages of rivers or defiles as difficult to them as possible; to force them to keep together: if they want to attack a town, to throw in succors before it is invested; in short, in the beginning his chief aim should be, to acquire the enemy’s respect by his vigilance and activity, and by forcing him to be circumspect in his marches and manner of encampment, to gain time himself, and make the enemy lose it. An able general, carefully pursuing these maxims, will give courage to his soldiers, and to the inhabitants of the country; he gives time to his government to take proper precautions to resist the enemy who attacks him; and thus changes the nature of this disagreeable and vexatious kind of warfare.

The management of a defensive war requires more military judgment than that of an offensive one.

A war between equal powers, is that in which the neighboring states take no part, so long as the belligerent parties obtain no great advantage, the one over the other. This sort of war never should last long if you want to reap any advantages from it. As to its rules, they are entirely conformable to those already given; but we may look on it as a certain maxim in this sort of war, that the general who is the most active and penetrating, will ever in the end prevail over him, who possesses these qualities in a lesser degree; because, by his activity and penetration, he will multiply small advantages, till at last they procure him a decisive superiority. A general who is continually attentive to procure himself small advantages, ever obtains his end, which is to ruin the enemy’s army; in which case he changes the nature of the war, and makes it offensive; which should ever be the chief object of his prince.

Auxiliary WAR, is that in which a nation succors its neighbors, either in consequence of alliances or engagements entered into with them; or sometimes to prevent their falling under the power of an ambitious prince.

If it is in virtue of treaties, he observes them religiously, in furnishing the number of troops prescribed, and even offering to augment his quota, if required; or in making a diversion by attacking the common enemy, or its allies.

If it is to prevent a neighboring prince from being crushed by a power, who after this conquest may become dangerous to yourself, there are several measures to be taken for your own particular interest. One of the chief is, to exact from those you succor, the possession of some place in security, lest they make their peace without your knowlege, or to your prejudice.

The general, therefore, who is chosen for the command of this auxiliary corps, should have wisdom, penetration, and foresight; wisdom, to preserve a proper discipline in his corps, that the allied prince may have no cause to complain of him; foresight and penetration, to prevent his troops suffering for want of subsistence, or being exposed to the perils of war, but in proportion to their numbers with those of the allied prince; and, finally, that nothing shall pass without his knowlege, which may be prejudicial to his master.

Civil or intestine WAR, is that between subjects of the same realm, or between parties in the same state. In this sense we say, the civil wars of the Romans destroyed the republic; the civil wars of Grenada ruined the power of the Moors in Spain: the civil wars in England began 1641, and ended in the tyrant’s death.

Religious WAR, is war maintained in a state on account of religion, one of the parties refusing to tolerate the other.

Holy WAR, is that species of warfare which was anciently maintained by leagues and crusades, for the recovery of the Holy Land.

Civil and religious WARS are ever unhappy for the states who sustain them. These sorts of war, which the animosity of the different parties, and fanaticism, always carry beyond the bounds of humanity, and the duties of society, have in general, no other rules but those of the offensive and defensive. It has however always been observed, that civil wars form great men and good soldiers; because the rich and poor, citizens and laborers, being equally obliged to fight for their property and preservation, have all an opportunity of learning the art of war. This species of war may likewise be called revolutionary, with the additional circumstance, that in the latter sense it is of a more extensive nature.

WAR of opinion. See OPINION.

Articles of WAR.

SECT. I. Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That from and after the passing of this act, the following shall be the rules and articles by which the armies of the United States shall be governed:

Art. 1. Every officer now in the army of the United States, shall, in six months from the passing of this act, and every officer who shall hereafter be appointed, shall before he enters on the duties of his office, subscribe these rules and regulations.

Art. 2. It is earnestly recommended to all officers and soldiers diligently to attend divine service; and all officers who shall behave indecently or irreverently at any place of divine worship, shall, if commissioned officers, be brought before a general court-martial, there to be publicly and severely reprimanded by the president; if non-commissioned officers or soldiers, every person so offending shall, for his first offence, forfeit one sixth of a dollar, to be deducted out of his next pay; for the second offence, he shall not only forfeit a like sum, but be confined twenty-four hours; and for every like offense shall suffer and pay in like manner; which money, so forfeited, shall be applied by the captain or senior officer of the troop or company, to the use of the sick soldiers of the company or troop to which the offender belongs.

Art. 3. Any non-commissioned officer or soldier who shall use any profane oath or execration shall incur the penalties expressed in the foregoing article, and a commissioned officer shall forfeit and pay for each and every such offence one dollar, to be applied as in the preceding article.

Art. 4. Every chaplain commissioned in the army or armies of the United States, who shall absent himself from the duties assigned him (except in cases of sickness or leave of absence) shall, on conviction thereof before a court-martial, be fined not exceeding one month’s pay, besides the loss of his pay during his absence; or be discharged, as the said court-martial shall judge proper.

Art. 5. Any officer or soldier who shall use contemptuous or disrespectful words against the president of the United States, against the vice-president thereof, against the congress of the United States, or against the chief magistrate or legislature of any of the United States in which he may be quartered, if a commissioned officer, shall be cashiered, or otherwise punished as a court-martial shall direct; if a non-commissioned officer or soldier, he shall suffer such punishment as shall be inflicted on him by the sentence of a court-martial.

Art. 6. Any officer or soldier who shall behave himself with contempt or disrespect towards his commanding officer, shall be punished according to the nature of his offence, by the judgment of a court-martial.

Art. 7. Any officer or soldier who shall begin, excite, cause, or join in any mutiny or sedition in any troop or company in the service of the United States, or in any party, post, detachment, or guard, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as by a court-martial shall be inflicted.

Art. 8. Any officer, non-commissioned officer, or soldier, who, being present at any mutiny or sedition, does not use his utmost endeavor to suppress the same, or coming to the knowlege of any intended mutiny, does not without delay, give information thereof to his commanding officer, shall be punished by the sentence of a court-martial with death or otherwise, according to the nature of his offence.

Art. 9. Any officer or soldier who shall strike his superior officer, or draw or lift up any weapon, or offer any violence against him, being in the execution of his office, on any pretence whatsoever, or shall disobey any lawful command of his superior officer, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as shall, according to the nature of his offence, be inflicted upon him by the sentence of a court-martial.

Art. 10. Every non-commissioned officer, or soldier, who shall inlist himself in the service of the United States, shall, at the time of his so inlisting, or within six days afterwards, have the articles for the government of the armies of the United States, read to him, and shall, by the officer who inlisted him, or by the commanding officer of the troop or company into which he was inlisted, be taken before the next justice of the peace, or chief magistrate of any city or town corporate, not being an officer of the army, or where recourse cannot be had to the civil magistrate, before the judge advocate, and, in his presence, shall take the following oath or affirmation: “I A. B. do solemnly swear, or affirm, (as the case may be) that I will bear true allegiance to the United States of America, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies, or opposers, whatsoever, and observe and obey the orders of the president of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the rules and articles for the government of the armies of the United States.” Which justice, magistrate, or judge advocate is to give the officer a certificate, signifying that the man inlisted, did take the said oath, or affirmation.