Whoever reads history with a mind free from prejudice cannot fail to arrive at a conviction that of all military virtues, energy in the conduct of operations has always contributed the most to the glory and success of arms.

How we make good our principle of regarding the destruction of the enemy’s force as the principal object, not only in the war as a whole but also in each separate combat, and how that principle suits all the forms and conditions necessarily demanded by the relations out of which war springs, the sequel will show. For the present all that we desire is to uphold its general importance, and with this result we return again to the combat.