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Under Construction!
THE OFFICERS OF MILITIA OF THE UNITED STATES
GENTLMEN:
THAT an efficiently organized Militia is the firmest and only
safe bulwark of the State, is a political axiom admitted by all who
understand the nature of our free institutions. Whatever, then, may
contribute, in any degree, to strengthen this arm of our national
defence, it is to be hoped will meet with an indulgent reception
from those to whose province it falls to instruct, discipline, and
lead it into action. Feeling a strong conviction that it effilciency
must depend upon sound elementary military knowledge, I have
presumed to dedicate the following work to you, Gentlemen, in the
hope that it may be found useful to our country, by proviing
serviceable to yourselves. Should this, my chief aim, be
accomplished, I shall receive the highest gratification, is being
thus enabled to make some return to my country, for the benefit
which she lias conferred on me in an education at our only National
School. With sentiments of high respect, I have the honor to be,
GENTLEMEN,
Your obedient servant,
D. H. MAHAN
UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY, WEST POINT.
NOTICE
THIS Work will be speedily followed by "INSTRUCTIONS ON OUT-POST
AND DETACHMENT DUTIES OF TROOPS," drawn from the latest and most
reliable Military Writers, intended for the use of Subaltern and
other Officers of Volunteers and Militia.
PREFACE.
IN preparing the work now laid before the public, which is
chiefly designed for the use of the Cadets of the United States'
Military Academy, the aim of the writer was to make a book which
should also~ be generally useful,-one that should contain all the
principles and important details of that branch of the Art of
Fortification of which it specially treats, developed in a manner to
be within the comprehension of any person of ordinary intelligence,
a book not for the study alone, but one which the officer can take
with him into the camp, and consult at any moment.
With respect to the contents, the writer has collected his
information from every source within his reach; rejecting' all
unnecessary discussions, and admitting no results, which have not
either been submitted to a rational analysis, or tested by fair
experiment; preferring, in all cases, the views of persons who wrote
from their own experience, to the conjectures of others whose
theories, however plausible, rested on a less solid foundation.
In arranging the matter, the writer has endeavored, as far as it
was practicable, to confine the text to the principles alone,
reserving the minor details for the plates, and the explanations
appended to them; and on this point he would hazard one or two
remarks.
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