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William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, I. The Army of the Potomac in history. (search)
y drawing supplies from the country in which the troops act. But while it is no less true in America than elsewhere that an army, like a serpent, moves on its belly, the actual condition did not permit of carrying out the admonition to make war support war. In the densely populated countries of Europe, it is easy, from the resources of the country, to subsist an army of a hundred thousand men; and Napoleon, while operating in the basins of the Rhine and Danube, and in the rich granaries of Belgium, Italy, and Swabia, constantly supported by requisitions much greater numbers. But in proportion as the population becomes thin, the productive forces decrease, and local sources of supply for an army decline or disappear altogether. What is possible in Germany, therefore, is impracticable in Poland, Russia, or America. In Virginia, no dependence whatever could be placed on procuring local subsistence. The area of manoeuvre was, therefore, circumscribed by the amount of rations that co