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[101] ‘war must support war.’ In a thinly settled country like ours, war could not be made to support war; since under such conditions ‘concentration starves itself.’ The offensive power of an army is gone at a long distance from its source of supply; and the necessity of maintaining long lines of communication often causes the retreat of the invader, though the invaded flees before him. The character and expanse of country through which the invading armies must operate was, up to that time, a justification of the belief that the conquest of the South was impossible. In the Revolution, England generally controlled the sea-board, but the river breezes were fitful and unsafe motive power for her sail vessels on our rivers, and she could not maintain depots of supplies for any large force, at any distance from the sea. It was not thought possible, under the art of war as known in 1861, that steam vessels could maintain inland navigation for any distance, in the face of
Richmond, VA. 1893.
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