Book excerpt: Excerpt from Notes on the Evolution of Infantry Tactics Yet the conditions of this particular struggle have been by no means those I had in my mind at the time of writing, and the defensive form might have Shown itself locally far more successful than it has done, without in the least invalidating my conclusions. I had before me the conditions at present prevailing in Western Europe, in regard to communications, facilities of transport, and the like, and my imaginary armies were actuated by the driving power of modern twentieth-century Continental civilisation, which compels both combatants to seek an early decision at any cost. From these conditions in the aggregate, there must result campaigns of the Napoleonic type, in which rapid manoeuvring decides the manner in which actual collision takes place, and the construction of defensive works after the fashion of the early half of the eighteenth century, of the American Civil War, and the Russo Turkish War is entirely precluded by want of time. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.