BAT 



B A T 



eompofcd of troops regularly trained and inured to fervice, 

 but of cowardly and undifciplined plunderers, to whom vic- 

 tory or defeat was alike the fignal for difbanding, on whofe 

 esertions therefore but fmall dependence could be placed, 

 and from whofe fucceffes httle or no benefit could be derived. 

 Numbers foon became, as formerly, the criterion of advan- 

 tage. War teemed with fanguiaarj- combats, productive of 

 trifling confequences. Courage fupplied the place of gene- 

 ralftip ; fuiy and carnage, of difcipline. 



Never did a feries of pitched battles follow each other in 

 more rapid fuccefllon, than during the period fiibfequent 

 to the tiift irruption of the Arabs into the more civilized 

 provinces of Alia. Thefe enthufiallic followers of their 

 prophet, ifTuing from a peniniV.la of contemptible extent 

 •when compared to the empires they fo madly attacked, dared 

 to match their own puny forces againft the united efforts of 

 the Roman and Perfian monarchies. As we accompany 

 them in their progrefs, the moil incredible victories crowd 

 upon and harafs our refleclions. It is true, that among 

 thefe engagements, fo general, fo bloody, and fo decilive, 

 we do not find the flightell trace of difcipline or generaKhip. 

 A religious furj-, altogether irrefiftible, compenfated with 

 the Arabs the want of both thefe requifites. Aiznadin, 

 Kadefia, and Yermouk, are lalling monuments of Modem 

 glory ; but they do not convey the leaft information to the 

 military reader, or recompenfe in intercfl the attention he 

 may bellow in perufing them. 



Alike barr:n, dr)-, and uninterefting are the details of 

 moll of thofe battles fought between the time of Charle- 

 magne and the beginning of the fevcnteenth century. Whe- 

 ther we perufe the murderous annals of the Crufades, where 

 all Europe and Afia feem mingled in reciprocal carnage ; 

 or the bloodlefs combats of the Italians in the days of Ma- 

 chiavel, when, after fighting a whole day, armies have fe- 



?arated without the lofs of a man on either fide (Machiav. 

 lift. Flor. hb. vii. ) ; we are alike difgufted with the want 

 ef circumllances to excite our attention. 



CrefFy, Poicliers, and Agincourt are names venerated 

 with reafon by every Englilhman ; but fetting afide any 

 confideration of the fplendid carnage which attended them, 

 and examining them in a military point of view, how little 

 {hall we find to extol, how much to cenfure. In all the 

 three cafes, the Engllfh armies were brought into the moft 

 imminent danger by the boyifh imprudence of their leaders, 

 who m.arched them, as it were bhndfold, into the heart of 

 an enemy's country, without taking the fmalleft pains, either 

 to fecure the necefTary fupplies of proviGons, or to enfure 

 a retreat. Not to be behind hand in imprudence, the 

 French generals, although certain of ftarving their antago- 

 nifts into a furrender merely by an inconfiderable delay, had 

 three times fucceffively the infanity to march up and attack 

 the Enghfh ftrongly and advantageoufly ported, and on 

 ground too where not a fourth of their own numbers was 

 capable of afting. Untaught by experience, they loll the 

 three great battles by exactly the fame fault ; and in all 

 three (the contefted tradition of the artillery ufed at Creffy - 

 alone excepted), we find no reafon to commend the military 

 fcience of our anceilors. Indeed, at Poitlicrs, the Black 

 prince polLfiTed fagacity fufficient to line the hedges on both 

 ■fides of a narrow way with archers, for the purpofe of an- 

 Tioying.the French gens d'armes as they advanced through 

 it to the attack : a flratagem not half fo commendable as 

 that of Nevil earl of Sahlbury at the petty ikirmilh cf 

 Eloreheath in the reign of Henry VI. (Hohnlhed) ; an af- 

 fair as much furpaffing Poicliers in a taclical confideration, 

 as inferior in the bloody Hft of the killed, and ilic confe- 

 sjucnces that enfued upon it. 



In proportion as we approach nearer to modem timer, we 

 view the mihtary fcience making falter Urides towards im- 

 provement. The invention of gunpowder efFctlLd by deo-rceu 

 an important change in the whole art of war. The armfand 

 order of the battalions underwent a total alteration. The 

 cavaln-, formerly the main dependence of an army, info- 

 much tliat no perfon of family v/ould ferve in any other ca- 

 pacity than as a horfeman, became a mere appendage to the 

 infantry, who, fince the invention of fire-arms, have gene- 

 rally decided the event of battles. The mufquet and bayo- 

 net are now fubflituted for the pike and fword ; and armies, 

 like fortified places, mull be approached in form, and bat- 

 tered down by artillery, while the moft complete defeat is 

 rarely attended with worfe confequences than the lofs of 

 the furroundiiig territory. 



About the year 1630, the entrance of Guftavuc Adol- 

 phus and his Swedes into the German empire, and the great 

 events which fignahzed the war of thirty years, render mi- 

 litary hiftory more interefting. The celebrated battles 

 of Leip%ick and Lutzen, where the firft modern ufe was 

 made of the column, now the chief inftrument of the gain 

 of victories, are remarkable epochs. On thofe days the hard- 

 earned laurels of Tilly and of AValftein faded in a moment 

 before the comprehenfive genius of Guftavus, who by his 

 fliilful difpofitions bought, though with his life, the title of 

 the firft general of his age. A fuccefiion of heroes, Wei- 

 mar, Bannier, Torftenfon, and Wrangcl, adopted and im- 

 proved upon his maxims. Conde and Turenne profited anew 

 by tlie example ; and a fucccffioa of vi£lories obtained under 

 their aufpices, rendered the aims of Louis XIV. during 50 

 years inrincible. 



On entering upon the hiftory of the war of i6go, we are 

 furpriztd at the rapid improvements in that part of the mi- 

 litar)- art, the fubjeft of the prefent article. The engage- 

 ment ot Sldniiri prefcnts a remarkable inftance of the 

 recovery of an affair judged enrirely dcfperate. The battle 

 of I.twJin ftiews us an army entrenched behind a number 

 of fortified \-illages, driven from all its defences, and carried 

 as it were by ftorm. The bayonet, ufed firft by Catinat at 

 the action of Marfaglia, added a new and terrible weapon 

 of offence to the infantry-, and by degrees entirely fuperfeded 

 the ufe of the pike. The reader will now obferve armie? 

 more numerous and more regularly fubfifted than formerly, 

 plans of attack and defence more ingenious ard connected, 

 artillery more formidable and better ferved, ar.d a degree of 

 method in military operations not before praftifed. 



In the war of fucceffion, or that which took its rife from 

 the feparate claims of the houfes of Bourbon and Aullria to 

 the SpannTi monarchy, the three great battles oi'Hochftcdt, 

 of Ramillics, and of Turin, immortalized by the abilities 

 and fplendid victories of Eugene ar.d Marlborough, claim 

 particular attention. To enlarge upon each under the pre- 

 fent article, would trefpafs too much on the boundaries af- 

 fi^^ned to us; we therefore refer the fcicntific reader to the 

 heads Hochstedt, S:c. where he will find a fuccincl 

 account of thofe engagements, illuftrated by the criti- 

 cal remarks of an excelleut military judge, M. de Fcu- 

 quieres. 



Of all the battles fought by Charles XII. in his nine ycEri* 

 war w ith the Ruffian empire about the fame period, that of 

 Pultowa alone i? remark;'.ble in a taclical point of view. 

 Narva, Duna, Ciiffow, &c. fumiih but fplendid and tranfitory 

 inftanccs of fuccefsful raPnnefs in a military madman. The 

 battle, or rather five battles, of Lefno on tlie Soffa, fought 

 by ge:icral Lewciihaupt againll the whole forces 01 the 

 C/.ar, are intcrcfting in fo far as ti'.ey difplay the aftoniftiiug 

 itfources of Swcdilb valour. 



C 2 From 



