252 
THE OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA—APPENDIX. 
Napolean, indeed, as he tersely said, made war support war, but it was 
on a different plan from Grant’s. The great Corsican forced the cities 
and towns that he conquered to furnish him supplies ; but he did it 
deliberately and in advance ; he made his arrangements according to a 
system of forced requisitions, and through the authorities ; he never 
plunged into a hostile region with no more supplies than his army 
carried in their haversacks. This may indeed have been done 
for a day or two, on a forced march, or for a special object, but 
never at the outset of a compaign which was expected to endure for 
weeks, and in which a force greater than his own was sure to be 
encountered. Yet such operations were infinitely more feasible in the 
rich and cultivated plains of Europe, than among the sparsely settled 
wilds of Mississippi. The people of the country, of course, suffered 
greatly in this campaign. The system of foraging was very simple. 
There was no time for elaborate requisitions. Parties of men were 
dispatched each night, as well as often during the march by day, who 
scoured the country for miles on each side of the main column of 
march ; these visited every plantation and farmhouse, ransacked every 
barn, worked every mill, seized every animal ; they were always 
supposed to be under command of officers, but it often happened that 
squads of men were without this restraint. There was, however, not 
much time for pillage; the movements were too rapid, and the danger 
of capture to stragglers too imminent, for any considerable amount of 
plundering : indeed, the constant motion of the troops gave less time 
for even the collection of supplies, than might otherwise have been 
thought indispensable. What was endured was doubtless hard enough, 
but instances of outrage and insult were rare. The rebels, too, were as 
merciless in their demands upon the country as the national troops, and 
lived off the people quite as closely, so that the inhabitants had small 
choice between friend or foe. They were stripped bare of supplies.— 
Badeau's “ Military History of U.iS. Grant," VoL /., ch. vii., p. 291. 
The System of Entrenchments. —It is impossible fully to under¬ 
stand the conduct of this campaign without considering the system of 
entrenching which formed one of its most characteristic features. 
Other armies in other wars had often entrenched themselves ; field 
fortifications were not unknown before the American rebellion: but the 
use to which they were put was novel then, although it has since been 
recognised by European soldiers. The dense forests and abundant 
undergrowth in America, however, made this use more frequent and 
indispensable than it can ever be on the broad campaigns where 
European battles are mostly fought. The woods allowed an enemy 
to come up close and in force, without giving warning of his approach, 
and, early in the war, the practice began of throwing up breastworks to 
protect the army against such advances—advances made more dangerous 
by the improvement in the manufacture of fire-arms, and the extended 
range and deadly accuracy they had recently acquired. 
A trench, two feet wide and a foot-and-a-quarter deep, could be 
excavated in twenty minutes, when the men were four feet apart, and 
shelter was thus obtained for two ranks, one kneeling in the trench, the 
other lying flat in rear ; the slope was built up with clods of earth, 
fallen trees, and similar material, and a serviceable parapet quickly 
