In an open country the order of march presents but little difficulty; but in a broken country, and especially in the vicinity of the enemy, a march cannot be conducted with too many precautions.  Before engaging in a defile it should be thoroughly examined, and sufficient detachments sent out to cover the main body from attack while effecting the passage.  A neglect of these precautions has sometimes led to the most terrible disasters.

In military operations very much depends upon the rapidity of marches.  The Roman infantry, in Scipio’s campaigns in Africa, frequently marched a distance of twenty miles in five hours, each soldier carrying from fifty to eighty pounds of baggage.  Septimius Severus, Gibbon states, marched from Vienna to Rome, a distance of eight hundred miles, in forty days.  Caesar marched from Rome to the Sierra-Morena, in Spain, a distance of four hundred and fifty leagues, in twenty-three days!

Napoleon excelled all modern generals in the celerity of his movements.  Others have made for a single day as extraordinary marches as the French, but for general activity during a campaign they have no rivals in modern history.  A few examples of the rapidity of their movements may not be without interest.

In 1797 a part of Napoleon’s army left Verona after having fought the battle of St. Michaels, on the 13th of January, then marched all night upon Rivoli, fought in the mountains on the 14th, returned to Mantua on the 15th, and defeated the army of Provera on the morning of the 16th,—­thus, in less than four days, having marched near fifty leagues, fought three battles, and captured more than twenty thousand prisoners!  Well might he write to the Directory that his soldiers had surpassed the much vaunted rapidity of Caesar’s legions.

In the campaign of 1800, Macdonald, wishing to prevent the escape of Loudon, in a single day marched forty miles, crossing rivers, and climbing mountains and glaciers.

In 1805 the grand French army broke up their camp at Boulogne, in the early part of September, and in two weeks reached their allotted posts on the Rhine, averaging daily from twenty-five to thirty miles.

During the same campaign the French infantry, pursuing the Archduke Ferdinand in his retreat from Ulm, marched thirty miles a day in dreadful weather, and over roads almost impassable for artillery.

Again, in the campaign of 1806, the French infantry pursued the Prussians at the rate of from twenty-five to thirty miles per day.

In 1808 the advanced posts of Napoleon’s army pursued Sir John Moore’s army at the rate of twenty-five miles a day, in the midst of winter.  Napoleon transported an army of fifty thousand men from Madrid to Astorga with nearly the same rapidity, marching through deep snows, across high mountains, and rivers swollen by the winter rains.  The activity, perseverance, and endurance of his troops, during these ten days’ march, are scarcely equalled in history.