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2

. GREELY FIELD ARTILLERY, U.S. ARMY

AND MAJOR ROBERT C. COTTON GENERAL STAFF (INFANTRY), U.S. ARMY Joint Author of "Military Field Notebook"

1921

[Transcriber's note: Footnotes have been moved to the end of the book.]

[Illustration: COLONEL ARDANT DU PICQ]

[Illustration: Letter from Marshal Foch to Major General A. W. Greely Dated Malsherbe, October 23, 1920]

TRANSLATION OF A LETTER FROM MARSHAL FOCH TO MAJOR GENERAL A. W. GREELY, DATED MALSHERBE, OCTOBER 23, 1920

MY DEAR GENERAL:

Colonel Ardant du Picq was the exponent of moral force, the most powerful element in the strength of armies. He has shown it to be the preponderating influence in the outcome of battles.

Your son has accomplished a very valuable work in translating his writings. One finds his conclusions amply verified in the experience of the American Army during the last war, notably in the campaign of 1918.

Accept, my dear General, my best regards. F. FOCH.

PREFACE

BY FRANK H. SIMONDS Author of "History of the World War," "'They Shall Not Pass'--Verdun," Etc.

In presenting to the American reading public a translation of a volume written by an obscure French colonel, belonging to a defeated army, who fell on the eve of a battle which not alone gave France over to the enemy but disclosed a leadership so inapt as to awaken the suspicion of treason, one is faced by the inevitable interrogation--"Why?"

Yet the answer is simple. The value of the book of Ardant du Picq lies precisely in the fact that it contains not alone the unmistakable forecast of the defeat, itself, but a luminous statement of those fundamental principles, the neglect of which led to Gravelotte and Sedan.

Napoleon has said that in war the moral element is to all others as three is to one. Moreover, as du Picq impressively demonstrates, while all other circumstances change with time, the human element remains the same, capable of just so much endurance, sacrifice, e

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