Canrobert
is not a great general, but he is not a man to whom a civilian, who
never saw a shot fired, ought to give lectures on what he calls "the
great principles" or "the absolute principles of war." He seems to have
taken the correspondence between Napoleon and Joseph for his model,
forgetting that Canrobert is to him what Napoleon was to Joseph. Then he
applies his principles as absurdly as he enunciates them. Thus he orders
Canrobert to send a fleet carrying 25,000 men to the breach at Aboutcha,
to land 3,000 of them, to send them three leagues up the country, and not
to land any more, until those first sent have established themselves
beyond the defile of Agen. Of course those 3,000 men would be useless if
the enemy were _not_ in force, or destroyed if they _were_ in force. To
send on a small body and not to support them is the grossest of faults.
It is the fault which you committed at the Redan, when the men who had
got on to the works were left by you for an hour unsupported, instead of
reinforcements being poured in after them as quickly as they could be
sent.
'In fact,' he continued, 'the horrible and mutual blunders of that
campaign arose from its being managed by the two Emperors from Paris and
from St.
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