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§ 19. The Principle of Concentration. It is necessary at the present juncture to make a digression and to treat of certain fundamental considerations which underlie the whole science and practice of warfare in all its branches. One of the great questions at the root of all strategy is that of concentration; the concentration of the whole resources of a belligerent on a single purpose or object, and concurrently the concentration of the main strength of his forces, whether naval or military, at one point in the field of operations. But the principle of concentration is not in itself a strategic principle; it applies with equal effect to purely tactical operations; it is on its material side based upon facts of a purely scientific character. The subject is somewhat befogged by many authors of repute, inasmuch as the two distinct sides—the moral concentration (the narrowing and fixity of purpose) and the material concentration—are both included under one general heading, and one is invited to believe that there is some peculiar virtue in the word concentration, like the "blessed word Mesopotamia," whereas the truth is that the word in its two applications refers to two entirely independent conceptions, whose underlying principles have nothing really in common.

The importance of concentration in the material sense is based on certain elementary principles connected