Page:John Brown (1899).pdf/50

 had acquired, undoubtedly deriving the idea in the first instance from the Bible story of Gideon's sifting of his five-and-twenty thousand men down to three hundred, a view greatly in favor of small and extremely mobile bodies of men. He had made as close study as his opportunities permitted of the art of intrenching such small bodies of men and fortifying their positions. But he certainly never had practical knowledge of any other form of warfare than the guerilla campaigning which he practised in Kansas.