In this work an attempt has been made to give in outline the best modern methods of attack upon a fortified position by assault, surprise, blockade, or siege; and also the detailed constructions of those types of trenches, batteries, magazines, etc., etc., which seem best suited to resist the fire of modern cannon, and to afford cover to a besieging force.

It is not supposed that these types will be exactly copied in all cases of actual practice, but that a wise discretion will be used in modifying or combining them when necessary or desirable.

The constructions given are standard types, which have grown up by combining the suggestions and the experience of the military engineers of all civilized nations.

In selecting them I have drawn freely upon the textbooks of the schools of military engineering at Chatham, Fontainebleau, Vienna, and Berlin, as well as upon that of the late Professor Mahan, and the manuals of Duane and Ernst.

The standard work of Gumpertz and Lebrun is frequently referred to in “Military Mining”; and I am also under obligations to General H. L. Abbot, Corps of Engineers, for the use of his unpublished notes on the experimental mines at Willett’s Point, and the result of his experiments upon the mining effects of shells charged with different explosives.

J. M.

West Point, N. Y.,
October, 1894.