Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="Victrola1"] To what extent did the use of railroads in the U. S. Civil war effect military planners of the Franco Prussian War and World War 1? [/quote] IIRC, the U.S. Civil War was the first war in which railroads played a strategic role in transporting troops and supplies. Moltke, the mastermind behind Prussian military plans, quickly integrated railroads into his plans and urged the Prussian government to nationalize the private railroad systems, long before the Franco Prussian War (beginning 1848). The efficient employment of railroads was certainly one of the factors resulting in Germany winning that war. At the outset of the Franco-Prussian War, 462,000 German soldiers concentrated flawlessly on the French frontier while only 270,000 French soldiers could be moved to face them, the French army having lost (or mislaid) 100,000 stragglers before a shot was fired through poor planning and administration.This was partly due to the peacetime organisations of the armies. Each Prussian Korps was based within a Kreis (literally "circle") around the chief city in an area. Reservists rarely lived more than a day's travel from their regiment's depot. By contrast, French regiments generally served far from their depots, which in turn were not in the areas of France from which their soldiers were drawn. Reservists often faced several days' journey to report to their depots, and then another long journey to join their regiments. Large numbers of reservists choked railway stations, vainly seeking rations and orders.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War#cite_note-43"></a> The effect of these differences was accentuated by the pre-war preparations. The Prussian General Staff had drawn up minutely detailed mobilization plans using the railway system, which in turn had been partly laid out in response to recommendations of a Railway Section within the General Staff. The French railway system, with multiple competing companies, had developed purely from commercial pressures and many journeys to the front in Alsace and Lorraine involved long diversions and frequent changes between trains. Furthermore, no system had been put in place for military control of the railways, and officers simply commandeered trains as they saw fit. Sidings and marshalling yards became choked with loaded wagons, with nobody responsible for unloading them or directing them to the correct destination.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War#cite_note-44"></a>
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag