It is not big armies that win battles, it is the good ones.
Maj Barry Rockx, Seminar 6
AMSP 16-01 July 2015

• Biography and context
• Mes Rêveries
• Impact on doctrine then and now
• Conclusion and sources unclassified 2

• Timeframe and place:
– 18 th Century Europe
– Rise and Fall powers
– Graf Hermann Moritz von Sachsen
Maurice de Saxe (1696-1750)
• Turning point in warfare
• Enlightenment unclassified 3

• Book, written in 1732, published 1757
• Part 1 details army organization, battle formation, armament
• Part2 sublime parts of war: warfare in open field, mountains, rough terrain, during siege, field fortifications
– Comfort and health
– Musket fire
– Light troops / independently
– ‘principle of action’
– Open mind / scrutinize
• Human dimension/spirit unclassified 4

• Mobility
• Raise and train
• Good have been better if…
• Resemblance with US Doctrine:
– Foundations, tenets, etc unclassified 5

• Theory of warfare, comparable to current day US Army doctrine
• Timeless and influential
• Open mind, scrutinize and become better
• Human dimension of war
• Sources:
– Gat Azar, a History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War. Oxford:
University Press, 2001.
– Hart Liddel, Great Captains Unveiled. Edinburgh and London: Blackwood, 1927.
– Lynn John, Battle: A History of Combat and Culture. Colorado: Westview Press, 2003.
– Manchip John White, Marshal of France: The life and times of Maurice de Saxe, Chicago:
Rand McNally, 1962.
– Paret Peter, Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age. New
Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1986.
– Saxe de Maurice, “Mes Reveries,” in Thomas Philips, Reveries on the Art of War,
Harrisburg, PA: Stacpole Books, 2007.
unclassified 6