Fastest general

[Didz]

Given that a man can only walk at a speed of about 4 miles per hour there is a physical limit to how far an army on foot could travel in one day.

The actual distance tends to vary according to how many hours the army is forced to march over a 24 hour period. The maximum obviously being twenty four with no breaks for rest or food, so theoretically the maximum distance an army can march in one day must be around 96 miles. Any distance greater than that would have to be explained.

In practice most armies marched for 2 to 3 hours twice a day with a one or two hour break around midday for lunch, giving an average daily march rate of between 8 and 14 miles per day. A forced march merely involves marching for longer not faster.

Incidently, I read the other day that Crawford increased the daily marching distance covered by the Light Division in the Peninsula not by making them march faster but by ordering that no man was to step out of the ranks to avoid a puddle or other obstruction in their path. He reasoned that men stepping out of ranks to avoid such obsticals caused a small delay which triggered an ever increasing ripple of lost impetus down the column costing the division the equivalent of over one hours march. The men hated him for it, but were punished if they stepped around of over a puddle and in doing so earned the reputation for being the fastest division in the British army.

[Pannonian]

Incidently, I read the other day that Crawford increased the daily marching distance covered by the Light Division in the Peninsula not by making them march faster but by ordering that no man was to step out of the ranks to avoid a puddle or other obstruction in their path. He reasoned that men stepping out of ranks to avoid such obsticals caused a small delay which triggered an ever increasing ripple of lost impetus done the column costing the division the equivalent of over one hours march. The men hated him for it, but were punished if they stepped around of over a puddle and in doing so earned the reputation for being the fastest division in the British army.

After his death in battle, his body was carried on a pall (presumably to the nearest port). His pallbearers came across a large puddle, and pointedly marched straight through. He'd have been proud of that.

[The Stranger]

[SwordsMaster]

Ok. I like this getting more scientific. I have read somewhere that Suvorov? marched a russian army across the Alps in record time. Can anybody illuminate this some more for me?

[The Stranger]

in which war was that...? just curious

[SwordsMaster]

in which war was that...? just curious

No war. From what I heard he just marched them...

[Didz]

Ok. I like this getting more scientific. I have read somewhere that Suvorov? marched a russian army across the Alps in record time. Can anybody illuminate this some more for me?

It was during 1799 campaign of the French Revolutionary wars. He was trying to invade Switzerland I think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_...paigns_of_1799

'Taking command on 19 April, Suvorov moved his army westwards, in a rapid march towards the Adda River, covering over 300 miles in just eighteen days.'

[The Stranger]

What the hell were the russians doing in the alps then?

[Didz]

What the hell were the russians doing in the alps then?

You never heard of the Swiss Alps?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Alps

Right!! I've done a bit more reading and it appears that I was slightly wrong in my earlier statement. Suvorov was not trying to invade Switzerland it seems he had already done that and was trying to get out again. The main Russian Army under Rimsky-Korsakov had been defeated by the French already and Massena with 80,000 French troops had invaded Switzerland and was advancing on Suvorov's army of 18,000 regulars and 5,000 cossacks.

Suvorov could either retreat or be destroyed.

Avoiding Massena, the Russian commander withdrew on 6 October through the Panixer Pass, and then upwards into the 9,000 foot mountains of the Berner Oberland, by then deep in snow. Massena was convinced that he would be trapped there and forced to surrender. Desperately ill-equipped and short of supplies, Suvorov neverthless pushed on, finally reaching Chur on the Rhine with the bulk of his army intact. As he watched his ragged and starving soldiers march into camp the old soldier declared that "The Russian eagles outflew the Roman eagles," referring to his Hannibal-like crossing of the snow-capped Alps.

Note: that 300 miles in 18 days (16 miles per day) was considered at the time to be quite an achievement. Though it is not directly related to the Alpine incident. It was however from the same campaign.