Lanterna Rally

Author: Helmuth von Moltke

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2016-10-12

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 9781333925079

Excerpt from The Franco-German War of 1870-71 The origin of the book was as follows. I had several times entreated him, but in vain, to make use of his leisure hours at Greisau in noting down some of his rich store of reminiscences. He always objected, in the same words: Everything official that I have had occasion to write, or that is worth remembering, is to be seen in the Archives of the Staff Corps. My personal experiences had better be buried with me. He had a dislike to memoirs in general, which he was at no pains to conceal, saying that they only served to gratify the writer's vanity, and often contributed to distort im portant historical events by the subjective views of an individual, and the intrusion of trivial details. It might easily happen that a particular character which in history stood forth in noble simplicity should be hideously disfigured by the narrative of some per sonal experiences, and the ideal halo which had sur rounded it be destroyed. And highly characteristic of Moltke's magnanimity are the words he once uttered on such an occasion, and which I noted at the time: Whatever is published in a military history is always dressed for effect yet it is a duty of piety and patriot ism never to impair the prestige which identifies the glory of our Army with personages of lofty position. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.