The Franco-German War of 1870-71 Part 43

[86] During a long peace the sphere of action of the War Minister's department and the General Staff were not distinctly defined. The providing for the troops in peace was the function of the former, and in war time a number of official duties which could be superintended by the central authorities at home. Thus the place of the Minister of War was not at head-quarters, but at Berlin. The Chief of the General Staff, on the other hand, from the moment when the mobilization is ordered, a.s.sumes the whole responsibility for the marching and transport already prepared for during peace, both for the first a.s.sembling of the forces, and for their subsequent employment, for which he has only to ask the consent of the Commander-in-Chief--always, with us, the King.

How necessary this disjunction of the two authorities is, I had to experience in June, 1866. Without my knowledge the order had been given for the VIIth Corps to remain on the Rhine. It was only by my representations that the 16th Division was moved up into Bohemia, and our numerical superiority thus brought up to a decisive strength.

[MOLTKE.]

[87] Frederick the Great.

[88] Wilhelm was not the grandson, but the great-grand-nephew of Frederick the Great. The term is very rarely used in the wider sense of "descendant;" but Frederick was childless.