Once again, we consult Sun Tzu:
You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended. You can ensure the safety of your defense if you only hold positions that cannot be attacked.
Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
Remember what the doormouse said: “Feed your head.”
“I don’t like paying for the same real estate twice.”
George S. Patton
“Hit ’em where they ain’t!”
Dang! Who said that?
Make your camp in treacherous terrain. High vantages work best.
Look for the gaps in your opponents defense. This is where you strike
“Hitting is all about timing, Pitching is about the disruption of that timing” – Possibly Warren Spahn
“When you can balance a tack hammer on your head, only then will you be able to head off your foes with a balanced attack.” -The Sphinx
That saying reminds me of what I know about the Battle of Antietam. Dumbass General McClelland kept attacking the bulk of the Confederate Army, or heavily fortified bridges, when there were weaker parts of their line that were only a man across. In the end, 23,000 people died in a battle that ended up being a tactical draw. Both armies simply left the battlefield.
Hmmm. . . maybe Gen. McClelland is an ancestor of this guy.
“If you find a bug hole, nuke it.”
-Lt. Raczack, Starship Troopers
Or as Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest (CSA) described his winning strategy, it consisted of “gittin’ there firstest with the mostest.” See also Liddell Hart’s indirect approach of forcing the defender to decide what to defend by menacing more than one valuable target, essentially forcing him to give something up.
Protagonist- Um, no, he didn’t. That was General Burnsides, who was under McClellan at the time. He was to be attacking across the Burnsides Bridge (no, it wasn’t called that at the time), the ONLY bridge across which union troops moved under fire (the other two prominent thrusts of movement being across a nice open wheatfield, and a constricted corn field), but was held off by… if I remember right, a small group of texan infantry who sniped at him from very good rifle positions. The doof could have simply scouted downstream a bit and found a place to ford the river right there, possibly coming into the battle earlier and enabling a swift and decisive Union victory, but noooo…
But yeah, McClellan was a complete idiot. I don’t know how the heck he was popular with the Army of the Patomac.