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orion-list On Water Consumption

My Post on Macedonian Army Usage seems to have missed
the mark.  The number of comments contradicting D. W.
Engels' findings have been legion.

Engels' little UCalifornia Press treatise on "THE
LOGISTICS OF THE MACEDONIAN ARMY" is about the
campaigns of ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 

Alexander trounced the King of Persia at Issos in
Norther Lebanon so badly the Persian army fled back 
to the Euphrates and the King was reduced to sending
letters to Alexander offering to split the Empire.

Alexander felt confident he could invest Tyre, seizing
its fleet, to seize Gaza and conquer Egypt before he
needed to go back and claim the WHOLE Empire.

His passage from that battle to Gaza gets scant notion
from our ancient sources but Engels had the RAOC data
assembled from the Conquest of India on to the defeat
of the Ottoman Empire in WW I.  All of Lawrence of Arabia's
expertise lay in those records along with the filed of
countless surveyors and other Imperial Army supply people 
acting in all of the Middle East during those two centuries.

Again, here are the figures in 160 ounce 40 ounce quarts in
Imperial measure likewise the similar pounds svoirdupois.

Appendix 5, Table 3 0n p. 145 of Donald W. Engels, 
"Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army" 
Berkeley: U. California Press, 1978, gives 

The Army's Grain, Forage and Water Requirement for One Day 

Personnel  - 3 lb. grain, 
             1/2 gal.(5 lb.) water

Cavalry, Baggage and Provision
 animals   - 20 lb. grain and forage
             8 gal. (80 lb.) water

These data were from the days when soldiers used real horses
and real swords to fight real cavalry battles just as Alexander
did.  The Brits one murderous advantage was shot and shell 
which they could only transport with the same techniques
as Alexander used save one.  The Brits had horse collars.  

They also used saddles, girths and stirrups which Alexander lacked.

The water needs were no different.

Regards,


Tom Simms

For private reply, e-mail to "Tom Simms" <tsimms@nbnet.nb.ca>
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