CHAPTER XVII.
A RETROSPECT OF EVENTS--A COMBINATION OF UNFORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCES INVOLVE LEADING OFFICERS.
That the campaign on the Niagara frontier might have been conducted on lines which would have proved much more satisfactory for the success of the Canadian forces, is admitted.

It seemed to be a combination of errors and omissions from the beginning, which furnished food for unfavorable criticism and condemnation by journalistic and arm-chair critics which created impressions on the public mind that exist even at the present day.

Of course each critic would have done different--this plan or that plan "should have been" adopted, regardless of all military rules.

The trite saying that "nothing succeeds like success" should be supplemented by adding, "and nothing more reprehensive than failure." In military operations success or defeat are in the scales, and the least little occurrence is liable to outbalance the other.

No matter how carefully a commanding officer may lay his plans, or how minutely he may explain them to his staff and subordinates, if one does not do his part in promptly carrying out instructions at the proper moment, the whole machinery is thrown out of gear, and failure is the inevitable result.
In the first place, while Gen.