All that takes place in War takes place through armed forces, but where the forces of War, i.e., armed men, are applied, there the idea of fighting must of necessity be at the foundation.
All, therefore, that relates to forces of War--all that is connected with their creation, maintenance, and application--belongs to military activity.
Creation and maintenance are obviously only the means, whilst application is the object.
The contest in War is not a contest of individual against individual, but an organised whole, consisting of manifold parts; in this great whole we may distinguish units of two kinds, the one determined by the subject, the other by the object.

In an Army the mass of combatants ranges itself always into an order of new units, which again form members of a higher order.

The combat of each of these members forms, therefore, also a more or less distinct unit.

Further, the motive of the fight; therefore its object forms its unit.
Now, to each of these units which we distinguish in the contest we attach the name of combat.
If the idea of combat lies at the foundation of every application of armed power, then also the application of armed force in general is nothing more than the determining and arranging a certain number of combats.
Every activity in War, therefore, necessarily relates to the combat either directly or indirectly.

The soldier is levied, clothed, armed, exercised, he sleeps, eats, drinks, and marches, all MERELY TO FIGHT AT THE RIGHT TIME AND PLACE.
If, therefore, all the threads of military activity terminate in the combat, we shall grasp them all when we settle the order of the combats.
Only from this order and its execution proceed the effects, never directly from the conditions preceding them.