Bridge-Head

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The "Bridge-Head", "Buda" and other articles beginning with B were written by Engels in fulfilment of Dana's second request for B articles (see Note 299). The time of writing of these two articles can be established only approximately. On February 12, 1858 Marx wrote in his notebook: "French bank, etc. Buda, Bidassoa, Bridge-Head." This presumably means that, according to the accepted form of settling accounts with the editorial board of the New-York Daily Tribune (including accounts for the articles for The New American Cyclopaedia published under its aegis), Marx had drawn a bill on it on account of the fee for these articles, although it is known from other sources that the article "Bidassoa" was still not finished by the last week in February. However, we may assume that the other two articles were either ready or nearing completion by that time.

Bridge-Head, or tête-de-pont, in fortification, a permanent or field work, thrown up at the further end of a bridge in order to protect the bridge, and to enable the party holding it to manoeuvre on both banks of the river. The existence of bridge-heads is indispensable to those extensive modern fortresses situated on large rivers or at the junction of 2 rivers. In such a case the bridge-head is generally formed by a suburb on the opposite side and regularly fortified; thus, Castel is the bridge-head of Mentz, Ehrenbreitstein that of Coblentz, and Deutz that of Cologne. No sooner had the French got possession, during the revolutionary war, of Kehl, than they turned it into a bridge-head for Strasbourg. In England, Gosport may be considered the bridgehead of Portsmouth, although there is no bridge, and though it has other and very important functions to fulfil. As in this latter case, a fortification on the further side of a river or arm of the sea is often called a bridge-head, though there be no bridge; since the fortification, imparting the power of landing troops under its protection and preparing for offensive operations, fulfils the same functions, and comes, strategetically speaking, under the same denomination. In speaking of the position of an army behind a large river, all the posts it holds on its opposite bank are called its bridge-heads, whether they be fortresses, intrenched villages, or regular field works, inasmuch as every one of them admits of the army debouching in safety on the other side. Thus, when Napoleon’s retreat from Russia, in 1813, ceased behind the Elbe, Hamburg, Magdeburg, Wittenberg, and Torgau were his bridgeheads on the right bank of that river. In field fortification, bridge-heads are mostly very simple works, consisting of a bonnet à prêtre, or sometimes a horn-work or crown-work, open toward the river, and with a redoubt close in front of the bridge. Sometimes a hamlet, a group of farm-houses, or other buildings close to a bridge, may be formed into a sufficient bridge-head by being properly adapted for defence; for, with the present light-infantry tactics, such objects, when at all capable of defence, may be made to offer a resistance as great, or greater, than any field works thrown up according to the rules of the art.