An army and its stomach

[Charles C Doyle]

Quotation dictionaries usually attribute (or cite attributions) of the saying "An army marches on its stomach" to Napolean.  YBQ cites the _Washington Post_ 18 Sep. 1898, and mentions _Notes & Queries_ 10 Mar. 1866, where a querier (to expand Fred's citation) stated that "Friederich II of Prussia is reported to have said, 'An army moves on (or by) its stomach'"--asking about "the exact words he used (in German, of course)" (33:196).  (A reply noted, "This monarch wrote military instructions in French, not in German," and quoted Fredrick as having insisted, unremarkably,  that an army must make "provision for the belly" [33:288].)

Burton Stevenson's _Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims and Familiar Phrases_ (NY: Macmillan, 1948) included the form "An army, like a serpent, travels on its belly," marking its authorship as "unknown," adding that it "has been attributed to Frederich the Great but is probably older" (94).

Perhaps I can shed a little light on the matter.  In Thomas Carlyle's highly popular (and lengthy!) _History of Friedrich II_ (book 2, chapter 6, published in 1858) appears the statement, "Leaders did not know then, as our little Friend at Berlin came to know, that an army, like a serpent, goes upon its belly" (Carlyle’s works, 29 vols. [London: Chapman and Hall, 1896-99], 12:90).

A casual reader might miss the reference, but it is not Fredrick being quoted there.  Rather, the epithet "our little Friend" almost certainly refers to Napolean!  Still, Carlyle was probably quoting an aphorism--whether from Napoleanic or oral tradition.

--Charlie

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