I don't know if we can ever really fully understand the total combination of society, conditions, equipment and politics that influence the conduct of a war, particularly one before our time; some of the reenactors who immerse themselves in their particular impressions may get pretty close.
Certainly the coming of total industrialized war that came with Plevna, the American War Between the States, and the Crimea brought a considerable change from the conduct of war as a chivalrous activity; and Patton pretty well put the final punctuation mark to that era. Since then it's been either technical war that can eventually end with a nuclear finale, or the little guy with a two-dollar plastic shower cloth, a pair of sneakers and a $50 AK47 who set the tone, and neither seems to have developed into enterprises of those forces requiring a Patton to direct them. We may not see the like of GSP and his 3rd Army again. But nothing is impossible.
-archy-/-
Plevna is a striking example of the futility of the purely passive defence, which is doomed to failure however tenaciously carried out. Osman Pasha repelled three Russian attacks and practically held the whole Russian army. It remained for the other Turkish forces in the field to take the offensive and by a vigorous counterstroke to reap the fruits of his successes.