Oxford English Dictionary: 2. a. The art of a commander-in-chief; the art of projecting and directing the larger military movements and operations of a campaign. Usually distinguished from tactics, which is the art of handling forces in battle or in the immediate presence of the enemy; s.v., 1810 C. James Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), Strategy differs materially from tactic — the latter belonging only to the mechanical movement of bodies, set in motion by the former.