It's a topic that I've been thinking about a lot recently. I find military history very interesting, and after a fair bit of reading it's very clear that most campaigns are decided before two opposing soldiers ever see each other. I only catch glimpses of it really, when reading about the Greeks or Romans in reference to major strategy, with statements like 'the Romans would have their supply lines in pace or arranged so that their army was well fed and watered while the enemy fought hungry'. But it never really explains how.

The scale just seems so absurd that it's hard to visualise. How do you even move an army of 50,000 men, let alone keep them nourished and remotely happy without modern ration packs and transportation! Plus things like weapon production, I do blacksmithing, it would take me a long time to make a sword using modern steel and tools, just how many blacksmiths did they have to arm an army, and how much did it cost?

I'm looking for a book that will cover the basics on how these things were done, ideally covering something like the late Classical period through to Napoleonic- obviously this is very specific and I won't find anything perfect, but that's roughly what I'm after, and idiot's guide so I can get a feel for how it was organised, and how it adapted over time!