Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1846-06-18

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perform tactical evolution with five
thousand Mexican troops. / do no,
believe that such an one-a maneuvre
IN the face of an enemy-eyer was az
tempted IN any Mexican battle. They
have all beenmere melees, ormob fights,
and generally terminated by a charge
OF cavalry, which is, therefore, the IA
vorite corps with all Mexican officers.
should regard it, from the diminutive
size OF their horses, and equally dimin-
}stive stature and feebleness of their RI
ders, as utterly inefficient against any
common infantry. | said SO in con-
versation with Col. B-n, an officer
who had seen some service, and had
some reputation. / was not little
amused at his reply. He admitted that
squares of infantry were generally i'm
pregnable to cavalry, but SAID it was
not so with the Mexican cavalry, that
they had one resource by which they
never had any difficulty in breaking the
square. l was curious to know what
this new and importan. discovery in the
art of war was, and waited impatiently
the push of his one thing when to my
Infinitely amusement he replied-the
lasso; that the cavalry armed with las
SOS, rode up and threw them over the
men forming the square, and pulled
them out, and thus made the breach
| remembered that my own nurse had
often got me to sleep when child, by
promising to catch me some birds the
next day, by putting salt or their tails,
which thought was about as easy an
operation as this new discovery of the
Mexican Colonel. / had read of
skneeling ranks & charging squadrons, ,
but this idea Of lassoing squadrons, was
altogether new to me. Bonaparte
fought and gained the battle of the Py-
ramids against the best cavalry in the
world, Mamelukes, entirely in squares.
He lost the battle Of Waterloo because
the British squares were impregnable
to the next best--the French cavalry
during all that long and awful
conflict. The idea, however, of the
lasso, did not occur to the Mamelukes
in Egypt, nor to Bonaparte at Water
loo. was reminded of the equally
novel attack of the Chinese upon the
English, when they wers all formed in
battle array, and the Chinese threw
somersets at them, instead of cannon
balls and shells.
The Mexican army, and more partl-
cularly their cavalry, may do we'll to
fight each other, but in any conflict with
our own or European troops, it would
not be battle but massacre. Fred
erick the Great, who was the author,
in a great degree, ofthe modern system
of tactics, had three maxims as to cav
airy. First, that cavalry corps should
never be charged, but should always
make the charge. Second, that, in a
charge of cavalry, they were not going
fast enough, unless when halted the
froth from the mouth of the horse struck
the rider in the face and third, which
was rather the summing up of the first
two, that the spur was more important
than the sword. In other words, that
the impulse and momentum Of the
horse was of more consequence than
the arms and blows ofthe rider. What
then must be the murderous inequality
between a, corps Of American cavalry
and an equal number of Mexieans =
The American troops, from the superb
or size of their horses, would cover
twice as much ground, and the obstruc-
ton offered by the Mexicans, on their
small and scrawny ponies, would scarce
y cause their horses to stumble in RI
ding over them; to say nothing of the
greater inequality of the men them
selves, five to one al least in individual
combats, and more than twice that in
battle. The infantry would be found
even more impotent.
lido not think that the Mexican men
have much more physical strength than
our women. They are generally of d.
mnutive stature, wholly unaccustomed
to labor or exercise of any sort, and as
a conclusive proof of their interiority tc
our Indians, | will mention the fact,
that frequent incursions are made tai
into the interior of Mexico by maraud
ing bands of Camanches, who levy
black mail to on enormous extent on
the northern provinces of Mexico. II
IS not unusual for bands of hundred
Camanches thus to penetrate several
hundred miles into Mexico and carry
OF as many horses, cattle and captives,
as they choose; there are notices. than
i've thousand Mexicans at this moment
slaves of the Camanches-and of all
our western tribes the Camanches are