Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1855-07-19
From the London Times.
a French Officers Opinion of the British Ar

my.
y French otii5 or of high rank, who has seen a
great dead of service, has. in letter to an English
officer, given his opinion rs to the state Of the
British army before Scyastopol After praiSing
our engineers and artillery III the highest possible
terms, the writer procccds-'you may think mo,
perhaps, too severe in the opinion give Of the
English cavalry. but were you out here YOU would
youSolf be still more severe. The cavalry of an
army on field service should he the eyes and-ears
Of the forco In the English army that arm is
neither one nor the other, and this with perhaps
the very best materials in the world to form an
excellent cavalry. The superior officers of tho
English Dragons knew nothing whatever of their
duty, beyond how 10 turn regiment out Of the
stables and the harack yards IN good order
But must do them the justice to say, that the
general officers commanding their divisions aud
armies really don't know how to use the cavalry
put under their command After the battle Of
Alma an affective cavalry would never have lost
sight of the enemy, and every movement of the
latter would have been communicated forthwith to
Lord Raglan Bat ii was not so. An hour be
fore the first shot fired at lnkermaun the
English General was perfectly ignorant of single
Russian being near him. In point of tact,the Rus
sian army at lnkermann fell upon the English
force Just as much if the latter had no out
posts, no guards, and no cavalry.
And HOW cometo the consideration of the
English Infantry at this arm of their service
will say that for the battle field in hand to hand
encounters, they are certainly the bravest men
in the world; bnt for guarding themselves, wheth-
CT on picket or in the trenches; from the surprise
of the enemy, they are by no means good soldiers
very far from it. The English infantry rs Mt
present constituted should he kept for fighting
aud for that alone. The work of guarding them
in the trenches should be performed by other
troops. The defect is not the fault of the officers.
who seem to urge rs much as possible upon the
hpyy u i 70 Eoa,, nd
liant watch Mt all times; hut with the soldiers them
selves there is II want of thought, an utter reek-
lessness as to consequences. provided the present
hour can be enjoyed, which is to us Frenchmen
most marvellous.
But this is a fault throughout the English Ar
my From Lord Raglan down TO the private
sentinel, no one seems for moment to give Il
thought to what the morrow may bring forth:
and precedent appears to them sufficient excuse
for any amount of biunders. Then again, the
infantry of the English army are dres sed and nc
coutred in manner the most absurd. They still
wear the stiil leather stock which we discarded
long ago. The white leather belts which in our
army gave way to black belts five years since
still find favor in their eyes. In place of "A single
waistbelt, with movable pouch upon it, the Eng
! llsh foot soldier still has his chest confined by
/ the ahomlnable belt across it, which must in Il
! great measure confne his lungs, Although very
/ fine and very muscular men, they are not trained
| IN any way To walk, run, fence, or make the best
use of their limbs, as is the case in our infantry
They are merely taught 10 hold themselves erect,
march with precision, and handle their arms to-
gether and as ordered, individual intelligence
or personal perfection in their profession is nev-
er thought Of To sum up, the men are as fine,
or perhaps finer, than any infantry in the world,
hut the system is the worst it is possible to con
eelve, Their own officers. at any rate, such
amongst them as are the lovers of their profps.
spp bp trotl afu 1 l., 1.
the defects of their army. But what can they
do to bring about better state Of things! Moth
ing. The seniors are welded to all that is old
fashioned as to look upon every change as IA sort
of military revolution
Even at Alma the English cavalry might very
we'll have followed the Russians, cut them up to
a considerable extent, or at any rate, have pre-
vented their retiring as we'll they did. But
what did the English cavalry effect on that occa-
son' Nothing whatever. The Russians went a.