Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-02-05


From the Richmond Examiner, Jan. 81
1.-THE CAVALRY"
There are some people who advocate heavy
increase of the cavalry arm of the service
They would make it outnumber, if possible,
all other descriptions of troops. They APP
peal to the good solid work of Morgan,
Wheeler and Forest of the west, and to the
clever performances of Stuart in the east, in
proof Of the Super-eXcelence of the mounted
service. With Morgan and Wheeler on their
lips, they are enthusiastic for cavalry. In
splred by transporting patriotism, they plead
for a vast increase of horsemen with the zeal
of revival preachers for converted sinners.
They show by their devotion to their one
idea that they have not been much in camp;
that they are unacquainted with the contede-
rate service; that they know very little Of the
opinion entertained in the army of ''the cav
airy" and that they know even less of the
feeling toward them cherished by the people
inhabitng of the regions traversed by these
troops.
The country people have propensity to
suit the photography of words to the ideas as
ISOLATED with the things which they are in
tended to designate. They call Cotswold
sheep a Scotch-wool sheep, having the idea
that Scotch wool is very long and course.
The idea of a most horrible crucifiXion is as
ISOLATED in the plous mind with the name of
cavalry; and inasmuch as the people and all
they have and own are literally crucified when
the mounted troops come about in the sim
plicity of the unlettered mind, they contound
the technical word designated these troops
with the most painful name in all the scrip
lures.
few special detachments Of ''Our caval-
ry' have done great service; but if we leave
out of view the daring, heroic and individual
services OF these brigadeS, the rest have been
Scourge to the people and a curse to the
cause. The expense of horse troops is enOr-
nous; it is three times as great to the treaSu-
ry as that of infantry and the infection upon
the people of their rapaciouS and wanton dep
relations is tenfOld more than that suffered
from any other troops. There has not been
considerable battle during the war in which
the performances of ''our cavalry have
marked any feature of the engagement; and
in one of the chief duties of mounted troops,
that of completing victory by running down
and utterly destroying a routed foe, their SER
vices have been below zero.
The war has been remarkable in the fact
that 1t has been fought without that important
element OF European armies, known as drag
oons. Extended level plains suited to the OPP
eratiOns of these troops are few on our por-
ton of the continent. The heavy compact
charge OF real cavalry, at the critical moment
of battle, bearing down everything before it,
and deciding the fate of the day, has not been
witnessed in this war. The surest indication
of immnenG battle to the infantry soldier, i'm
patient for the conflict, is the order "cavalry
to the rear" a movement which he witnesses
with shouts of derision and exultation. We
have little cavalry in our service; few drag
oons, light or heavy; fewer still that fulfill the
technical idea and purpose of such troops.
When fighting is to be done, the cavalry are
ordered out of the way.
A faithful description of the general physi-
OgnOmy OF the cavalry" as they are seen in
their camps and upon their strolling marches,
might bring CHASTITY smile on the rigid lips
of the most impossible ascetic, provided he
were off at safe distance; but the terror
which seizes the people on their approach is
overwhelming, They are usually armed with
every conceivable weapon of offense except
the saber Of the real dragon. They are as
ignorant of the drill as of the saber practice.
They are comfortably clad, but as unwashed
and as unkempt as the urchins that play about
the wgwams in Nebraska The steeds are
strangers to the curry-comb, stained with
habitual mud, small and rickety and in the
order which three rations week of corn
supplied by the government, and as much
hay as can be bagged or wrested from the
farmers along their march, together with hard
and reckless riding, may be supposed to pro-
duce.
The sensations they create and the value of
service they render may be inferred from a
single example. A body of Yankee horse
men lately made a raid from distance of
several hundred miles into our lines, dashed
down upon one of our railroads, burnt some
bridges, destroyed several miles of railroad,
and made their way back in no great haste.
They passed through certain village going
and coming, stopped few hours each time,
took a few horses, but had no time for other
depredations. The cavalry went in pur-
suit, did not catch the Yankees, stopped in
the same village, and stripped its owners re-
morselessly of every blade of hay and fodder
to be found, every bushel of corn they could
put their hands on, and even robbed the
smokehouses Of their meat The 'cavalry"
accomplish great deal, but it is deal of
mischief: they perform vast amount Of SER
vice, but unhappily, as a general rule, it
inures indirectly to the benefit of the enemy.
Their lack of economy is as deplorable as
their lack of drill and discipline, and general
disbanding of at least two-thirds OF the nu-
merous corps now in the field would be hail
ed with JOY by all the people omthey claim
to protect
There are a few brigades of splendid
mounted troops in the confederate service;
but that prodigious body of strolling horsemen
who lead an unsettled, gypsy life in the border
country, stealing here, robbing there, begging
in this place and behaving a little better in
that who are never heard of the vicinity of
the enemy; who are always too late to catch
the Yankees when in force, but are dreadfully
ferocious on all individuals ever so loyal to
the south, whom they choose to denounce as
Union men, and who are known among the
common people by the horrifying appellation
of the cavalry" These troops are a re-
proach to the confederate service, a curse to
the cause>against which they have raised up
thousands of enemies, scourge to our own
people, and desolation to large districts of
wilderness country which, but for them,
| port.
sto - lhe forage which has been consumed,
trons' ana wasted by these worse than useless
| 49, nad been saved, if the farms which
oni - tiaEe desolated were still in cultivation,
anu !, Inc farmers, whom they have utterly
tmsS from producing crops. were still
Dusy IN their blessed calling. an additional
amount OF supplies would be raised ovnr and
ABOVE what we now have. In s,,nt ~. ''nN