Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-07-12
DISCARDING THE LANCE.
The Austrian Army Abandons the Use OF
Famous Weapon.
n Landau Tttupa

London Times.l
So far as the Austrian army is con-
cerned, a small but distinguished
problem, which has often agitated the
military mind, has just been practically
solved. The War Office at Vienna has
abolished the use of the lance, and
given orders that the last body armed
with that weapon shall be converted
into a regiment Of dragons. A halo
of poetry has gathered round the flut-
tering flag and shining spear-point; but
the efficacy Of the long pole and steel
head has always been doubted. The ira
ditional glories ofthe lance come down to
US enhanced by the fabulous adventures
Of knights, the snowy deeds of the
Crusaders, and the exploits of mailed
chivalry. Yet Richard Lionheart fought
oftener with his long sword than he did
with the battle-axe or the spear. The
revival of infantry, as Macchlayelli
foresaw when he wrote his admirable
volume on the art of war, reduced the
mounted iron-clads to their proper
place, while the cavalry became far
more deadly with the sword than they
had ever been before. In the East
the sword of India was always pitted
against the lance Of Persia. The in
trusion Of the lance into modern
western warfare dates from the
eighteenth century. Marshal SAKE en-
deayored to restore the arm, and
organized regiment which he
called Uhlan. lie had been in his
youth, when bent on Russian enter
prises, familiar with the Polish and
probably with the Cossack horse; but
the revival did not take root; there
were no lancers in the revolutionary
armies. and it was not until after NapO-
leon had made himself Emperor that he
established first one guard regiment of
this kind, and then two others. They
were splendid troops, many of them
Poles, and they added at least to the
pride and pomp which surrounded the
imperial headquarters. He wished to
have soldiers who could meet the
Russians, and he desired also to
fatter the Poles, who piqued them
selves on their national weapon, al
though, at least in the days OF Louis
Quatorze, they used it sparingly.
Other nations followed Napoleon's eX-
ample. and Uhlans or Lancers began to
appear in camps and on parades. Eng
land. however, did not initiate the Con-
tinental military mOnarchies until the
great wars were over, and our oldest
lancer regiments only date from 1916.
Perhaps it was the experience of Water
loo which led the Horse Guards to set
up bodies similar to those seen on that
field; but it might have been remem-
bered how, at Gemappe, in 1878, the
Lilc-Guards, without culraSses, rode
over the French LancerS, who had worst
ed the Seventh Hussars. Prussia pre-
coded us by three years in the adoption
Of the Cossack and Polish arm, and
since then, more or less, every army has
included lancers in its cavalry Organi-
cation. We have four regiments but
the French and Germans, in 1870, were
both well provided with horsemen Of
this description; and, indeed, the
Uhlans gained for themselves a reputa-
ton which will not soon be forgotten.
Their astonishing success, however, as
it has been often pointed out, was rem
dered possible, not by their lances,
which must have been often an encum-
brance, but by the misuse which the
French made Of their cavalry, and the
thoroughly business-like way in which
the Germans employed theirs.
Whenever controversy RACES on
this subject the authority of Montecu-
Gull is sure to be invoked, because he
wrote down this sentence THE lance
is the queen of weapons for cavalry"
As a rule, these words are quoted
without the context, and nothing is
said about the qualifications which the
willy opponent Of Turenne appended to
his assertion. Yet, he proceeds, it is
so difficult to maintain and employ
them that we have given up the use Of
this arm. Unless the horses are good
and well trained they are not tit for
the work. We have got rid of one Of
his objections, and no longer put
our lancers in armor as they
did in the seventeenth century;
but it remains as true now as it was
then that, unless the ground is solid
and fiat, without bitches or cOpses. the
charge is not possible, and the lance be-
comes useless. SO that the authority
of Montecuculi, except in the abstract,
is not on the side of those who favor
the weapon he condemns. On the
other hand, the opinion and practice Of
SAKE and Napoleon, under widely diff
ferent conditions, may fairly be cited,
and we cannot get rid of the hard fact
that the German army still retains in
its ranks formidable supply of Uhlans.
They are heavy cavalry, " big men on
big horses and they are so because
it is well known that nothing save
length and impetus makes the
spear deadly. At close quarters
the lancer is a prey to the swords
man. Great deeds have been done
with the butt-end used as sort Of
club, but these exploits are rare. The
Sixteenth Lancers," wrote the Inflated
Captain Nolan, broke into the Sikh
squares at Aliwal, and in the melee
which ensued these brave men attacked
the lancers sword in hand, and brought
many. of them low, for they could eff
feet nothing with the lance" A SINH
lar incident will be fresh in ever ybOdy's
recollection. The famous Bengal
Lancers, in the Eastern Soudsn, near
Hasheen. charged the HadenJowahs,
and were charged in turn by the men
on fsot. :" | never spoke with an Eng
lish lancer who had been engaged in the
late Sikh wars" says the same author,
"who did not declare the lance to be
useless tool and great encumbrance in
close conflict" On the other hand, it must
be admitted that the mounted spears
men, carrying poles from twelve to fif-
teen feet in length. make a great im-
preston on young soldiers, who of
course are utterly lost if they face about
and strive to fly. 1t is not only the
visible power, but the repute-we may
say the prestige-of the lance which
renders it terrible. In the Seven
Years War; we are told, 1.-The Prus-