Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-17

VI made. HOW mucl
q would I prefer 70
have the boys all to-
| gether IN one big room and tell them
what they want to know upon the sub
ject.
We have ten regiments OF cavalry
twelve troops or companies to each
! regiment. and. bv law, sixty-six men Co
each troop. In foreign services the cav
airy are generally very beautifully
| uniformed, mounted and equipped, each
| regiment, in the English service espe-
cialIy, having a distinctive dress; but
| we, as good citizens of a model repuo-
lie, are taught from the very start tls
abolition of distinctions of almost every
| kind. There is only one way that you
! can tell any of our regiments OF hoIS"
| one from another when as far away a.
! across the street. The faces OF the men
| in two of them are black. Close at hanH
| the little brass number on the forage
! cap will tell you the regiment to which
! the trooper belongs, or when III ranks
| the large figure OF the beautiful suken
| guidon borne by each troop. But II tile
! ten regiments were to be paTaded all To-
| gether in some vast open field You could
not say which was which, except that
where those dusky faces we're seen there
| rode the Ninth and Tenth regiments.
| Helmets, with long plumes of yellow
| hair; dark blue TUNES, with yellow trim
mings, light blue trousers, with yellow
| stripes, all tend to give our dragons q
decidedly waspy, gaudy look when 10
| full dress uniform; and, to see them at
| their best and in their most becoming
and soldierly garb, you should drop in at
! some of the camps or garrisOns on the lar
| frontier, where the dark blue blouse anu
| forage cap, or brOai-bTimmed scouting
hat of drab felt replaces the staring yell
low facings OF the full uniform. There,
out on the wide prairie, with his loop
belt bristIing with copper cartridges, bis
dress trim and serviceable, his ''mOuut'
in the very pink of condition, his carbue
and revolver slung handily about him
and the saber slowed away beneath the
saddle straps, you can see the typica.
American trooper, and take him all N
all, there ism t better on the face OK q,
the globe.
Cavalry are the eyes of an army. It
is through them, far in advance or Oh
the TANKS, that the sneral reads the
numbers and movements of his foe. The
cavalry of America wear no such traD-
pings as the laneers or hussars, the
Uhlans, dragons, or cuirassieTs
of Europe. Our equipment IS
even SOnUI6 III itS plhills uidALCA III AtASLs
serviceable make and finish, but the
average American sergeant or corporal
will ride further towards the lines of. the
enemy, find out more about him and far
more intelligently describe the roads,
fords, streams and bridges that he has
passed than the best of his for
eign competitors. 1t IS the in
dividuality and spirit of our non
commissioned officers that add so
much to the formidable fighting qualities
of the sOldiery of the United States. No
army in the world is so thoroughly or
gained, drilled and disciplined as that
of the great German empire, but unless
the captain or lieutenant Is by his side or
in front of the company, the German
soldier goes to pieces, so TO speak.
At the siege of Paris most important
''forepost' was Unexpectedly abandoned
by the men Of a certain Prussian COM
pany. 1t was a little stone walled VIII
Iage which 200 men ar1--S with bTeech
leaders ought to hold against ten times
their number in the open fields. Yet u
was abandoned at most critical point IN
the days fighting, WAC instantly Occu-
pied by the French in force, and, TO re-
take it, an entire brigade had to join in
the attack, and hundreds of brave men
were shot down in the charge. When
called to account for quitting the posi-
without orders, the senior nOn-cOmmls-
stoned officers explained that when the
captain and lieutenant were suddenly cut
down by sharp-shOOteTs he "did not
know what to do, so they came away
An American sergeant, under similar
circumstances, could be relied upon To
hold his ground and hang on like a bull
dog until help could reach him.
In the ten or twelve years that imme-
diately followed our great civil war the
cavalry was engaged IN one long cam
paign against the hostile Indians of the
West, and there is no warfare that calls
for such vigilance and skill on the part
of officers and men as this. The Indians
are wonderfully scientific fighters and,
after they got breech-loaders or repeat
ing rifles, it was often desperate work 10
attack them. Some of our regiments
were almost necessarily engaged-winter
and summer. The Seventh-so long
commanded by brave Gen. Custer
fought the Kiowas of Northern Texas,
the Cheyennes and Arapahoes Of the In
dian Territory and finally the great con-
federation of the Dakotas or Sioux
along the river Yellowstone, losing in
battle after battle with the redskins no
less than eighteen officers and over 300
troopers killed. The Fourth fought hard
on many field and lost several gallant
young lieutenants. The First, Second
and Third ali mourn the loss or cherished
comrades shot down in fierce encounters
in the Rockies and far SIerras. The Fifth
the regiment that within year had rid
den over the continent from Yuma 20
Yellowstone and fought by turns
Apache, Cheyenne, Sioux and Ute-has
buried its dead from the borders OF Old
Mexico 70 ths bluffs of the Little Mis-
souri,. The Sixth and Eighth, the Ninth
and Tenth, have all had many lively
skirmish with these nimble warriors, and
all have freely shed the blood Of their
best and bravest, and the days OF the
decade from 81 TO ~ will never be for
gotten by the cavalry-men who served
them on our wide and beautiful frontier.
Nor was that tbs last OF the lighting by
any means, for the Utes in Colorado and
the ChirIcahuas Of Southern Arizona gave
infinite trouble and Iaany hard tussle
before they were brought TO terms.
The Indian problem is practically SET