The Portland daily press., 1898-07-12
CAVALRY IN MODERN WARFARE.
The Firearms of To-Day Have Made Its
Utility Question to Be Solved Anew.
Chicago Times Herald. J


A good man on good horse is the
superior as an attacking force of three
good men on the ground. This is mat
ter of common knowledge in the European
capitals, wherein mobs are disparsed by
cavalry using the fat of the sabre only
more quickly than they are scattered by
the bullets of militia in America. There
is something in the speed, weight. and
size OF charging man and horse that
shakes the nerve of the most stout
hearted pedestrian. The uncontrollable
instinct of the footman is to get out of
the way. A cavalry man learns to love
his horse with a love surprising that of
woman. He learns to depend upon him.
He absorbs confidence rom every swell of
the giant muscles between his knees.
The man and the beast conjoined furnish
@ mutual support that is admirable, and
mounted cavalry are the most difficult OF
troops to dislodge, for the reason that the
riders, deprived of their horses, do not
know when or how to run.
Military experts believe that the in
vasion Of Cuba by the American army
will furnish exceptional opportunities tor
the use of cavalry. 1t is. for the most
part, a good horse country, of wide fields
and level spaces. 1t is believed, too, that
this picturesque arm Of the service will
demonstrate that It's usefulenss is not
ended by modern arms and projectiles
though many theorists incline to the
opinion that the days Of cavalry were
ended in the times of Gravelotte and
Sedan. The celebrated and fruitless
charge Of the French ouirassiers, where
men and steeds went down in heaps and
the watching Wilhelm said, sit is mag
nificent, but it is not war;" sticks to
their memories. That charge was Balak-
lava over again. Somebody Numbered.
The general efficiency of cavalry under
proper conditions is not discredited by it,
nor is the centuries-ol record of g
remarkably valuable arm to be stained BY
an individual failure. Men who remem-
Der what the cavalry was and what the
cavalry did In the war between the States
demand something more than the orump-
ling Of one column before they surrender
the belief of years.
The Napoleonic maxim that cavalry
cannot charge mistaken infantry was
due to Napoleon's experience with run
down forces. His mounted men were
badly drilled and his horsehesh was poor.
The great Frederick understood the high
value of this branch, and his campaigns
give many instances of the value of
mounted troops in almost all kinds of
warfare. The records of all great wars
bristle with the achievements of the
troopers. Even in the Franoo-Prussian
struggle the actual damage wrought by
the Uhlans was far out of proportion
with their numbers, and the value of
the fear they produced was Unreasonable.
At Salamanca LIE Marchand's British
"heavies' were sent over bad ground
against the steadiest OF French infantry.
Men ana horses fell in swaths twenty
yards from the line. The rear line did
steeple chase jumping over piled corpes to
get to the front lie Marohand was in
stantly killed, and many Of his officers,
but the infantry was broken and the
position carried. The Peninsula cam.
paign furnished repeated proofs of the fact
that infantry will not stand against we'll
handled cavalry. Prince Frederick
Charles, one of the greatest of modern
warriors, was steady believer in the
efficacy OF cavalry, and so, too, was Won
WTaDgel.
The opponents of the cavalry and
prophets Of its utter effacemeat are used
to instancing the failure of the brilliant
Austrian cavalry at Sadowa when sent
against breech leaders. These were troops
seasoned by long service and so drilled
that thirty squadrons of them were
manoeuvred in mass with the ease and
certainty of one. They were, however,
led over ground that sloped up three
degrees. 1t was sodden with rain. The