The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-08-03
SOLDIERS BUDGET.
Cavalry in Modern Warfare.


good men on the ground. This lie
matter of common knowledge in the
European capitals, wherein mobs are
dispersed 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 uncomfortable instinct of the foot
man is to get out of the way. A cav
alryman learns to love his horse with
love SURPRISING that of woman. He
learns to depend upon him. He alb
serbs confidence from every swell of
the giant muscles between his knees.
The man and beast combines furnish
mutual support that is admirable, and
in battle of incalculable value. Dis
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
for the use of cavalry. 1t is, for the
most part, good horse country, of
wide fields and level spaces. 1t is be-
lieved, too, that this picturesque arm
of the service will demonstrate that it's
usefulness is not ended by modern
arms and projectiles, though many
theorists incline to the opinion that
the days of cavalry as cavalry were
ended in the times of Gravelot.e and
Sedan. The celebrated and fruitless
charge of the French cuirassiers, where
men and steeds went down in heaps
and the watching Wilhelm said, "It is
magnificent, but it is not war; sticks
in their memories. That charge was
Balaklava over again. Somebody blum
dered. The general efficiency of cav
airy under proper conditions is not dis
credited by it, nor is the centuries-old
record of remarkably valuable arm to
be stained by an individual failure.
Men who remember what the cavalry
was and what the cavalry did in the
war between the States demand some
thing more than the crumpling of one
column before they surrender the be-
liefs 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 horsefesh 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 achieve
ments of the troopers. Even in the
Franco-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 steadiest
of French infantry. Men and horses
fell in swaths twenty yards from the
line. The rear line did steeple-chase
jumping over piled corpses TO get to
the front. lie Marchand was instantly
killed, and many of his officers, but the
infantry was broken and the position
carried. The Peninsula campaigns
furnish 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 a steady believer in the
efficacy of cavalry, and so, too, was
Won Wrangel.
The opponents of the troopers arm
and prophets of its utter effacement
are used to instancing the failure of
the brilliant Austrian cavalry at Sadowa
when sent against breech-loaders.
These were troopers seasoned by long
service and 80 drilled that thirty squad
rons of them were man@uvred 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 horses jwere 80
wearied that many of them fell from
exhaustion when the charge began.
The infantrymen who received them
had been selected by five hours of saw
age and continuous fighting. All faint
hearts had gone to the rear. 1t is safe
to say that there was not Prussian on
the west ridge of Chlum that day who
did not wish to be there. Even under
these conditions the charge came very
close to success, though all Europe was
shouting that cavalry was useless
against breech-loading fire.
The French got their chassepots in
1OOO ohh 4OOOs 4NO 0Cihah Uc-
lieved that his troop would be of any
good against them. Yet at Vionville
the first line of the German cavalry
halted under heavy fire on plateau, took
intervals by passaging, went off the
plateau, at a walk and wheeled up to
the front again as steadily as if on
dress parade. This, too, was magnif-
cent, and it was war. 1t was done to
encourage the young troops, cost only
seventy men and horses, though the
chesspots were barking in thousands,
and it was worth what it cost. Again
at Vionville Bredow's six squadrons
went over two lines of "unshaken" in
fantry az if they were paper. In an
other charge the troopers went over the
French cannon, losing only fifty men.
They came 30 fast that the artillerymen
found it impossible to depress their
pieces with sufficient rapidity and &C
curacy. In this battle thirty-six squad.
rons OF German horse proved that the
French line of foot lacked the strength
OF cobwebs, yet this same French in
fantry was so good that two days later