The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-22
CAVALRY IN MODERN WARFARE
The Firearms of To-Day Have Made Its Utility Question to be Solved

The Firearms of To-Day Have Made
 Its Utility a Question to be Solved
 Anew.
 A good man on a good horse is the superior as an attacking force of three good men on the ground. This is a matter of common knowledge in the European capitals, wherein mobs are dispersed by cavalry using the flat 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 footman Is to get out of the way. A cavalryman learns to love his horse with a love sur- passing that of woman. He learns to depend upon him. He absorbs confi- dence from every swell of the giant muscles between his knees. The man and the beast conjoined furnish mu- tual support that is admirable, and in | battle of inca1culable 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 l for the use of cavalry. It is, for the | most part, a good horse country, of wide fields and level spaces. It is be- | lieved, too, that this picturesque arm of 1 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 l cavalry were ended in the times of l Gravelotte and Sedan. The celebrated l and fruitless charge of the French cui- rassiers, where men and steeds went l down in heaps and the watching Will helm said, Tt is magnificent, but it is | not war;" sticks in their memories. That charge was Balaklava over again. l Somebody blundered. The general effi- ciency of cavalry under proper condi- tions is not discredited by it, nor is the | centuries old record of remarkably valuable arm to be stained by an indi- | vidual failure. Men who remember what the cavalry was and what the cavalry did in the war between the states demand something more than the crumpling of one column before they surrender the beliefs of years.
 The Napoleonic maxim that cavalry i cannot charge unshaken infantry was due to Napoleon's experience with run | down forces. His mounted men were badly drilled and his horseflesh 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 F'ranco-P -Prussian struggle the actual damage wrought by the Uhlans was far out of proportion with their numbers and the value of the fear they pro- duced was immeasurable. At Salaman- ca Le Marchand's British "heavies
 steadiest of French infantry. Men and horses fell in swaths twenty yards from the line. The rear line did stee. ple-chase jumping over piled corpses tc get to the front. Le Marchand was in
 stantly killed, and many of his officers
 but the infantry was broken and the
 position carried. The Peninsula cam.
 paigns furnish repeated proofs of ths
 fact that infantry will not stand
 against well handled cavalry. Prince
 Frederick Charles, one of the greates
 of modern warriors, was a steady be
 liever in the efficacy of cavalry, and so
 too, was Von Wrangel.
 The opponents of the trooper arm ant
 prophets of it's utter effacement art
 used to instancing the failure of th'
 brilliant Austrian cavalry at Sadows
 when sent against breech-loaders
 These were troopers seasoned by lons
 service and so drilled that thirty squad
 rons of them were manoeuvred in mas:
 with the ease and certainty of one
 They were, however, led over thu
 ground that sloped up three degrees
 It was sodden with rain. The horse! lContInued sn Fifth Page,l --