The age-herald., 1898-05-28
CAVALRY IN
 MODERN WAR

good man on a 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 dispersed by cavalary, using the flat of the saber only, more quickly than they are scattered by the bullets of militia in America. There is something in the speed, weight and size of a charging man and horse that shakes the nerve of the stout-hearted pedestrian. The incontrolable instinct of the footman is to get out of the way, and he gets out of the way. A cavalryman learns to love his horse with a love surpassing that of woman. He learns to depend upon him. He absorbs confidence from every swell of the giant muscles between his knees. The man and beast conjoined furnish a mu- tual support that is admirable and in bat tie of incalculable value. Dismounted cav airy are the most difficult of troops to dslodge, for the reason that the riders, deprived of their horses, do not know when nor how to run.
 Military experts believe that the invasion of Cuba by the American army will fur nish exceptional opportunities for the use of cavalry. It is, for the most part, good horse country, of wild fields and level spaces It is believed. too, that this pie turesque arm of the service will demon- strate that its 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 Gravelotte and Sedan. The celebrated and fruitless charge of the French cuirassiers. where men and steeds went down in heaps and the watching Will helm said, "It is magnificent, but it is not war" sticks in their memories. That charge Balaklava oven again. Some- body blundered. The general efficiency of cavalry under proper conditions is hot discredited by it,>no is the centuries old record of a remarkably valuable arm to be stained by an individual failure. 5Ien 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 Napoleonc maxim that cavalry can not charge unshaken infantry was due to Napoleons Experience with run-down forces His mounted men were badly drill ed and his horsefiesh 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 re- cords of all great wars bristle with the achievements of the troopers. Even in the Franco-Prussian struggle the actual dam age wrought by the Uhlans was far ouu of proportion with their numbers, and th3 value of the fear they produced was inn- measurable. At Salamanca Le Marchand's British "heayies'' were sent over bad ground against the steadiest of French infantry Men and horses fell in swaths twenty yards from the line. The rear ranks did steeple-chase jumping over piled corpses to get to the front Le Marchand was instantly killed and many of his of- fcers, but the infantry broken and their position carried. The Peninsu.l campaigns furnish repeated proofs of the fact that infantry will not stand ag;liust well-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 trooper arm and prophets of its utter effacement are usei to instancing the failure of the brilliant Aus trian cavalry at Sadowa when sent against breechloaders. These were troopers seq soned by long service and so drilled that thirty squadrons of them were maneuvered in mass with the ease and certainty of one. They were, however, led over ground that sloped up three degrees. It was sod den with rain. The horses were so wearied that many of them fell from exhaustion when the charge began. The infantrynicn who received them had been selected by five hours of savage and contiaIOus fight ing All faint hearts had gone to the rear It is safe to say that there was nor a 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 breechloading fire
 The French got their chassepets in 1863 and 1869. No German officer believed that his troop would be of any good against them Yet at vionville the first line of the German cavalry halted under heavy hre on the plateau, took intervals by passag- ing went off the plateau at a walk and wheeled up to front again as steadily as if on dress parade. This, too, was mag nificent and it was war. It was done to- encourage the young troops, cost only seventy men and horses, though the chas- sepots were barking in thousands, and 1t was worth what it cost. Again at Vion- vile Bredows six squadrons went over two lines of ''unshaken' infantry as if they were paper. In another charg, tho troopers went over the French cannon. losing only fifty men. They came so fast that the artillerymen found it impossible to depress their pieces with sufficient rapidity and accuracy. In this battle thir- ty-six souadrons of German horse proved that the French line of foot lacked the strength of cobwebs, yet this same French infantry was so good that two days later
 il took an entire division of the German footmen three hours to go through them, at a cost of 40OO lives. or 30 per cent of the attacking force. There will never be any finer or steadier more "unshaen" infantry than these French. They were
 privates and non-commiss,cneI officers who, to quote Won Moltka, sought to redeem with their lifeblood the errors for which they were in no wise responsible" The Franco-Prussian war was thick with similar instances, which are carefully