The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1898-08-19
CAVALRY IN WARP ARE.
Firearms of To-Day Have Made Its Utii
ity a Question.

Firearms of To-Day Have Made Its Utii
ity Question.
A good man on a good horse is The
superior as an attacking force of three
good men on the ground. This is 6
matter of common knowledge in the
dispersed by cavalry using the fiat Of
the sabre only more quickly than they
are scattered by the bullets of militie
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 hts horse with
a love surprising that CT woman. He
learns to depend upon him. He alb,
serbs confidence from every swell OF
the giant muscles between his knees
The man and the beast conjoined fur.
nish mutual support that is admira-
BILE, and in battle of incalculable value
Dismounted cavalry are the most diff
cult of troops to dislodge, for the rea.
son that the riders, deprived OF then
horses, do not know when or how te
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, a good horse country, OF
wide fields and level spaces. 1t is be-
lieved, too, that this picturesque arm
of the service will demonstrate that its
usefulness is not ended by modern
arms and projectiles, though many the
orists 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 Wilhelm said, 1T is maSnif-
icent, but it is not war;" sticks in their
memories. That charge was Balaklava
over again. Somebody blundered. The
general efficiency of cavalry under
proper conditions is not discredited by
it, nor is the centuries-old record of a
remarkably valuable arm to be stained
by an individual failure. Men who re-
member what the cavalry was and
what the cavalry did in the war be-
tween the states demand something
more than the crumpling of one col
umn before they surrender the beliefs
of years.
The Napoleonic maxim that cavalry
cannot charge mistaken infantry was
due to Napoleon's experience with rum
down forces. His mounted men were
badly drilled End his hciseiesh was
poor. The great Frederick understood
the high value OF this branch, and his
campaigns gave 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 'sheavies" were
sent over bad ground against the stead
lest 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 in
Il Cd rf iS f.
GERS, but the infantry was broken and
the position carried The Peninsula
campaisns furnish repeated proofs of
the fact that infantry Will not stand
against well handled cavalry. Prince
Frederick Charles, one of the greatest
of modern warriors. was steady be-
lever in the efficiency of cavalry, and
so, too, was Won Wrangel.
The opponents of the trooper arm
and prophets of its utter effacement are
used to instancing the failure of the
brilliant Austrian cavalry at Sadowa
when sent against bieech-loaders.
These were troopers seasoned by long
service and SO drilled that thirty
SuuduiuHS VI eHVu ncic iHthocufA gu
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
were so wearied that many of them
fell from exhaustion when the charge
began. The infantrymen who received
them had been selected by five hours
of savage and continuous fighting. All
faint hearts had gone to the rear. 1t
is safe to say that there was not a