Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-21
LoNG-Drsr.NcE CAVALRY RIDES.
rents of British i'm Africa Compared
With American achievements

| eiaiiy. but particularly to tin United States
cavalrymen. in reports that have come from
| South Africa of some of the long hard
4 rides made there by the British mounted
| troops The accounts of some of these
| rapid forced marches Of cavalry are lacking
In detail. but the specific statement is mad.
| that a squadron of the Natal Mounted Ri
fies recently rode eighty-fire miles in twelve
| consecutive hours. TIE English press
speaks of the rides of sixty miles by de-
| tached cavalry troops which arc completed
| within the limit of. The daylight hours. ant
| these achievements of the troopers and
| their mounts are spoken Of If OF frequent
| occurrence.
| AT first thought 1t may not appear that
these rides are particularly remarkable. but
| the fact must be taken into s.deratiou
| that bodies of troops and not single Indi-
| vicuals are concerned. and VIII this is the
| case the rapidity Of the mGrc'I must ncces-
| sariy be gagged by the rapi6ity and endur-
| ance of the poorest horse of the outfit.
| Moreover, each animal engaged has to car
ry weight of man and equipment to an
| average amount of 80 pounds. Many OF
| the horses used by the English troopers are
| American bred, and natural interest in
this country is added TO the rides. for it
| gives a chance to get a line ON the en-
| durance of the American animal under alb
| solutely strange climatic conditions.
| No army in The world. perhaps. has had
| the same opportunities 10 test The endurance
| of cavalry horses as has the small regular
| force of the United States. The long level
! stretches OF the plains and the activity OF
/ the mar&udng Indian mounted on his tire
! less broncho have been the conditions which
gave to Uncle Sans cavalrymen his match
| less chances for long forced mounted
cial reports
| Col. Theodore Ayrault Dodge. United
States army, collected the official records
i'of long-distance cavalry rides, and has
| made them public, that they may be
| compared with the performance OF the SOL
der horsemen of other nations. Col. Dodge
| declares specifically that he has rejected all
| ''hearsay rides, Of which there is no end
| and has accepted only those proved by Off
cial reports
| Col. Dodge says that Capt s. F. Fountain.
United States cavalry, in the year 1891,
rode with detachment of his troop eighty
| four miles in eight hours. This record is
vouched for, and it is better than that of
| the Natal Mounted Rifles by about four
| hours, the distance being within mile
| of that made in South Africa For actual
speed this forced march stands perhaps at
| the head of the American army record.
| though other rides have been more remark
able. In the year 1873 when the ties sue
ceeded in getting some United States troops
| into what was afterward known as Thorn
| burg's rat hole" several mounted couriers
succeeded in slipping through the circling
| lire of savages. All of them reached Mer-
ritt's column, 40 miles distant. in less than
| twenty-four hours. The exact time was not
| taken. for, as Col. Dodge puts it, rescue
| was of more Importance tla1 records
1t must be understood of course. that all
| these American rides were made without
changing horses. The stecd at the start
was the steed at the finish The best rider.
according to cavalry experts is not the
man who takes a five-harred gate or who
can ride standing, but he who by instinct
| feels the condition of his horse. and, though
| getting the most out of the animal. knows
| how to conserve his strength. The late
| Gen. Lawton. who was killed in the Phil
| ippines. in the year 1876 rode from Red
| Cloud agency Neb.. to Sidney. in the same
state. a distance of l25 miles, in twenty
| six hours. He carrying important dis
patches for Gen. Crook, and. though the
| road was had, his mount was In good condi-
| ton when Lawton, looking five years older
| than he did the day before, handed over
! his bundle of papers to the blaclS-bcardcl
general. Gen. Merritt has a forccd-march
record that has American parallel when
| the conditions of his Journey are consider
| ed. He was ordered in the fall Of 1873 10
| the relief of Payne's command which was
| surrounded by hostile Indians. Merritrs
command consisted Of four troops of cav
airy, but at the last moment lie was ordered
to add 10 his force battalion of infantry.
| The dough boys were loaded into army
| wagons drawn by mules, and with the cav
| airy at the TANKS the relief column started.
The distance to be travcrseG was 1IO miles,
and it was made notwithstanding the ham
! dtcap of the wagons, and trails that were
| muddy and sandy by turns. IN just sixty
| six hours At the end Of the march the
troopers Went into the fight and in the en-
tire command not one horse showed lame
leg saddle sore.
Four troopers of the 4th Cavalry. who
had volunteered for the particular service.
were sent in the summer OF 1870 from Fort
Harvey to Fort Warner with dispatches
ard were told TO make the best time pos
sibie without killing their horses. The men
were on their mettle. They made the dis
lance, 40 miles. twenty miles Of the way
being through loose sand. in twenty-five {
hours, the actual marching time being eight
cen hours and thirty minutes. At Fort War
| ner they rested one day. and returned To-
Harvey on the same horses at the uniform
rate of sixty miles day. Capt. Edmund F.
Fechet started at midnight for the relief
Of the Indian scouts who had been sent out
TO arrest Sitting Bull. who, after killing
that chief, were beoaguered in a log hut
by his followers. Fechet took ambu-
lance wagon and Hotchkiss gun with him
The gun carriage broke down and he was
( applied to fasten the train Of the piece to
the tailboard of the ambulance and thus
drag ii along. Notwtthstandi ng this handi-
cap he made the first forty-five miles in less
than seven hours. He fought and drove or
the young Sioux bucks, then secuted the
country for ten miles, gave his troopers
some breakfast and returned TO the fort.
Fourteen hours were consumed in covering
ninety miles of ground.
The cavalry horses of the American army
have undergone these endurance and speed
contests carrying weights OF more than
200 pounds and without any training other
than that received in the ordinary course
of frontier scouting and daily drill cvolu-
tons. The greatest military ride recorded,
as it appears on paper. is that of the Aus
TRAN Count Strahrenberg. who rode one
horse $50 miles in seventy-one hours The
animal, however. carried only the counts
weight, 12S pounds; it had been specially
trained for months to undergo the endur-
ance test, and during the whole time OF
the ride it was kept up on stimulants. The
horse died within twentyfour hours after
the completion of its task
Col. Dodge, in his summary of remark
able rides, tells of a professional express
rider, whom he personally knew who for
many months carried mail from FL Paso TO
chihuahua, through hostile Apache coun-
try. This man, on one horse, a broncho,
regularly made 800 miles in sixty hours
and then, resting his mount for four days,
made the return trip. AS this was
not a cavalry achievement, it is not used
for purposes OF comparison. Touching the
performance, however the military writer
says that, excepting the ass, there is per-
h2ps no creature on earth so stubbornly
enduring the broncho."
Col. Dodge does not think that II tests
were made there would be found much diff
ference between the records which English
and American soldiers would register. He
says that composite picture made of 500
British and of 500 American troopers would
show that the three lines which establish
the seat of the rider are practically the