The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-03-08

may be compared with the #per1orMduSess5I
of the soldier horsemens Of other ma la-s
tons Colonel Dodge declares spec hcaLys
that he has rejected ali hearsaysride
Of which there is no end, Z, and has ac--s
scepted only those proved by thctad are
ports. ss s
Colonel Dodge says tina Captain s.
IF: Fpunt tain, United States Cavalry. II
the year 1891; rode with q detasnmenl
of his troop. eight y-fours miles in selsn.
hours. This record Is svouehed FOR and
it is better than that Of the Natal
Mounted Rifles by bout four. hours, the
distance being within one mile of that
made in South Africa. For actual speed
this forced march stands perhaps az the 4
head Of the American Army record. 4
though other rides have been more re-
Smarkable In the year 1873, when the
Utes succeeded in getting some United
states troops Into wha twas afterWards
known as ThornburSs rat hole. sew
eraI mounted couriers succeeded In Slip
ping through the circling line Of sayases.
All. Of them reached Merritt S column
10 miles distant, in less than twenty
four hours The exact time was not
taken, for, as Colonel Dodge puts It,
rescue was Of more import lance than
records" s.
It must be understood, OF course. that
all these American rides were made
without changing horses. The steed
at the start was the steed at the finish
The best rider according to cavalry ex-3
perts. is not the man who takes five
barred 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 General
Lawton. who was killed In the Philip
pines, In the year 1876, rode from Red
Cloud Agency, Neb., to Sidney, In the
same State, a distance Of 125 miles, IN
stwenty-six hours. e. He was carrying
important dispatches for General Crook,
and, though the road was bad his mount
was in good condition when Lawton.
looking five years older than he did the
day before, handed over his bundle Of
papers to the black bearded General.
General Merritt has forced-march
record that has no American parallel
when the conditions Of his Journey are
considered. He was ordered stnt the fall
of 1874 to the relief of Payne's command.
which was surrounded by hostile Indians.
Nerritt's command consisted of four
troops of cavalry, but at the last mo-
ment he was ordered to add to his force
a battalion of infantry. The dough
boys" were loaded into army wagons
drawn by mules, and with the cavalry
at the tanks the relief column stated
The distance to be traversed was TO
miles, and it was made Notwithstanding
the handicap 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 entire command not
one horse showed lame leg or saddle
sore.
Four troopers Of the Fourth Cavalry,
who had volunteered for the particular
service, were sent in the summer of 1916
from Fort Harvey to Fort Warner with
dispatche and were told to make the best
time possible without killing their horses.
The men were on their mettle. They
made the distance, 40 miles, twenty. miles
Of the way being through loose sand, in
twenty-five hours, the actlral marching
time being eighteen hours and thirty
minutes. At Fort Warner they rested
one day and returned to Harvey on the
same horses at the uniform rate of sixty
miles a day. Captain Edmund F. Fechets
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 teleagured in a log hut
by his followers F'echet took an ambu-
lance wagon and FFotchktss gun with him.
The gun carriage broke down and he was
compelled to fasten the trail of the piece
to the taflboard of the ambulance and
thus drag it along. Notwithstanding TINS
lrandicap, he made the first forty-dve
! miles In less than seven hours He fought
and drove off 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,
ySv,re ryrnfc n
more than 200 pounds. and without any
training other than that received in&the
ordinary course of frontier scouting and
| daily drill evol,ttions. The greatest milf
tary ride recorded, as it appears on paper.
is that of the Austrian Count Strahenbers.
Zilo rode one horse $50 miles in severity
one hours. The animal, however carried
only the Counts weight, 12S pounds; 1t
had been specially trained for months
to undergo the endurance test, and DUR
| ing the whole time Of the ride it was
kept up on sttmulantts The horse died
within twenty-four hours after the COM
| pletion of its task.
Colonel Dodge in his summary Of re-
markab Bile rides, tells of q professional
express rider, whom he personally knew,
who for many months carried mall from
Ell Paso to Chihuahua, through hostile
Apache country. 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 cavalry achieve
ment, it is not used for purposes of COM
parison Touching the performance, how
ever, the military writer says that. Tex
cepting the ass, there is perhaps no crea-
| ture on earth so stubbornly enduring as
| the Droncho.'
Colonel Dodge does not think that II
tests were made there would be found
! much difference between the records
which English and American soldiers
would register. He says that a compo-
site picture made OF 800 British and Of
| 500 American troopers would show tina
| the three lines which establish the seat,
| Of the rider are practically the same. and
| that upon this and the proper care OF
the horses depend largely the matters
of distance accomplished and speed main
| tanned Philadelphia Times.
| ~ 90 -svHs.