Milford chronicle., 1906-04-27
THE GREATEST RIDERS.
Fhsy Are the CavaIrymen OF the
American Army.

they Are the CavaIrymen of the
American Army.
American soldiers have made some
long. hard rides in the campaigns IL
which the forces have been engaged
since the first regiment Of regulars
was made possible by the law of the
land. In a recent article the magnih
cent horsemanship of an individual sol
dier was touched upon more than
briefly. but it should not be understood
that endurance and skill are not the
part of the vast majority of the mem
hers of Uncle Sans mounted service.
No army in the world, perhaps, has
had the same opportunities to test the
endurance Of cavalrymen and cavalry
horses as has the small regular force
of the United States. The long, level
stretches Of the plains and the activity
Of the marauding Indian mounted on
his tireless bronchO have been in part
the conditions which gave to the
mounted arm of the United States
army IFS matchless chances for long,
forced marches.
Colonel Theodore Ayrault Dodge OF
the army has collected the official rec
ords of long distance cavalry riders
and has made them public so that they
NAV be compared, if one wishes the
comparison, with the performance OF
the soldier forces of other nations.
Some time ago a squadron of the
Natal Mounted rifles rode eighty-1ve
miles in twelve consecutive hours. The
English press speaks of this ride as
being a remarkable achievement. From
the standpoint of the American cayal-
rvman the ride is almost the reverse
of remarkable. In the. ear 1891, at the
time of the Sic;s4 uprising in South
TI,,r.cta Cant.An F. S. Fountain, Unit
ed States cavalry, with a detachment
of his troop, rode 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 one
mile of that made by the South AT
rican troops. For actual speed this
forced march stands perhaps at the
head of the American army record,
though other rides have been more re-
markable in other respects.
In the year 1879, when the Utes sue
ceeded in getting some United States
troops into what afterward was known
as .'Thornburg's rat hole" three mount
ed couriers succeeded in slipping
through the circling line of savaSes'
Every one of them reached Merritt's
column, 10 miles distant, in less than
twenty-four hours. The exact time
was not taken As Colonel Dodge puts
il. ..Rescue was of more Importance
than records"
1t must be understood, Of course, that
these rides, all of them, were made
without changing horses. The steed at
the start was the steed at the finish
The best rider, according to cavalry ex-
perts, Colonel Dodge in particular, is
not the man who takes "A five barred
gate or who can ride standing, but the
man who by instinct knows the cOndi-
ton of his horse and, though getting
the most out of the animal, knows how
to conserve his strength.
In the year 1876 Major Henry W.
Lawton. who afterward, when he had
won his stars, met death in the Philip
pines. rode from Red Cloud agency,
Nebraska, to Sidney, in the same state,
distance of 125 miles, in twenty-four
hours. General Crook had sent him
with dispatches. The road, where there
was a road. was of the worst, but Law
ton delivered his message though he
looked five years older than he did
when it had been given him the day
before. The horse that Lawton rode
was fit for service again inside Of q
days time.
-Four troopers of the Fourth cavalry
who had volunteered for the particular
service rode IN the summer of 1870
from Fort Harney to Fort Warner with
dispatches. Their route lay through
an Indian country, and the men were
told to make the best time possible
without killing their horses,
The troopers We're on their mettle
They made the distance-140 miles, 90
miles of the way being through loose
sand--lp % hours, the actual marching
time being is hours 80 minutes. At
Fort Warner they rested one day and
then returned to Fort Harney on the
same horses Mt the uniform rate of
sixty miles day.-Chicago Post.