Evening star., 1914-10-25
WJHERE EUR ROPEAN ARMY
DIVISIONS GET NAMES

as to how the word came to be applied
to horse troops. 1t is not the name OF
a place or a territory or a tribe. As
far back as the word can be traced II
is Turkish, In which old language II
appeared as 'oghlan' and meant son OF
boy, and seems farther back to have
meant a prince. In an early period OF
Europe's history some mounted troops
appeared with semi-oriental uniforms
and sabers shaped like scimetars, and
they were called uhlans, why. l do MOI
know, but perhaps 1t may be reasoned
out something in this way: When
some Turkish or Saracentc cavalry ap-
peared in fine. array and caught the
popular fancy or performed some no
table achievement, the civil population
of that day might have said. They are
the uhlans, just as we are apt To-Day
to say, They are the boys. for uhian
as have said. was the Turks word 1or
boy.
I'm this country soldier men with
gray hair and crutches are always AZ
fectionately spoken Of. if they do not
want anything. as soldier boys So, ]
suppose, the Turks called their troop
ers the uhlans' or the boys. and Wnen
a European government mounted some
men as cavalry and dressed them in
barbaric uniforms they also called them
uhlans. And the name has stuck.
be taken as title descriptive of Ger
man cavalry in general. The name has
stuck because of the fame which they
attained by their dash and bravery
during the Franco-German war. But
ulans, are distinctive corps. The
name il by no means distinct.vely Ger
man A body of uhlans was formed
for the French army by Marshal SAKE.
They were, introduced into the Prus-
sian service in 1740, and forty years
later the 'Austrians also had a corps
Of uhlans-light cavalry armed with
the lance.
"Other European cavalry. such as
distinction Of capital letters generally.
Hussars are so called because in the
fifteenth century the King of Hun
gary and Bohemia, whose name was
Matthias Corvinus. organized body
of cavalry and drew one man out OF
every twenty in certain villages. Now,
the Hungarian word for twenty Is
'husz' and the word for twentieth Is
'huszar'; therefore, these cavalrymen
were huszars or hussars.
Dragons got their special designa-
ton in this way: In the middle of the
sixteenth century a body of cavalry
was armed with a short heavy gun,
which was called dragon. These guns
maker. seeing some analogy between
them and dragons because the gun
spit fire. engraved a dragon on the bar
rel of each weapon. The cavalry car
rying these guns came to be called
dragons and the people using that word
stressed the last syllable and made the
o long. In Initiating the pronunciation
we came to call them dragons
Now we come to cuirassiers. These
were cavalry who wore a cuirass or a
curace. which at first was a heavy
leather chest protector. and leather came
to be made Of metal, and this defensive
armor covered the front of the body
from the chin to the waist. Some cav
airy was called lancers' because the
troopers carried lances. and other cav
airy was called 'carbineers' because the
troopers carried carbines. About the
middle of the seventeenth century there
were English troopers called pistoliers
because they carried pistols. This cav
airy fought in the English civil wars.
The word cavalry has descended from
the word cavalier. a knight who fought
on horseback, and cavalier comes in
some way from caballo. the Spanish
word for horse.