The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1920-01-06
Second Division Suffers.

because of the collapse of its horse
eeEpment and artillery brigade of the
Setond Division did not reach its OBJ
jective until a day after the great
struggle that was to terminate In the
whining appeal of the German army
for an armistice In October had begun
The Second Division fought the first
day without artillery protection and
suffered Outrageously in consequence
The artillery brigade reached the zone
OF conflict late in the second day and
was enabled to take part In the series
of actions that completely deranged
Ludendorfs ambitious plan of conquest
and PUT the great German army on the
defensive only because American re-
mount officers were able to re-equip
It from the surplus horse supply of the
French army with half and three
quarter BREEDS. The French were in
a Tostion to furnish these -indispensa-
BE animals because up to the begin.
ming of March the war had been
war of position rather than a war of
movement and no hard demand had
been made on the artillery and cavalry
horse reserves Of the French army.
When the great war came to its I'M
under arms, at home and abroad,
some 100000 soldiers, of which
974000 were infantry, 394,O0 were
engineers, $4,000 were field artillery,
but only $4,000 were cavalry. The
field artillery. was hOrsed after a fash
lon. So was the engineer contingent.
But the quality of the horses that
served the field artillery and the en-
~. ~, liz
better. If. indeed, 1t was as good, than
was the quality Of the horses that failed
the artillery brigade of tffe- Second
Division In the march from Verdun to
the Marine salient.
Our Cavalry Not There.
For such masses of infantry and
artillery there should have been 250.-
600 to $4,000 cavalry, according TO the
MOST advanced military opinion In the
United States and abroad. Yet only
an Insignificant fraction of the absurd
Nv small mounted contingent of the
gigantic military establishment Of the
Hnited States of November LIST, 1915
ne second, third, sixth and fifteenth
<,l'alry regiments--was in France.
MOST OF our 10000 troopers We're pa
frolling the Mexican frontier. More
over only a moiety of the so-called
American cavalry forces in France
was mounted. At no time was II pos
sible to completely horse the second
third, sixth and fifteenth regiments.
The troopers of these regiments, when
they were not serving with machine
gun c0ntingents, were guarding muni-
lions and quartermaster's stores This
condition was due to the disgraceful
fact that the United States had no
ss(table mounts for its cavalry. France
Great Britain, to insure prompt
all effective cooperation by tie
American grand units In the great
counter offensive Of F0ch might spare
seryIceable artillery horses of the half
and three-quarter bred types because.
as had already been pointed out the
struggle for civilization up TO the be-
ginning OF 1913 on the western front
had been for the most part a war OF
position rather than one Of maneuyer,
Their reserves Of artillery horses had
not. been exhausted. But neither
Nance nor Great Britain felt disposed
- equip with horses the cavalry OF an
NV that should have entered the con-
Ia with the best mounted and best
Whipped cavalry to be found ON the
planet.-Advt