38 The Rough Riders 



drill wherever we found open ground, practicing all 

 the different column formations as we went. On 

 the open ground we threw out the line to one side 

 or the other, and in one position and the other, some- 

 times at the trot, sometimes at the gallop. As the 

 men grew accustomed to the simple evolutions, we 

 tried them more and more in skirmish drills, prac- 

 ticing them so that they might get accustomed to 

 advance in open order and to skirmish in any coun- 

 try, while the horses were held in the rear. 



Our arms were the regular cavalry carbine, the 

 "Krag," a splendid weapon, and the revolver. A 

 few carried their favorite Winchesters, using, of 

 course, the new model, which took the Government 

 cartridge. We felt very strongly that it would be 

 worse than a waste of time to try to train our men 

 to use the sabre a weapon utterly alien to them; 

 but with the rifle and revolver they Were already 

 familiar. Many of my cavalry friends in the past 

 had insisted to me that the revolver was a better 

 weapon than the sword among them Basil Duke, 

 the noted Confederate cavalry leader, and Captain 

 Frank Edwards, whom I had met when elk-hunting 

 on the headwaters of the Yellowstone and the 

 Snake. Personally, I knew too little to decide as 

 to the comparative merits of the two arms; but I 

 did know that it was a great deal better to use the 

 arm with which our men were already proficient. 



