M 





256 A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. [pkriod in. 



which aro so important elements of success in military 

 operations. He originated the idea of clothing the 

 soldiers well in uniform dresses, according to the divisions 

 to which they belonged. Up to his period the soldiers 

 were clad in every variety of costume that individual 

 caprice dictated ; and armies were usually composed of 

 ragged and insubordinate mercenaries. Tilly's doctrine, 

 " a ragged soldit^r and a bright musket," shows the 

 general opinion of the age on the point. By having his 

 soldiers well clad, Gustavus rendered his army more 

 capable of enduring the vicissitudes of the climate and 

 improved the esprit du corps and the general appearance 

 of his troops. 



It was customary at this period to form the infantry 

 in battalions ranged in massive squares or oblongs, the 

 centre being composed of cuirassed spearm.n or pikemen, 

 while they were surrounded in front and flanks by 

 musketeers. This formation was the legitimate outcome 

 of the system of mingling musketeers and pikemen, to 

 which we referred in the last chapter. The use of fire- 

 arms had become so general, and was so much relied 

 upon to decide the fate of battles, that the cavalry as 

 well as the infantry depended mainly upon those; 

 weapons. The traditions of the former prowess of the 

 horsemen, however, as well as the yet incomplete state of 

 the musket, which was loaded slowly, and which carried 

 with little precision, rendered necessary a force of pikemen 

 who, armed with breastplates as a defence against the 

 pistol shots of the cavalry, could oppose with their pikes 

 an impassable barrier to the advancing horsemen. Again 

 in charging positions, when the battle closed to " push 

 of pike," the pikemen of the opposing sides came to 

 the front and charged with levelled weapons. 



The system was based upon the heavy and unwieldy 

 phalanx of the Greek armies. Gustavus Adolphus, with 

 that clear-sighted genius which was his distinguishing 

 characteristic, saw that a system well suited to an age 

 that was unprovided with missile weapons of either range 

 QT force, was most unsuited to his time, when projectile 

 weapons of great power had been invented, and had 



