260 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period III. 



^1' 



1^ 



cavalry by mixing inftintry among the horse, and says 

 that this practice frequently decided the victory. It 

 seems, however, that writers have misunderstood his tac- 

 tical arrangements, and have thouoht that he mixed up 

 the different arms, when he simply combined them ju- 

 diciously, to enable them mutually to support each other. 

 His evident desire to give his cavalry more freedom and 

 greater mobility, to rely mainly upon their dexterous use 

 of hand-to-hand weapons, seems to contradict the notion 

 that he would ever have hampered and clogijed the move- 

 ments of his horse, by mixing bodies of intantry among 

 them. We can easily understand his placing his infantry 

 and cavalry alternately in the line of battle, or " en 

 ^chiquier " with artillery interspersed along the line. In 

 fact, we know this w^as his constant practice. When an 

 advancing enemy had been well shaken by the fire of 

 cannon and musketry, he then launched out liis cavalry 

 through the intervals at the charge, to fall upon the dis- 

 ordered masses of the foe. That wus however a very 

 different species of tactics to the method used before 

 his time of mixing the arms, and making them move 

 and, work together at the same pace. Gustavus evidently 

 appreciated too well the value of the speed and weight 

 of the horse, to take from his cavalrv their greatest ad- 

 vantage, and to tie them down to the slowness and tor- 

 pidity of an auxiliary force of infantry.' 



In the Swedish army the cuirassiers, or heavy cavalry, 

 were armed with the helmet and cuirass, a long sword, 

 and two pistols.^ The dragoons or cavalry of the line 

 wore the helmet only as a defence, and carried the long 

 fusil or musket, and a sword. They were at this time 

 used more as cavalry than as mounted infantry, which 

 was the original object of their organisation. The light 

 cavalry wore no defensive armour whatever. The heavy 

 cavalry was generally held in reserve to sustain the army, 

 and the third rank generally formed a support to the 

 other two. Gustavus is also said to have attached small 

 pieces of light artillery to the regiments of cavalry.'* 



^ Mitchell, lf»4. ^ Fonscolombe, 51 ; Decker, i. 37; Humbert, 

 8. » Humbert, 90. 



