PERIOD IV. 



FROM FREDERICK THE GREAT TILL THE INTRODUC- 

 TION OF RIFLED FIREARMS, 1740 TO 1854. 



CHAPTER XX. 

 Cavalry undek Frederick the Great. 



SECTION 1. ORGANISATION AND TACTICS OF HIS CAVALRY. 



When Frederick the Great ascended the Prussian 

 throne he found his army very highly disciplined and 

 capable of manceuvring with considerable precision, but 

 the system of tactics was very faulty. The cavalry was 

 composed of large men mounted upon powerful horses, 

 and carefully trained to fire in line both on foot and on 

 horseback. The force was of the heaviest type and quite 

 incapable of rapid movement. In fact, the cavalry of 

 all European States had degenerated into unwieldy masses 

 of horsemen, who, unable to move at speed, charged at a 

 slow trot and fought only with pistol and carbine. 



Frederick, who in his first battle at Molwitz interlaced 

 battalions of infantry among his cavalry, and with good 

 results, was not long in seeing the error of this system 

 of fighting; and following the example set him by 

 Charles XII. of Sweden, he began to effect those reforms 

 in his cavalry which soon made them the most efficient 

 body of horsemen that ever existed. 



His first change was to prohibit absolutely the use of 

 firearms mounted, and to rely upon the charge at full 



