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A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[PEBIOD IV. 



SECTION II. — AUSTRIAN, PRUSSIAN, AND ENGLISH CAVALRY 

 IN THE NAPOLEONIC "WARS. 



The Austrian cavalry, which at the outset of the 

 revolutionary wars was superior to that of the French, 

 soon lost its ascendency, and was often defeated by the 

 cuirassiers of Napoleon. At Austerlitz, however, the 

 Austrian horsemen, who covered the retreat of the allies, 

 fought with the greatest gallantry to enable the retiring 

 infantry to withdraw from the field. 



In many a battle the Austrian cavalry showed the 

 most distinguished bravery, and often rendered import- 

 ant services in covering the retreat of their beaten 

 armies, as, for instance, at Eckmiihl, Egolfsheim, and 

 Ratisbon, of which the details are recorded in a former 

 chapter. At Ratisbon forty squadrons of Austrian 

 cuirassiers checked the whole French cavalry for more 

 than three hours, and gave time to the army to recross 

 the Danube. 



The Prussian cavahy in the campaign of 1806, though 

 well equipped and organised, were no match for the 

 French horsemen, who, accustomed to victory, defeated 

 them without difficulty at Jena and Auerstadt, and in 

 the retreat followed them up, as we have seen, so closely 

 and so vigorously that the Prussian army could not 

 again appear in the field. 



In 1813 and 1814 the allies had large bodies of 

 cavalry, but a vicious habit had come into use of placing 

 them in line of battle with the infantry, as was done 

 by the French marshals at Blenheim and Ramilies. 

 Napoleon, who used his artillery very freely against 

 them, soon neutralized their influence, and so demoralized 

 and discouraged them that his horsemen, although then 

 newly raised recruits, were often able to defeat them. 



At Lutzen the allies had immensely superior forces of 

 cavalry, which they did not seem to know how to 

 employ in action, for they remained almost idle spec- 

 tators of a battle where the infantry were badly defeated. 

 Napoleon, who knew the weakness of his own horsemen 



