424 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period IV. 



to action once, on the 2nd March, 1805, at Zulgarh, at 

 the very foot of the Himalayas. After a hard fight the 

 English were completely victorious, but even then the 

 horsemen of the enemy were able to escape in large 

 numbers by their great speed. 



On the 2nd April, 1805, Lake, by a night march, again 

 surprised the remnants of Holkar's cavalry, and coming 

 upon them suddenly before they could mount their 

 horses, killed 1,000 of them, and pursued them over 

 fifteen miles with a loss to his own force of less than 

 twenty. 



These are good instances of the value of organising 

 and equipping cavalry to give them both the speed and 

 the fire, to make them efi'ective when called upon to act. 

 The British troops found the want of a force of this 

 type in the Mutiny of 1857, as they were always able 

 to defeat the mutineers, but seldom able to catch them. 



The French cavalry in Algiers had a great deal of 

 experience in fighting against superior numbers of light 

 horsemen, who, like the Mamelukes, were better fitted 

 for single combat than for combined movements in 

 masses. A number of battles were fought at difierent 

 places, at Bouflaric in 1832, at Zig and Chiffa in 1835, 

 at Tafna in 1835, and at Isly in 1844, in all of which 

 the French were victorious. As these actions were very 

 similar in their general features to the battles with the 

 Mamelukes already described, we will not enter into any 

 details. 



