438 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



I ■ ■;. 



^1 



I 



'u 



[period v. 



organised a regiment of Kentucky frontiersmen, who 

 were all mounted and armed with rifles and pistols. 

 The only real victory won by the American troops in an 

 open action in that war was directly attributable to the 

 services of these mounted riflemen. It was the battle of 

 Moravian Town, in Western Canada, on the 5th October, 

 1813. Colonel Johnson, who commanded the Ken- 

 tuckians, (charged upon the British infantry, broke them, 

 and captured a number of prisoners. He then turned 

 to his left and attempted to charge a large force of 

 Indians, who were stationed in the edge of a growth of 

 timber, but he found that the ground was swampy and 

 that his horses began to sink. Seeing t.'us he ordered 

 his men to dismount and make the attack on foot. 

 Tecumseth, the Indian chief, was kiUed and his braves 

 defeated. One cannot imagine a more striking example 

 of the advantage of a mounted rifle corps equipped to 

 fight on foot in case of need ; this regiment fought in 

 two capacities in about as many minutes. 



The Colt's revolver had also been invented in America 

 prior to the year 1838, and attempts were made by 

 Colonel Colt to have it introduced into the army during 

 the Seminole war in Florida. An army board, appointed 

 to report upon it, was not favourable to its adoption ; 

 and a large number of the pistols, being sold at cheap 

 rates, gradually got over into the hands of the Texans, 

 who were then engaged in a predatory war with the 

 Comanche Indians. 



These revolvers soon acquired a high reputation, and 

 in the Mexican war were eagerly sought after, and high 

 prices paid for them. A regiment of Texan mounted 

 rangers, armed with these weapons, was attached to the 

 American army during the Mexican war, and at once 

 demonstrated the value of the pistol in a hand-to-hand 

 fight with cavalry. In every encounter the revolver 

 proved its deadly eflect, and soon a cry was raised for the 

 resumption of their manufacture. They therefore soon 

 became plentiful, and in all the frontier states most men 

 were supplied with them, and were ve 7 skilful in their use. 



Th^ lawlessness and want of order in the new settle- 



