CHAP. xxYiii.] AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, 1861 18G5. 



441 



this period the corps of mounted riflemen began to 

 acquire a great reputation. 



Major General John 11. Morgan, a Kentuckian, who had 

 no professional training as a soldier, is said to have been 

 the first to see the value of a force of mounted riflemen, 

 and to put into use a new system of working cavalry so 

 as to give to it the benefits of the improvements in 

 firearms. 



The knights of old, when first staggered by the inven- 

 tion of gunpowder, which gave to the infantry so great 

 an advantage over them, determined to apply the new 

 weapon to their own use, and adopted the petronel and 

 heavier armour, and so for a time retained their superiority 

 over the infantry. 



The same idea struck Morgan, and he at once saw that 

 the long-range weapon gave the di'agoon or mounted 

 rifleman a great advantage, which he did not have with 

 the old uncertain and short-range carbine. He organised 

 <a force of cavalry therefore which could move rapidly, 

 and fight either on foot or mounted as occasion might 

 require. 



Another reason led to the introduction of mounted 

 riflemen that will seem strange to the European reader, 

 particularly to the European cavalry officer. There is 

 no principle more firmly established among the profes- 

 sional writers on cavalry tactics than that the sword is 

 the most deadly and efiective weapon that can be placed 

 in the hands of a horseman. The moral efiect of horse- 

 men charging sword in hand is very great in all European 

 armies ; and no principle is laid down more positively 

 than the maxim that cavalry relying on firearms must 

 certainly be beaten. 



In America, strange to say, the exact reverse is the 

 fact. There the people had the greatest contempt for 

 the sword, their small force of regular cavalry trained 

 upon the European plan, alone placing implicit confidence 

 in it. The habit of the individual citizen of being often 

 armed with a revolver, and having almost always a rifle 

 '■^ his own, as well as the wonderful skill acquired in 

 their use, gave them naturally a high opinion of their 

 favourite weapons. At once a feeling of contempt for 



