OHAP. xxvin.] AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865. 



443 



never appiioJ before. While other cavahy officers were 

 adhering to the traditions of former wars, and the 

 systems of thj schools, however inapplicable to the 

 demands of their day and the nature of the struggle, he 

 originated and perfecte<l not only a system of tactics, 

 a method of fighting and handling men in the presence 

 of the enemy, but also a strategy as effective ati it was 

 novel. 



" Totally ignorant of the art of war as learned from 

 the books and in the academies, an imitator in nothing, 

 self-taught in all that he knew and did, his success is 

 not more marked than his genius. 



' ' The creator and organiser of his own little army, 

 which at no time reached 4,000, he killed and ivounded 

 nearly as mimy of the enemy, and captured more than 

 15,000. The author of the far-reaching 'raid,' so 

 diiferent from the mere cavalry dash, he accomplished 

 with liis handful of men results which would otherwise 

 have required armies, and the costly preparations of 

 regular and extensive campaigns." 



Morgan's men were armed in a very nondescript 

 manner at first, but as the war went on he captured such 

 quantities of arms from the enemy as enabled him to 

 supply his men fully with rifles and pistols. At first 

 some had rifles, some shot-guns, some sabres, some 

 revolvers, but they were soon supplied with carbines or 

 rifles and revolvers, and the sabre was rarely, if ever, 

 used. 



Morgan's troops were di-illed upon " Maury's Skirmish 

 Tactics for Cavalry," to which Morgan himself added 

 a great many movements so as to provide for the evolu- 

 tions of regiments and brigades. The formation of the 

 companies, the system of counting off, of dismounting, of 

 deploying to front flanks or rear, was the same as in the 

 regular cavalry, and his force was also carefully trained 

 in all the movements necessary to change from line into 

 column, from column to line, to take ground in different 

 directions, and to provide for the employment of 

 supports and reserves, &c. 

 • General Duke's description of the method of fighting 



