444 



A HISTORY OP CAVALRY. 



[period v. 



adopted by General Morgan will be interesting to the 

 cavalry officer. 



"If the reader will only imagine a regiment drawn 

 up in single rank, the flank companies skirmishing, some- 

 times on horseback, and then thrown mit as skirmishers 

 on foot, and so deployed as to cover the whole front of 

 the regiment, the rest of the men dismounted (one out 

 of each set of four, and the corporals remaining to hold 

 the horses), and deployed as circumstances required, 

 and the command indicated to the front of, on either 

 flank, or to the rear of the line of horses, the files two 

 yards apart, and then imagine this line moved forward 

 at a double quick, or oftener a half run, he will have an 

 idea of Morgan's style of fighting. 



"Exactly the same evolutions were applicable for 

 horseback or foot fighting, but the latter method was 

 much oftener practised — we were in fact not cavalry, but 

 mounted riflemen. A small body of mounted men was 

 usually kept in reserve to act on the flanks, cover a re- 

 treat or press a victory, but otherwise our men fought 

 very little on horseback, except on scouting expeditions. 

 Our men were all Imirable riders, trained from childhood 

 to manage the wildest horses with perfect ease, but the 

 nature of the ground on which we generally fought, 

 covered with dense woods, or crossed by high fences, and 

 the impossibility of devoting sufficient time to the train- 

 ing of the horses, rendered the employment of large 

 bodies of mounted men to any good purpose very diffi- 

 cult. It was very easy to charge down a road in column 

 of fours, but very hard to charge across the country in 

 extended line and keep any sort of formation. Then we 

 never used sabres, and long guns were not exactly the 

 weapons for cavalry evolutions. We found the method 

 of fighting on foot more efiective ; we could manoeuvre 

 with more certainty and sustain less and inflict more 

 loss. * The long flexible line curving forward at each 

 extremity,' as an excellent writer described it, was very 

 hard to break ; if forced back at one point, a withering 

 fire from every other would be poured in upon the as- 

 sailant. It admitted, too, of such facility of manoeuvring ; 



