484 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period V 



of Morgan's raids, of Forrest's expeditions, of Stuart's 

 great sweeping reconnaissances, of Grierson's operations 

 in Mississippi, of Wilson's invading army of cavalry, of 

 Sheridan's turning movements at Petersburg, of his 

 fighting in line of battle, of his pursuits, &c., without 

 feeling that the mounted rifle principle had been 

 wonderfully effective, and that it is the proper method 

 of using horsemen under the improved state of pro- 

 jectile weapons. 



The professional cavalry ofl&cer in Europe, wrapt up 

 in the traditions of the wars of Frederick the Great and 

 Napoleon, bearing in mind the failure of the dragoon 

 principle in the seventeenth century, and holding it as 

 a fixed principle that cavalry relying upon firearms are 

 necessarily worthless, has never given the proper weight 

 to the teachings of the American Civil War. 



It has been argued that the country was not suited to 

 the use of cavalry proper, that the raw levies had no 

 opportunities of becoming sufficiently trained to make 

 mounted charges on a great scale, and it has been held 

 that although mounted riflemen had been so effective, it 

 was no proof that well-trained cavalry, upon the old 

 principle, would not have done equally well, if not 

 better. It seems- to have been forgotten, that four 

 long years of war, with constant drilling and fighting, 

 must have produced as efficient troops as could be found. 

 General Lee's army at Chancellorsville was as effective 

 and well-disciplined an army as then existed in any part 

 of the world, and the battle of Chancellorsville is strong 

 proof of the truth of the statement. 



Having therefore considered the part taken in the 

 American Civil War by the cavalry, we will now 

 proceed to consider the campaigns of 1866 in Austria, 

 and 1870-71 in France, and see whether the results 

 produced by the cavaliy proper, on ground admirably 

 suited to their use, and under the improved weapons, 

 were such as to surpass in value those obtained by the 

 new style of cavalry on the American continent. 



