486 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period v. 



one regiment of Guides. All the regiments, except the 

 Guides, had six field squadrons of 150 men each, besides a 

 depot squadron. The effective force amounted to about 

 12,600 horsemen. The regiment of Guides consisted 

 of seven squadrons, and had altogether 60 officers, 1,074 

 men, and 858 horses. It was not maintained for service 

 in line of battle, but was chiefly intended to furnish the 

 orderlies for the general officers. The heavy cavalry, as 

 well as the lancers, carried the lance.* 



In this war the cavalry did not exercise any important 

 influence upon the result, nor did they render any 

 valuable services in either army. We look in vain in 

 the records of the war for great charges of cavalry in 

 mass, such as were the striking features of most of 

 Frederick the Great's battles, and of many of Napoleon's. 

 No action, save that of Nachod, was won, or even partly 

 won, by the charges of the Prussian horse, while the 

 Austrian light cavalry, the successors of those who had 

 enshrouded the great Prussian monarch in an atmosphere 

 of pandours, and shut him off" from all information, had 

 so fallen back from their former reputation that they not 

 only did not cone al the movements of their own army 

 from the enemy, but actually were so negligent in 

 watching the foe as to permit the Prussian Guard corps, 

 at the battle of Koniggratz, to penetrate into the heart 

 of the Austrian position, seize the key of it, and so secure 

 the victory. 



An attempt was made at the battle of Gitchin, by the 

 cavalry under General Edelsheim, to check the Prussian 

 advance, and endeavour, by a charge at speed, to change 

 the foi'tune of the day in favour of the Austrians. The 

 Prussians had occupied the village of Podultz, which had 

 been set on fire by a shell just Tjefore they occupied it. 

 Edelsheim, at the head of three of Austria's finest cavalry 

 regiments, with desperate valour, made a dash at the 

 burning village. The horses recoiled from the flame? 

 and smoke, and the force was obliged to retire with some 

 loss. Afterwards the Prussians, pushing on in pursuit of 

 theii" foe, were charged again by the Austrian hussars. 



^ Hozier, 108, 109. 



nmg, 



