490 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[PEBIOD V. 



In this fight Colonel Bredow proved himself a dashing 

 and efficient o3icer, and the above account of it contains 

 in fact a vo?ume of instruction, as to the proper method 

 of attacking artillery. Here Colonel Bredow protected 

 his flanks, held a reseiTC in hand, turned the flank of 

 the guns, captured them and carried them ofi", and, by his 

 foresight in keeping one or two squadrons in hand, was 

 enabled to defeat an attempt of the enemy to rescue the 

 guns. Had he thrown his whole regiment at once into 

 the fight, the success could not have been any greater, 

 while the chances were, that the fresh Austrian squadron, 

 coming down upon them while disordered by success, 

 would have defeated them. 



The most gallant charge of the war took place in the 

 battle of Langelzalza on the 27th June, T866, where 

 the Duke of Cambridge's Hanoverian regiment of 

 dragoons dashed upon the Prussian retreating infantry 

 and captured some prisoners. The heavy cavalry of the 

 Hanoverian army made a most gallant charge, breaking 

 two Prussian squares, and capturing a Prussian battery 

 of artillery. The horsemen of Hanover, however, suf- 

 fered fearfully from the deadly rapidity of the needle- 

 gun.^ These cuirassiers charged over several hundred 

 yards of open ground, and their loss in killed and 

 wounded was about one-third. This was the only instance 

 of the kind during the campaign, and the Prussians 

 were retreating when the attack was made. 



This war occurred one year after the close of the 

 American Civil War, but the experiences of that war seem 

 to have had no efi'ect upon the system of warfare in 

 Europe. The little use made by Benedek of his light 

 horse is a proof that he had not been much impressed 

 by the struggle which had shortly before taken place in 

 the New World. Although in its own country, among a 

 friendly population, where every information might 

 readily have been obtained, the Austrian cavalry had 

 done but little service in acquiring knowledge of the 

 enemy's movements. They had made no raids upon the 

 Prussian flanks or rear, had cut off" no convoys, destroyed 



» Hozier, 279. 



war 



