CHAP. XXIX.] AUSTRO-PKUSSIAN WAR OF 1866. 491 



no railway lines, cut no telegraphs, wearied and harassed 

 no outposts, and, in fact, had neglected a great many 

 duties that the mounted riflemen of America were 

 continually and successfully perfonning.^ 



The Prussian cavalry in their outpost work had not 

 yet learned the proper and effective method of covering 

 the advance of an invading army. Their cavalry in this 

 war regulated its movements by the march of the 

 invading columns, and did not precede them to a very 

 great distance ; while the Austrian cavalry, as we have 

 said, kept within a small radius, and without enterprise 

 or dash only fought when they were attacked by the 

 advancing Prussian horse. When the hostile cavalry did 

 meet, when they did engage, no doubt they were well 

 drilled, manoeuvred steadily, and fought on both sides 

 with the greatest gallantry ; but can the reader compare 

 the services of the horsemen on both sides with those 

 performed in the United States, without admitting that 

 the services rendered, and the results gained by the 

 mounted riflemen in America, were not infinitely greater 

 than those of the horsemen in Bohemia in 1866 ? Nor 

 can anyone doubt that the American system was more 

 suited to the improvements in the modern projectile 

 weapons. 



The war of 1866 was closed rapidly, with little cam- 

 paigning, and with really only one decisive battle, so that 

 the question of the effect of breech-loading weapons 

 upon modem warfare was not fairly settled. In 1870- 

 1871, however, a desperate war iDetween France and 

 Germany, in which both armies used the most improved 

 firearms, gave an opportunity of testing practically a 

 great many theories as to the proper system of tacticrs 

 under the present condition of the art of war. 



It will be of great value to us to study the results of 

 this campaign closely, and see what lessons it teaches us 

 on the important question as to the future method of 

 employing cavalry in war. 



• Hozier, 419. 



