504 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[I'EHIOD V, 



hill. Those who wont down the line were all killed, 

 wounded, or driven down on the Pnissian side of the 

 slope into a village and there eaptunMl. Jt did not 

 delay the advance of the Prussian infantry five minutes. 

 The succeeding chargi's made by tlie 1st, 3rd, and 4tli 

 regiments of Chasseurs d'Afrique and the 6th Chasseurs 

 came to nothing, though they were most gallantly and 

 perseveringly made. The Prussians simply waited for 

 them in line till they got to within 150 yards, and then 

 just mowed them down with volleys — they were shot down 

 before they could get within fifty yards. It was a use- 

 less, purposeless slaughter. It had, practically, no result 

 whatever. The hill-side was literally covered with their 

 dead and the bodies of their little grey Arab horses. 

 These two brigades of five regiments must have lost 

 quite 350 killed, besides their wounded and prisoners. 

 There can be no greater scandal than to say they did 

 not charge home. General Sheridan assured me they 

 behaved most nobly, coming up again and again at the 

 signal to charge. 



" They were sheltered from fire till the last moment, 

 were carefully handled, and skilfully and bravely led. 

 The ground they charged over was not more than 400 

 yards, yet the result was virtually their destruction as a 

 military body without any eiFect whatever. 



" I took great pains to ascertain the facts. A friend 

 of mine whom I had known in Africa ten years before, 

 was a major commanding two squadrons of one of these 

 regiments. He showed me the roll of his two squadrons 

 with each man's name mailced oflF. The result was 58 

 men of all ranks left effective out of 216 that went 

 into action. The whole time they were under musketry 

 fire must have been leas than a quarter of an hour." 



After the battle of Sedan the war mainly centred in 

 the two great sieges of Paris and Metz, the cavalry still 

 doing good service in keeping up the communications and 

 covering the operations. Several nstances occurred in 

 the operations in the provinces of France of successful 

 actions of cavalry, but they were all on a small scale. 

 At the battle of Amiens nome German squadrons rode 



