CHAP. XXX.] FRANCO-GERMAN WAR, 1870-1871. 



605 



down a battalion of marines and raptured several guns. 

 The 4th German Hussars also captured a l)atteiy at the 

 battle of Orleans and carried it off, while the 11th 

 Prussian Lancers also took a French battery at Soigny. 

 These successes won on the battle-field were not propor- 

 tionate to the large mass of cavalry, nearly 70,000 

 strong,^ which the Germans brought into the field. 



Early in the siege of Paris the French had organised 

 small partisan corps unde.' the name of " Franc tireurs." 

 When these Franc tireurs became numerous the 

 Uhlans could no longer move freely to great distances, 

 but were almost always accompanied by battalions of 

 infantry, who marched with them to clear villages and 

 obstructed country of these volunteer riflemen, who 

 fought with great bravery. 



This proves conclusively that the great successes of 

 the Prussian horse in the early part of the war were to 

 be attributed more to the extraordinary inefficiency of 

 the French cavalry, particularly in the way they were 

 used, than to any wonderful superiority in arms or 

 organisation of the celebrated Uhlans. 



The system of attaching infantry to the cavalry neces- 

 sarily deprived the horsemen of their speed, and clogged 

 them so that the whole force in point of mobility was only 

 equal to the same number of foot-soldiers. In fact, the 

 great value of cavalry, its speed, and far-reaching power, 

 was gone the moment it had to march under the protec- 

 tion of infantry. 



A careful study of the method of arming and 

 employing cavalry in the American Civil War should 

 have shown the Germans that if their horsemen had 

 been armed with rifles or carbines they could have done 

 equally well or better all that they performed in the 

 early part of the war, and would have been fully capable 

 of coping with all the " Franc tireurs " that they were 

 likely to meet in detached warfare. 



In America, the mounted riflemen were continually 

 taking towns and villages; although well defended by 

 infantry and artillery. The "home guards," which 

 represented the same type of force as the " Franc tireurs," 



' Borbstaedt, 93. 



inn., wi 



