510 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period VI. 



firing their pistols at close range until an opening was 

 made, by which they could disperse and then cut down 

 the foot- soldiers. The infantry were for a time after 

 this masters of the situation to a great extent, until, not 

 valuing the cavalry at its full woiuh, and seeing the 

 great advantage of the fire, they invented and adopted 

 the bayonet as an inefficient substitute for the pike, calcu- 

 lating that the increased fire would counterbalance the 

 loss of the difierence between the pike and the bayonet 

 as a defence against a charge. The bayonet alone was 

 never in itself a sufficient defence against a well-directed 

 charge of cavalry, and we do not believe that a body 

 of infantry ever existed that with the bayonet alone, 

 unsupported by fire, could have checked the determined 

 charge of good horsemen. 



This was the system when Frederick came upon the 

 scene. Everything had paved the way for great successes 

 by good cavalry. The infantry well drilled, accustomed 

 always to fight upon the most level and unobstructed 

 ground that could be discovered, armed and trained to 

 resist a system of cavalry tactics of a slow and clumsy 

 kind, were naturally soon overcome when charged impetu- 

 ously by masses of well-drilled and well-led horsemen. 

 The wars of Frederick and the constant and brilliant 

 successes of his cavalry gave that arm a high reputation ; 

 and the infantry making no change and discovering no 

 new scheme or weapon to regain their superiority, the 

 result was that in Napoleon's wars cavalry exercised a 

 most important influence on the battle-field. So matters 

 stood until the rifled fire-arm was invented ; then came 

 the discovery of the breech-loader, with its length of 

 range, its precision of aim, its marvellous and terribly 

 destructive rapidity of fire. 



The chang has now been made in favour of the 

 infantry, and the whole experience of the past shows 

 that it is useless for the cavalry to look back upon the 

 history of bygone ages and claim that cavalry must 

 succeed because they have succeeded. We must rather 

 do as our predecessors have done, give up attempting to 

 apply an old and exploded system of using cavalry now 



