518 A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. [period vi. 



ments of Prussian horse, in which it is said tliat a French 

 officer camo out of the fight with fifty -two new wounds 

 upon him and a German officer received twenty. Imagine 

 a man receiving fifty-two hince and sword wounds without 

 loss of life or limb 1 How many shots would a man 

 receive from a revolver before being placed Aors da 

 combat f 



Again, take the account of the charge of Morgan's 

 cavalry upon a Federal regiment of infantry at the battle 

 of Shiloh, in America, in 1862. General Duke, in his 

 history, says, *' We came close upon them before the 

 Federals fired. They delivered one stunning volley, the 

 blaze almost reaching our faces, and the roar rang in our 

 ears like thunder. The next moment we rode right 

 through them, some of the men trying to cut them down 

 ivith the sabre and making ridiculous failures, others 

 doing real execution with gun and pistol." ' This is a 

 remarkable testimony to the value of the revolver, and 

 shows out another peculiarity of the American cavalry, 

 that of combining dashing charges at speed with the use 

 of firearms, for Morgan's men seem to have used their 

 pistols without losing the momentum. 



General Stephen D. Lee, an officer of experience in the 

 American war, says distinctly, " The sword has lost much 

 of its effectiveness by the improved revolver, with which 

 the cavalryman unll make the dashing charge with more 

 confidence. My experience was that the cavalryman 

 was timid with his sabre in fighting against the revolver, 

 and for the least excuse, will drop the sabre for the 

 revolver. .... In every instance under my 

 observation the revolver replaced the sabre with the 

 morale, with the trooper, and against the enemy." 

 " Again in the hand-to-hand conflict, -which rarely occurs 

 now (owing to the improved firearms), the momentum or 

 yluck decides the aft'air before the eighteen rounds in 

 hand are exhausted ; and the momeiitum with good 

 cavalry is as readily obtained with the revolver as with 

 the sabre, my observation being that the sabre is timid 

 against the revolver. The revolver is the aU-important 

 ^ Duke's History of Morgan's Cavalry, 150. 



