020 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period VI. 



of Fedtral cavalry, in which the Southerners used the 

 pistols. The Federals were thoroughly defeated, with 

 the loss of tiventy-six killed and ivounded, fifty-four 

 prisoners, and eighty horses, while the Confederate loss 

 was absolutely nothing. An account is also given of a 

 Federal lieutenant with an orderly, who was surprised 

 by a few of Mosby's men. With his revolvers he alone 

 opened a fight, and in a few minutes had killed or 

 wounded four of his as^^ailants and driven off the 

 remainder. Scott says, ^oon the gallant officer was 

 master of the field. It was death to stand before that 

 unerring pistol." 



We have entered rather fully into the experiences of 

 the American war, '^s to the use of the revolver by 

 cavalry, as it is the only instance where that weapon 

 was generally used on both sides, and it is important to 

 gather all the information possible in striving to suggest 

 some new scheme by which cavalry may improve to the 

 utmost their chances of success. 



The Franco-German War however furnishes a most 

 extraordinary proof of the inefficiency of the sabre as an 

 oflfensive weapon. The German medical staff" have lately 

 issued a report upon the deaths and wounds inflicted by 

 the various weapons upon the German troops. The losses 

 of the Germans in the whole war of 1870-71, amounted 

 to a total of 65,160 killed and wounded. Of these 218 

 only were killed and wounded by the sabre and clubbed 

 muskets. Unfortunately the sabre wounds are not given 

 separately, but assuming that these casualties were all 

 inflicted by the sabre, the result is still most remarkable. 

 Of the cavalry, 138 were killed and wounded by the 

 sabre out of a total of 2,236. The most striking point 

 of all however is the very small proportion of the killed 

 to the wounded. The total killed by the sabre being, all 

 told, only six ! ! — the wounded 212. In all the cavalry 

 fighting at Woerth, at Vionville, at Sedan, in the battles 

 on the Loire, and in the Northern provinces ; in all the 

 outpost service, extending over almost half of France, 

 the only deatlis caused by 40,000 cavalry with the sabre, 

 in six months' campaigning, amounted to six, while in 



