CHAP, xxxii.] ORGANISATION OF CAVALRY. 521 



the instances we have just mentioned — out of 100 men, 

 Mosby's cavalry in one skirmish killed twenty-four and 

 wounded twelve with their revolvers, and in another 

 instance out of a similar number, twenty-six were killed 

 and wounded in the same way. 



The writer has heard the sneer made that the American 

 cavalry would not charge boldly with the sabre, and that 

 the reason they did not use that method of fighting was 

 because they dreaded the cold steel. We would ask the 

 reader which system, testing it by the results, is the most 

 deadly, or requires the most pluck — that in which, in a 

 paltry skirmish of a few minutes' duration, 24 men were 

 killed out of 100, or that in use in the Franco-German 

 War, in which the deaths from the sabre in six months' 

 campaigning, amounted to an average of one a month, 

 out of 60,000 cavalry ? 



For the cavalry proper we may fairly conclude that 

 they should be armed with swords and revolvers. At 

 present cavalry are only likely to be ordered to charge 

 infantry when it is somewhat shaken and confused, and 

 when the charge may be made to advantage. If the 

 experience of the Franco-German war is to be taken as 

 a guide, the infantry will receive the attack in lines, or 

 if skirmishing, in groups which will fire steadily upon 

 the horsemen to the last moment. This fire is certain to 

 shake and disorder the ranks of the cavalry to such an 

 extent that the horses can easily swerve piist the groups 

 and through the intervals, fully exposed all the way to the 

 fire of the infantry. On returning they would be equally 

 exposed to tremendous losses. The chances are that 

 the groups, if firmly held together, would, to a great 

 extent, m.aintain themselves, and, unless broken, the 

 losses they would receive in such a charge would be 

 nothing. 



Any groups that would be l)roken, any fugitives that 

 would run to the rear, might, of course, be cut down by 

 the cavalry, but otherwise the chances would be all in 

 favour of the infantry. A charge in serried lines, well 

 closed together, and moving on in perfect order, would 

 probably smash through the infantry if they only rode on 





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