CHAPTER XXXV 



Morale. 



There is one influence of the highest importance, which 

 the cavalry officer should thoroughly understand and 

 always bear in mind, and this is the morale. Napo- 

 leon fully appreciated the value of it. He said that 

 " the moral " in war is to the physical in the ratio of 

 three to one. There can be no doubt as to the correct- 

 ness of this pr'nciple, for the morale of the soldiers has 

 always exerted more influence upon the result of battles 

 than the mere physical force. 



At the present day, however, when men do not fight 

 at close quarters, but with deadly weapons at longer dis- 

 tances, the physical force is rarely or never brought into 

 play ; never, in fact, in the infantry, and only rarely in 

 the cavalry. Now, therefore, the moral effect is what 

 decides battles, and the art of war resolves itself into the 

 art of improving the morale of your own men, and 

 depressing that of the enemy. 



Take, for example, two lines of infantry marching 

 towards each other. They will never close, and the 

 greater physical power of one line press back the weaker 

 force of the other : but first one will waver, then halt, 

 and finally fall back, with a greater or less degree of 

 order according to the courage or discipline of the troops. 

 In the same way, cavalry charging infantry will often 

 turn on receiving a volley in their faces. It is not the 

 physical force of the volley which does this, because those 

 who turn are not those who are struck, but the mere 



