644 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period VI. 



quickly, and act promptly, and the rare talent that 

 enables a man to control and direct with judgment the 

 movement of charging horse under such conditions, is 

 v.'hat makes the great cavalry general. No wonder 

 that so few have appeared upon the pages of history. 



All celebrated cavtdry officers have been noted for the 

 zeal, the impetuosity, the fire of their dispositions, and 

 they have excelled each other only in possessing to a 

 greater degree the caution and prudence necessary to a 

 responsible command. There may have been cavalry 

 officers of reputation who have altogether lacked the 

 caution, but there never was one with the slightest claim 

 to the name who lacked the energy and the impetuosity. 



In commanding the advanced posts of an army the 

 cavalry general cannot exhibit too much caution, and 

 here the caution requires the exercise of the most rest- 

 less activity. When before an enemy every imaginable 

 road and by-path should be watched and patrolled, every 

 possible point examined, every conceivable precaution 

 against surprise taken. In pressing on to search out the 

 position of the enemy nothing should prevent the most 

 extreme boldness. In fact the general principle should 

 be laid down that the boldest course is always the best. 

 The well-known writer. Archdeacon Denison, of Taunton, 

 says in one of his writings, " I cannot abide that nasty, 

 mean little virtue commonly called prudence." That 

 one sentence indicates that he would probably have made 

 a good cavaby officer. 



Another requisit*^ quality of a cavalry commander is 

 the faculty of divining by intuition from the slightest 

 signs the designs and intentions of the enemy. General 

 Shelby, who commanded the Confederate cavalry in 

 Missouri in the American Civil War, seems to have 

 been naturally qualified for a cavalry commander. His 

 cautiousness in picketing, patrolling, and guarding 

 against surprise was almost a mania, and without parallel. 

 His boldness in never retiring before an enemy without 

 fighting was equally marked. Whenever reports were 

 brought in of an advancing enemy his question always 

 was, " Did you see them ? " If this was answered 



