CHAP. XXXVI.] GENERAL-IN-CHIEF OF CAVALRY. 



54 



affirmatively, ho immediately followed it up with, " Did 

 you count them V " No, General." " Then we'll fight 

 them, by Heaven 1 Order the brigade to form line, and 

 the artillery to prepare for action front." Thus ho never 

 turned his back upon an enemy without knowing his 

 exact power, and without inflicting more or less injury 

 upon the advancing squadi'ons.' 



This is the spirit in which cavalry should be handled. 

 In guarding against surprise, in taking every conceivable 

 measure to insure success, the caution should almost 

 approach timidity. In boldness and reckless daring, 

 when the time for action comes, the rashness can hardly 

 be excessive. 



A general of cavalry should have unbounded fertility 

 of resource, should shake himself free from the trammels 

 of routine and red tape, and adopt his measures intelli- 

 gently to suit the varying contingencies of actual 

 warfare. 



Long peace training, upon rigid and inflexible 

 rules, has always had its influence in narrowing and 

 contracting the natural powers of the officers. Men are 

 taught with great care the routine of elementary drill, 

 field movements, &c., on rules laid down with mathe- 

 matical precision. This is all very well as far as it goes, 

 but the training should not stop there. By this system 

 the faculty of thought is never exercised, the power of 

 reasoning never brought into play. Stolid obedience of 

 orders, and a rigid adherence to routine and red tape, are 

 considered in many armies as the highest type of military 

 discipline and the best evidence of efficiency. 



The effect of all this upon the intellect has never been 

 properly appreciated. Officers living all their lives in an 

 atmosphere where the repetition of apparently unmean- 

 ing duties forms the every-day occupation, where rule 

 and line have laid down in advance the manner of 

 performing every minute detail, cannot acquire that 

 decisive, vigo'- as promptitude of judgment and fertility 

 of resource so necessary in tbr* ever ciianging conditions 

 of active operations. The greatest mi +nra^f '^-lents must 

 ^ Edwards's History of Shelby and his Men, 80. 



