MILITARY TEXT-BOOKS 8vo. Keady. MODERN ARTILLERY IN THE FIELD. A Descrip- tion of the Artillery of the Field Army, and the Principles and Methods of its Employment. By Colonel H. A. BETHELL, R.F.A. With 14 Plates and 126 Illustrations in the Text. 75. 6d. net. AN OUTLINE OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR, 1904, 1905. By Colonel CHARLES Ross, D.S.O. Volume I. Up to and including the Battle of Liao-Yang. With 14 Maps. IDS. 6d. net. OUR CAVALRY. By Major-General M. F. RIMINGTON, C.V.O., C.B. With 8 Diagrams. In the Press. FROM THE BLACK MOUNTAIN TO WAZIRI- STAN. Being an Account of the Countries and the Tribes controlled by the N.W. Frontier Province, and of our Military Relations with them in the Past. By Colonel HAkOLU WYI.LY, C.B. MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON. Jttilitarg **t-l5ooha OUR CAVALRY MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY - CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO OUR CAVALRY BY MAJOR-GENERAL M. F. RIMINGTON C.V.O., C.B. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1912 COPYRIGHT PEEFACE IN this book no attempt has been made to produce an exhaustive treatise on Cavalry ; it has been written principally for junior officers of all arms. M. R E. 2559(53 CONTENTS CHAPTEE I INTRODUCTORY Cavalry in past ages Drawn from horse -lovers, success followed on fixed principles, these are as applicable to-day Ballistics from horseback Always a sign and cause of weakening The charge of good moral Gunpowder and other improvements notwithstanding Good scouts always available Best lessons are learnt in war Expense of cavalry Duty of cavalry leader ........ Page 1 CHAPTER II ARMAMENT Constant changes Cut v. thrust Gerard's experience Point more deadly The case for the lance The revolver Confidence in the arm selected is of highest importance The rifle The insistence of continental writers inapplicable to British cavalry Page 10 CHAPTER III THE HORSE Colossal bill for horse-flesh in South Africa largely due to national ignorance of horses The suitable horse, two classes Chest measurement test for stamina Small blood horse stands work best Arabs bred for war English and Australian horses for size Care of horse in war An excep- tion to this Page 18 vii viii Our Cavalry CHAPTER IV TACTICS OF CAVALRY v. CAVALRY The squadron attack Cohesion And its result in moral Tactics Cunning The rally Cromwell Supports Conclusions . . . Page 29 CHAPTER V CAVALRY v. CAVALRY FORMING TO THE FLANK I. The squadron Forming to the front or flank Defensive or offensive flank. II. The regiment, advantage of Echelon attack. III. The Brigade Training of leaders Co-operation of R.H.A. Two forms of attack, when both forces get away from the guns Formations for moving to a flank Relative effect of artillery fire on the two formations Column of masses preferred Formation for the attack Time for horse artillery to unlimber Form of attack must be simple Conclusions Page 37 CHAPTER VI FIRE ACTION IN TACTICS OF CAVALRY v. CAVALRY Not a question to be shirked Danger of recourse to fire action weakening our leaders' desire for shock action An instance of fire versus shock action Rifle fire against charging horsemen is ineffectual Contradictory memoranda on the subject Henderson's dictum Dismounted action of cavalry German regulations Prince Kraft .... Page 50 CHAPTER VII CAVALRY BRIGADE IN ACTION First objects in the attack Concentric shock of fire and horse Plan to get a good field of fire by alternate advance of two squadrons Desiderata in artillery position Broad principles Utilization of ground Deception Get away from our artillery An example of attack The action of the artillery Moral necessary to leader Unreasoning hasty advance deprecated If anticipated by enemy, how we may have to act Passage of defiles Dribbling squadrons into a fight Cure for dissemination Page 59 Contents ix CHAPTER vm ACTION OF CAVALRY IN THE GENERAL ENGAGEMENT Independent cavalry, danger of their detachment at inopportune times Cavalry and horse artillery at LOIGNY - POUPRY Unsatisfactory direction of cavalry in 1870-71 followed by peace belief in rifle Fallacy of tendency to dismounted action shown by South African and Manchurian Wars The line our training should take Cavalry instructional rides Value of initiative Conclusions Frederick the Great's cavalry compared with our South African cavalry Pursuit Neglect of, a British failing The parallel pursuit Its value Bliicher at Katzbach on cavalry pursuit ........... Page 69 CHAPTER IX THE DISPOSITION or CAVALRY IN A CAMPAIGN FIRST PART Dependence on forage Principles on which cavalry is placed in the front Want of direction in 1870 Galliffet's influence Service of information separated from that of security The Napoleonic traditions revived And generally adopted French view The cavalry of exploration The cavalry of army corps The divisional cavalry Generalissimo's use of his independent cavalry Movement en bondes The effect of modern rifle Difficulties in the attack of protective cavalry and mixed detachments. SECOND PART The modern disposition is theoretical Tendency to increase independent cavalry at the expense of protective, for sake of initial advantages Difficulty of weaker cavalry role Von Bernhardi on German cavalry strength Improvisation of cavalry Dilemma Cyclists Difficulty of training for non-professional cavalry Danger of amateur cavalry officers The ULM Campaign Effect of first success Boer tactics unsuitable to European war Page 86 CHAPTER X HORSE ARTILLERY AND CAVALRY IN THE GENERAL ENGAGEMENT Deficiency in peace training The energy of the attack An instance Plan of the attack In the defence Value of artillery in the retreat Page 101 x Our Cavalry CHAPTER XI CO-OPERATION OF HORSE ARTILLERY AND CAVALRY German tendency in 1870 to deprive cavalry of horse artillery Reversed by 1907 regulations Effect of modern horse artillery Probable necessity to allocate horse artillery Mukden Arrangement of artillery support in attack on infantry Sir Douglas Haig on the counter attack Principles Conclusions ....... Page 108 CHAPTER XII HORSE ARTILLERY FIRE EFFECT COMPARED WITH EIFLE FIRE Comparative efficacy in bullets Reasons of Henderson's advocacy of mounted infantry Demand for exceptional arrangements An instance of masked fire Von Bernhardi's plan A suggested alternative Page 117 CHAPTER XIII IN CONTACT WITH THE ENEMY Duties of the Commander A day in the outposts At night The men The horses Care of men's health Wet weather Hints for scouts Moral Sending out scouts at night Sniping by nervous sentries Fireflies Ruses and duplicity Value of a knowledge of strategy and tactics To picket an enemy Security and information Instances of picketing the enemy Practice in peace Difficulty of instruction Practice preferred to theory Honest outpost work Night work Regi- ment's practice of outposts ....... Page 122 CHAPTER XIV SOME DETACHED DUTIES OF CAVALRY Despatch-riding, value in instruction An instance of a scheme Napoleon's despatches Tracking, etc. Value of maintaining interest Boy scouts Influence of regimental moral in detached work Prisoners Convoy duty Page 139 Contents xi CHAPTER XV RAIDS Diverse views of the value of Stuart's raid Japanese raid on railway line Vulnerability of railways Boer and British Raids Country which favours raids Inopportune raids, Wheeler's Futile raids by De Wet and Botha An exception to them Mischenko's raid Rennenkampf s reconnaissance Yon Pelet Narbonne Japanese methods Conclu- sions Page 145 CHAPTER XVI THE TRAINING OF THE CAVALRY OFFICER The cavalry candidate Causes of scarcity Work now and thirty years ago Pay Duties on joining Hunting The sense of duty Pretence im- possible in a regiment The effect of a slack commanding officer Counteracted by four or five good officers Value of drill Characteristic faults The practice of possible situations in war Officer without imagination is a bad trainer Conclusions .... Page 154 CHAPTER XVII TRAINING OF OFFICER (continued) Restless activity The effect of hardship Training Preparation Cynicism Desirability of education for senior officers A rearguard device Study and discussion A doctrine Napoleon's doctrine He honoured bravery Bis dat qui cito dat The selfish officer Comradeship Conclusions Page 167 CHAPTER XVIII TRAINING OF A SQUADRON Frederick the Great's stern methods How a good leader is trained Descrip- tion of his squadron at work Compared with an indifferent leader Five points in training a squadron : (i. ) Efficiency for war of man and horse; (ii.) Avoid samples; (iii.) Use of weapons; (iv.) Self-reliance; xii Our Cavalry (v. ) The offensive spirit The section system Value of individual in- struction Dismounted work Holding the balance Problems as a means of training in resolution Napoleon's genius The Zulu system Conclusions Page 177 CHAPTER XIX TRAINING OF THE HORSE Value of a well-trained horse on service Ill-tempered horses The ideal of training Seydlitz's leap The mameluke The aids, how arrived at from nature Their adaptation to our needs Progress towards the cam- paigning horse A Boer method Officers training horses The wrong leg leading in a race The free-jumping lane Remount competition Noisy instructors Method of teaching horses to walk quickly Duty of squadron leader His value if he has ability . . . Page 191 CHAPTER XX TRAINING OF THE MAN Standard of proficiency Riding, the old and the new system Instruction in care of horse Most difficult to teach or check Result of a bad system Napoleon's cavalry in Russia The care of horses must be the result of system Long rides for recruits as a method of instruction Riding to hounds Care of horse now more necessary Shooting Is good, but fire discipline is essential The personal weapon Method of instruction Mental and muscular development The handy man Influence of sports Swimming Pioneering Cooking Seaside work for a cavalry brigade Squadron competition Regular soldiers and colonials The practical instruction Theory Instruction in moral A Japanese view Demon- stration Intercourse between officers and men Grumbling . Page 202 DIAGRAMS NO. PAGE I. Defensive and Offensive Flanks . . .40 II. The Two Forms of Attack . . . .43 III. Column of Regimental Masses compared with Column of Squadrons . . . . .45 IV. The Formation for the Attack . . . .47 V. Squadrons en bondes . . . . .60 VI. Cavalry Brigade in Action . . . .64 VII. The Passage of a Defile . . . .67 VIII. Cavalry Attack on Dismounted Men holding a Kopje . 104 Xlll CHAPTEE I INTRODUCTORY " We study the past to foresee the future." IN these bustling days of headline-up-to-date news- papers, one shrinks from reminding one's readers that Xenophon gave excellent advice to cavalry trainers and leaders advice which a cavalryman will recognize is quite as applicable to-day as it was in those distant ages ; since details with regard to grooming horses on hard stones, exercising cavalry in rough ground, and so on are by no means out of date. There is every reason to believe that Alexander, and later Kome and Carthage at their zenith as military nations, had proportionately as highly- trained cavalry as is possessed by any nation of to-day. Those who have fought in rearguards and running fights realize that the Parthian method of fighting must have required the highest training and moral. The cavalry of the predominant nations were drawn from those who kept horses for their own sport and amusement, and for the gratification of their pride, and who felt they were better fighting men on a horse. The descendants of the horse-lovers i B 2 Our Cavalry of those ages are with us to-day ; they are those who love danger, excitement, and pace, and who find in the blood-horse an animal which shares their love for these, and will generously sacrifice its life or limbs in the co-partnership. Those who have never felt the sensation of a really good horse bounding and stretching away under them, and the consequent elation, the wonder as to " what could stop us ? " cannot grasp what a cavalry soldier's feelings are in the " Charge." Following the centuries which saw the final success of the ordered phalanx of Rome, time after time the more savage races of horsemen Attila with his Hunnish squadrons or Abdur-Rahman with Moslem hordes drive all before them, anticipating the flight of peace-loving, easy-going farmers and traders, living on the country and carrying off what pleases them. Then held sway The good old rule . . . the simple plan, That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can. Ages roll by, the picture changes. The days of Norman chivalry animate and fire the imagination. The hunter warriors, knights, and squires lead their troops in battle array, throwing them into the combat at the decisive moment. Broken bones incurred whilst unhorsing a friend, or a shrewd spear-thrust when cleaving to the chine a foe, in single combat, were adventures by no means to be declined or avoided. Chivalry or enthusiastic religious zeal qualify the Introductory 3 rougher side of their devotion to arms and horse- manship. In all ages the horse -lovers, the best -mounted nations, have carried all before them. Ceteris paribus this is true to-day. Then came the days of "villainous saltpetre/' and many began to doubt and to number the days of cavalry ; and always after a time there rises the cavalry leader who, emerging from the dangers of a youth spent in war and sport, sees that pace, weight, moral, and the " apropos " make up for all the odds, if only leaders, men, and horses are trained, and their weight and pace rightly applied. Next in order come Gustavus Adolphus ; Cromwell, our great cavalry leader, and his Ironsides riding knee to knee, and rallying immediately after the shock; Frederick the Great, and his captains, Ziethen and Seydlitz, and their ordered application of masses of cavalry. Then grand old Bliicher, 1 and his anta- gonists of the Napoleonic era, Murat, Lasalle, Curely. Certain fixed principles keep cropping up which appear to have guided these heroes in their movements and dispositions. They are : A. Cohesion in the ranks, or knee-to- knee riding. B. The moral effect of advancing horsemen. C. The flank march. D. The " apropos " charge ridden well home. 1 Bliicher, two days before Waterloo and then seventy years of age, but as hard as nails and quite indefatigable, was charging at the head of the Treskow Brigade, when his horse fell on him and he was left at the mercy of the French cuirassiers. Luckily he was not recognized, and when his own side again charged, he was pulled from under his horse and got away on that of a sergeant. Our Cavalry E. Surprise. F. The immediate rally. G. The necessity of a reserve. H. Training of the individual man and horse. I. Care of the horse's condition. The more we are able to read and learn of their views of training, leading, and applying the shock of cavalry, the more we see how little which is new can be written on the subject. The same view may be taken of the fire action of cavalry. The best cavalry leaders have always recognized its great value, where not put forward as an alternative to the " apropos " charge, and when not substituted by the " weakening " leader for the dangerous but more decisive shock action that action in which we must have " no half measures, no irresolution." 1 But the very fact that they may themselves have at some time weakened to the extent of shooting at the enemy from afar, instead of resolutely going in at the unknown, must have made these leaders recognize that the " charge" must be kept in the front as our ideal. Those who cannot understand the predilection of the most advanced and thoughtful cavalry soldiers for Forme blanche should ponder on the success of the Zulu dynasty. Its founder insisted that his men should be armed only with the stabbing assegai and would not allow them to throw their assegais. He knew what shock tactics meant and the moral inspired by their successful adoption. 1 Von Schmidt, p. 229. Introductory 5 A study of history shows the advocacy of ballistics from the horse at a charging enemy to have been periodic during the last 2000 years in peace time, and also that failure has invariably followed its adoption in war. It is not now seriously considered by any nation. Whatever the cost, whatever the method, he who tries first to " handle " his enemy is the one with whom " moral," that incalculable factor, will rest. Hear what a great trainer of cavalry, writing probably over fifty years ago, said : J It cannot be too often repeated that the main thing is to carry out the mission at any price. If possible this should be done mounted and with the arme blanche, but should that not be feasible, then we must dismount and force a road with the carbine. I am convinced that cavalry would not be up to the requirements of to-day if they were not able under certain circumstances to fight on foot, nor would it be worth the sacrifice that it costs the state. But if the croakers were alarmed at a sputtering rifle fire, what will the faint-hearted of our time say to the new and alarming factor which has now been introduced. Batteries of horse artillery, firing up to sixty or more low trajectory shells per minute, must now be reckoned with. These shells contain 236 bullets, weighing 41 to the pound. If the de Blochs and other theorists paused and wondered what would happen to cavalry when magazine rifles were invented, what will be their attitude now? Let them be reassured. But the 1 Von Schmidt, p. 188. Our Cavalry words of those who reassure them must ring true and be purified from the dross of the first thought, " How can we do this and save our own skins ? " Let them be born of the stern resolve, " At all costs we will kill, capture, or put to flight our enemies." We must evolve tactics which will enable us to use every new factor and to deny them to the foe. 1 Leave them to judge whether the plan of those tactics will be dashed off by the pen of the ready- writer as a result of experiences gained during a Whitsun-week holiday on some suburban training ground, or whether the soldier who has felt the sharp stress of an enemy's victory, the heavy hand of adversity and the rough lessons of retreat, who has seen the barometer of his men's fate rise and fall under cyclonic conditions, will painfully and doubtfully elaborate it. Cromwell, Frederick, Galliffet, these with bitter experience of the everyday imperfections of human nature, and a well-weighed determination to insist on tactics which will override those weaknesses, did not attempt to avoid or shirk the difficulty of losses. A cool contempt for the contingencies is the primary qualification in the search for successful methods in cavalry tactics, as well as in the encounter itself. Turning now to the detached duties of cavalry, 1 All the principal students of war of the type of Von Hocnig, "A. A.," Lewal, Von Schmidt, Galliffet, Kaehler, Prince Kraft, Verdy du Vernois, Cherfils, Meckel, Waldor de Heusch, Von Schell, and others in a minor degree, express unlimited confidence in the possibilities of cavalry if trained accord- ing to a sufficiently high standard. Elliot, Cavalry Literature, Preface. To preserve the superiority of an army in war, the system of tactics must be changed every ten years. Colonel BONIE. Introductory 7 of security and information, no less do we see the recurrence of the same ideas. The Curelys and de Bracks, the Mosbys, the cavalry who, " like a heavy shower of rain, can get through anywhere," such come right down to us from ancient history. The daring hearts who, trusting in a good horse and a knowledge of woodcraft, torment the enemy, whether in camp, bivouac, on the march, or on the line of communication, are a product of all campaigns, ready to the hand of those who know where to find them, and how to inspire them aright so as to get the very best out of them. And what will good men not dare and undergo for a word of praise or encourage- ment from one whose soul is in what he says ? Again and again, what is learnt in the hard school of campaigning, and generally where that campaign has been lost, carries the best lesson. Has any nation set itself more resolutely to correct the faults of its cavalry l than the French nation after the 1870 war ? Conversely, the nation that wins, learns little or nothing ; no lesson is worse than that of easy success in small wars. Witness the Eussian successes in Central Asia for a series of years, followed by the debdde of their cavalry action in the Manchurian War when pitted against an enemy whose cavalry was scarcely "in being," 2 and the erroneous con- clusions arrived at in regard to cavalry by those 1 Colonel Bonie, speaking of the French cavalry before the war of 1870-71, says : " In the midst of this indifference war suddenly broke out and we were obliged to appear on the field with our old ideas and our old mistakes." 2 This is written with the reservation that experience shows that much of the best and most useful work rendered to an army by its cavalry is never 8 Our Cavalry who only saw the first portion of the operations in South Africa 1899-1902. Von Moltke is credited with saying : " People say one must learn by experience; I have always en- deavoured to learn by the experience of others." The real lessons learnt from war are extremely difficult to impress on the taxpayer, who, in modern Great Britain, only reads of them in the newspaper, and who at best does not wish to pay for one more cavalry soldier than is absolutely necessary. The cavalry leader must recognize that the arm is expensive, therefore it cannot afford to be inactive ; it is the hardest arm to replace, therefore it must be used to the full. In all ages cavalry * have been expensive, and one may well wonder if the frugal mind of the taxpayer balances them against who can say what pictures of dead and wounded, indemnity, pillage, lost trade, and damaged prestige, or whether he looks at one side of known and certainly not recorded. The effectual manner in which General Samsonov, after the battle of Telissu, checked pursuit, held off, and at the same time kept touch with the Japanese for three weeks or more, is dismissed in a few lines of history. 1 An American, writing in 1899, delivered the following prophecy : "Cavalry may be an expensive arm to organize, equip, and subsist, but if it comes to a matter of dollars and cents the security of the British Arrny in recent reverses would have been worth a million times what an effective cavalry screen might have cost. From the moral effect of the recent defeats the war in South Africa is expected to cost the British Government between 100 million and 300 million dollars." Later he adds: "Let not our legislators forget in the coming reorganization of our army the importance, nay the economy in money and lives which cannot be measured by money, of maintaining an adequate force of cavalry. Cavalry cannot be made in a month from militia. The transformation process is slow. Given brave and fearless men, well-bred horses, expert marksmen, improved arms and equipments, it is not necessarily cavalry. Training is necessary and training takes time, but when war begins, time is the one element which is most in demand." Introductory 9 the balance-sheet only, and forgets that from which they may save him. Ignoring these mundane views, it is still the duty of the cavalry leader who has patriotism in his soul, to keep his heart young and his muscles trained, and to leave no stone unturned in peace time in his preparation, as a sacred duty, for war ; just as in war it is his duty to sacrifice his men, his reputation, his horses, everything, in order to turn the tide of battle or render the victory decisive. Let officers of cavalry remember that he who in peace time cannot sacrifice his pleasures to his duty, will in war find it much harder to give up his life or aggrandisement, possibly in accordance with an idea or order with which he does not agree, or in which he sees no sense. This is the serious side ; mercifully there is a lighter side to war, and it is well known that the hair- breadth escapes of themselves or others, and the " hard tack " form the most amusing and abiding recollections of a war to those who have participated in it. Against ill chances men are ever merry. Withal no cavalry leader is likely to succeed un- less there is something of the gambler's spirit in him, the gambler who can coolly and calmly put down his everything on the cards : He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, That dares not put it to the touch, To gain or lose it all. CHAPTEK II ARMAMENT " Quot homines tot sententiae." Armament also figures largely amongst conditions of success. . . . There can certainly never be complete disparity between the armament and the moral of an army, since the latter includes intelligence which takes care to provide good weapons. The want of good armament immediately reacts upon the confidence of the soldier. Defeat would thus appear excusable, and success cannot have a worse enemy than this feeling. VON DER GOLTZ, Nation in Arms, p. 147. THE many changes through which regiments of cavalry go in this respect are hardly credible, although in our case allowance must be made for the many different enemies which a British cavalry regiment meets. The lance will be adopted instead of or in addition to the sword, and six or seven years later the sword alone, or perhaps even rifle alone, will be carried. 1 It may be regarded as a certainty now that for some years to come, as in the past, the Germans will arm both ranks with the lance. One has hardly written this before one reads that the bayonet may be substituted for the sword in the armament of German cavalry regiments, for use in 1 A cavalry reformer, writing sixty or more years ago, says : " What is the use of trying to get the authorities to abolish the steel scabbard, when no attention was paid to a similar request fifty years ago ? " 10 Armament 1 1 night attacks and in the attack of unturnable small positions, or when occasion may arise. The bayonet on trial is straight, 14 inches long, with one cutting edge, the back being flat. All under-officers and one-tenth of the troops will carry a bayonet furnished with a saw edge. History repeats itself. In 1805, Napoleon or- ganized dragoons who carried a bayonet as well as a sword. There may have been a reason for this, as their usual fate was to be dismounted and their horses given to remount more highly-trained cavalry. Von Bernhardi 1 sums up the question of this new armament of the German cavalry as follows : " The hand-to-hand fight on foot must be exceptional. To injure the efficiency of the troops for their daily role for the sake of such isolated occurrences I hold to be a great mistake," etc. When we come to the pattern of swords, the purely cutting sword has its strenuous advocates, whilst as many more will beseech one to trust to no personal weapon except the pointing sword. Authoritative quotations will be given from well- known leaders advocating one or other form of sword. It seems to be allowed that a scimitar or tulwar pattern, with its curved blade, is unsuitable for point- ing, 2 and also that the best patterns of rapier-pointing sword are difficult to cut with. One may read in Sir Montague Gerard's book how he killed several Afghans. He says : 1 Cavalry in War and Peace, p. 175. 2 Though it is said that the Afghans point very effectively by means of an upward prod. 12 Our Cavalry " One had but to make a feint of employing the obsolete cut No. 7, and up would fly their guard over the face, when dropping your point you went clean through your man. . . . The fourth man I tackled fired at me just as I closed, and I felt a blow on my side, but next moment my sword went through something hard, and the weapon was twisted out of my hand and hung by the sword-knot. The blade, which was a straight rapier, one by Wilkinson, got a slight but permanent wave in it, and I can only account for receiving such a wrench by having taken my opponent through the headpiece as he crouched and tried to stab the horse from below." Pages 255-256 : "We counted sixty odd bodies, whilst our casualties amounted to six men and seven horses." And on page 257 he adds : " The lance giving our Sowars a preponderating advantage." ] Perhaps of all those who have given their opinion on this subject, that one to whom we would give most credence is a swordsman of the llth Hussars of Marlborough's time, who fought many duels and lived by his prowess with the sword. His final dictum is : " One point with the smallsword is as deadly as forty cuts with the broadsword." Verdy du Vernois 2 says : " Experience has proved that a sword-cut seldom, but a point with the sword always, throws a man off his horse. The latter should therefore be chiefly practised at sword drill." From the bolas of the South American to the tomahawk of the Eed Indian or the revolver of the cowboy every weapon has had its advocates. 1 Leaves from the Diary of a Soldier and Sportsman, p. 256. 2 Studies in Troop Leading, p. 196, note. Armament 1 3 Royal Artillery Mounted Rifles were seen charging on horseback with fixed bayonets 1 a few days after joining a South African column ; thus imitating the Australian contingent in the column, who invari- ably did so and very formidable they looked. A conclusion which experience forces upon us, as regards both the armament and tactics of horsemen, is that when they attain a high standard of horseman- ship or when they are good horsemen from youth, such as many Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, and Canadians undoubtedly are, a short training will bring them almost level with the regular cavalry and enable them to employ shock tactics. Then they should be armed in addition to their rifle with sword or lance, as the rifle and bayonet are not the best weapons for this purpose. As trained cavalry thus armed they are equal in value to twice if not three times their number of mounted rifles on the battlefield, if they have trained troop, squadron, and regimental leaders in command of them. The oft-advanced theory that it is not the nature of such and such a race to use the point is quite un- founded. It has been conclusively proved that a recruit who has been allowed only to point with a sword, can hardly be induced to cut, even if a good opportunity offers. The lance is undoubtedly the " queen of weapons," but it has its drawbacks. But first its great advan- tage is that it is formidable, and so much so that lancers claim that regiments armed with the sword 1 For the very good reason that they possessed nothing better for the purpose. 14 Our Cavalry will not face those armed with the lance. It is undoubtedly easier to use against crouching men on foot. The Inniskilling Dragoons after a charge at Zulus, who crouched down under their shields, sent for all available tent-pegging spears. On the other hand, the lance's shaft is difficult to withdraw from the body of a man, and a lancer may have to leave it there. Then he will draw his sword. But that entails another weapon. In a close melee the lance is a clumsy weapon. 1 In the melees which occur after a charge, men and horses are so intermingled that even the use of the sword is difficult. But obviously the cure for this is to teach the men to rally instantaneously and not to indulge in melees. The officers of the 9th Lancers in the Afghan War had a short spike put into the hilt of their swords, so that a blow from the hilt in the face was decisive. The weapon which (1) entails least weight and is easiest to carry, and (2) is deadly, and (3) is most likely to be useful on all occasions, is the straight sword or rapier. But this obviously must be made of the best steel, whereas a quite serviceable cutting sword can be made of inferior iron. That the cutting sword has been so much used is most probably because good steel was difficult to obtain. Napier says to arm cavalry sepoys with heavy English swords of one weight, one length, one shape is a mistake. The cutting sword is not a deadly weapon, often it does not penetrate 1 The disadvantages of the lance, that it is conspicuous in detached and scouting work and is in the way to some extent on dismounted work, are defects easily got over. Armament 1 5 clothes or accoutrements. The mamelukes, formid- able antagonists to Napoleon's regular cavalry in Egypt, 1798-1801, carried a cutting sword very considerably curved back, with which weapon they are said to have inflicted terrible wounds ; in addition they carried a poniard and two pistols in their sash and another pair of pistols in their holsters. A syce carrying a lance for them followed on foot. In the Peninsular War, whereas the English cavalry used the sword almost exclusively as a cutting weapon, the French dragoons on the contrary used only the point, which, with their straight sword, nearly always caused a mortal wound. This made the English cavalry say that the French fighting " was not fair." Some amateurs talk of the revolver as a weapon with which to arm the ranks in place of a sword or lance. They appear to ignore the fact that a bullet once fired off in a mel^e may hit friend or foe. Very fine horsemen, such as Arizona cowboys, who break the insulators of the telegraph wire as they gallop along with a weapon, which they have been accustomed to handle from their youth up, would probably do well in a pursuit with such a weapon, but it is not, we believe, seriously contemplated by any nation as a weapon for use in the ranks. For officers, scouts, farriers, trumpeters, and possibly others it is most useful, as it takes the place of a rifle and is light. If any particular personal weapon is carried habitually, that weapon should be adopted; but failing that, there must be a long apprenticeship to 1 6 Our Cavalry lance or sword. Perhaps the point to which most attention should be given is that the man must be taught to have implicit confidence in his weapon ; this can be attained best with the lance or with the pointing sword. A man appreciates the fact that with either of these weapons the point goes through easily ; whilst with the cutting sword only the most expert can make any impression on, say, a leg of mutton covered with a sack and a leather strap or two. In the German cavalry, stress is laid on teaching the trooper that the sight of the lance is sure to make the enemy turn and fly. In our own cavalry greater attention is now paid to practising the man in riding at a gallop at a rebounding dummy, offering resistance equal to the weight of a man. Without such practice the men sprain their wrists and lose their grip of the sword, and do not understand how simple it is to run a man through. THE KIFLE Both French and German cavalry have, during the last few years, been repeatedly urged by eminent writers on cavalry to bring themselves to a better knowledge of the use of the rifle and fire tactics. The new weapon issued to the German cavalry has been the signal for some of this literature. Calling to mind that it is but a few short years since German cavalry were armed with an out-of-date carbine, and carried only some twenty rounds of Armament 1 7 ammunition, and further reading between the lines of the latest addition to cavalry literature by General von Bernhardi, these exhortations cannot be considered as uncalled for. But to make them a text on which to lecture our regular cavalry only exposes ignorance of their present training, and makes one wonder if one is awaking from far back in the middle of the last century, when a gallant lancer regiment, on being first armed with carbines, gravely piled them on the stable -barrows and wheeled them to the manure -heap. Our British regular cavalry are at least ten, if not fifteen, years ahead of any continental cavalry in rifle shooting, fire discipline, and the know- ledge of when and how to resort to fire tactics. There are probably few of the more senior who have not come to a conclusion formed from ex- perience that the following quotation * is as suitable in many respects to cavalry as it is to infantry : Volley firing, and limiting the range against infantry to 500 yards at most, are the surest means of providing against the want of ammunition at the supreme moment. And the sooner it is recognized that long range fire is a special weapon to be used only on special occasions, the better for the efficiency of our infantry in general. 1 The Campaign of Fredericksburg, p. 129. CHAPTER III THE HORSE " A horse ! a horse ! my kingdom for a horse ! " No apology is needed for including in a Treatise on Cavalry a chapter on the subject of the Horse. Were it demanded, it would only be necessary to point to the unfortunate ignorance in regard to horses, horsemanship, and horsemastership which, extending as it does through every gradation of rank of life in the nation, caused our bill for horses in South Africa to total twenty-two millions that is, about one-tenth of the whole cost of the war. In fact, it may here be remarked that, following this assessment, it is quite probable that the horse question should be rated as 10 per cent in the percentage of importance of matters in preparation for war ; that is, in big wars, for our thoughts are apt to be distracted by small wars from the essentials of great wars. It is unfortunate that nowadays only at most 15 per cent of the men in our cavalry have, before enlistment, had anything to do with horses. Further, few indeed of the officers, though most of them have ridden, and in that best of schools the hunting-field, have gained sufficient experience in 18 The Horse 19 their early life, before joining a regiment, in the stable management and training of horses, to enable them to look after their horses well. This they will only attain to after they have had a fairly long apprenticeship under a good squadron leader. The essentials of campaigning horse manage- ment only come to those who live with horses constantly, and have to get work out of them. Those who hand over their horse to a groom after a long day's work, and who do not see him till they wish to ride again, cannot learn about horses. That the ordinary hunting man in Great Britain knows very little indeed about economizing his horse's strength is evident from the fact that not one in twenty is ever, after a sharp gallop, seen to dismount, loosen his horse's girth, and turn his head to the wind. Ten to one, if any one does so, it is a soldier, and one who has served in South Africa. First of all is the question, What is the most suitable animal for cavalry work ? And here the mind runs into two lines : (l) There is the animal which will carry a moderately heavy man, whose weight is 11 stone, together with his saddle, arms, etc., which may total up to another 6 stone. For this the beau-ideal is the Irish horse of about 15*2 hands high. But these must be well and carefully fed and watered, and not overdone. Their recuperative power grows less also with every inch of height. (2) The other animal which will carry a lighter cavalryman is seen at its best in the modern type 20 Our Cavalry of polo pony about 15 hands high, and as nearly thoroughbred as possible. These latter are more able to withstand hardship than class (l). Though the limit to the height of the horse suitable for a campaign should be 15 '2 hands, it is more difficult to say how small a horse 1 is suitable to carry a cavalryman. Chest measurement is the best known test for stamina, and a good judge said truly that "a 13*2 hands pony sixty- four inches round, will do double the work of a 14*2 hands pony of equal girth." Whilst we do not wish for one moment to be understood to advocate unduly small horses for cavalry, we do wish the chest measurement standard to be adopted more widely. We cannot help advancing the theory that the natural height of the horse appears to be not more than 14 to 15 hands at most, and all above that are in the nature of forced exotics, obtained by selection and good food for mares and foals, and in these stamina has not been grown in proportion ; take, for instance, the power of the heart, which has to pump blood farther to the extremities in a big horse. Now, though it must be allowed that a squadron mounted on 15*2 hands horses will, in a charge, easily defeat one mounted on 14 '2 hands horses, still the difficulty of maintaining the condition of the squadron mounted on 15 '2 hands horses, the increased cost of food, the smaller amount of wear and tear which the 1 It has been remarked that in Napoleon's army the light cavalry, though they did more work, lost fewer horses than the heavy cavalry. This is attributed to the horses being better bred. The Horse 21 horse, as it increases in height, can bear, are all factors for consideration. It is because, unfortunately, our ideas in Great Britain are somewhat inflated in respect to the size of the horse required to mount cavalry, that we neglected at the beginning of the Boer War to collect every animal of suitable age, if only 14 hands high, for the remounting of our cavalry in South Africa, and went to other and far more unsuitable sources for our horse - supply. Had we later, as was suggested, commandeered all suitable animals in the Cape Colony, we should have obtained a most useful reserve, and incidentally deprived our opponents of a source of supply of which they took full advan- tage. The horse and transport animal of the country are always the most suitable for a campaign in that country. By the end of that war, many a cavalry officer had gladly exchanged his 16 hands horse for a Boer or Basuto pony of 14 to 14*2 hands high. But this, the South African War, it should be here remarked, can only be regarded as giving us a view of one side of a great question. Campaigning in the fertile plains of Europe, where food and water are generally plentiful, where stabling may often shelter the animals, and where enormous distances, with no food beyond that carried in the waggons, are not necessarily covered, the larger horse may do his work well. But he must be treated with the greatest care and the weight carried, in his case, more rigorously reduced than in that of the smaller horse. For shock 22 Our Cavalry tactics he is the best animal on which to mount our cavalry, and our ideal is shock tactics. But let the squadron leader not forget that, when long distances are to be traversed, a few ponies are perfectly invaluable (they can be driven in a mob with his second line transport and are available to mount men whose horses require a day or two's rest, and which will, if they do not get it, " give in " and never be any more use to them). In peace time, in the laudable desire for good appearance, these expedients of war are too apt to be forgotten ; they only force themselves on us when it is too late. The animals usually described as only fit for mounted infantry are those which see the finish of a campaign, and must be available as re- serves of remounts for cavalry. No doubt it requires experience and trained in- telligence to discriminate between the purchase of the large, fat, slow, hairy -heeled, podgy -muscled brute that has never yet gone fast enough to strain himself or be otherwise than perfectly sound, and the lean son of the desert or veldt whose early toil has developed wind -galls, splints, and so on, but whose conformation and muscular development are as complete as will be his ability to live and carry weight, when the other will fall down and die. Stamina has been mentioned above ; it is obviously the first essential in a cavalry horse. Next in rank to it comes good temper, usually accompanied by good digestion and boldness, and marked by a full kind eye and a broad forehead. The Horse 23 Xenophon recommends us to test a horse's courage by unaccustomed sounds and sights before purchasing him as a war horse, and we recommend this practice to cavalry officers. The Arabs, who have bred horses with a view to war for many generations, have handed down a great deal of old-world wisdom on the subject of the horse suitable for war. 1 The best Arabian horses are un- doubtedly the outcome of centuries of breeding to a type, and that the type suitable to carry a light man throughout a long campaign, to face danger courage- ously, to possess fair speed, immunity from disease and sickness, especially pulmonary complaints, and to bear the jar of galloping on hard ground. Our own British horses and the Australian Walers have unfortunately been bred for size, speed, and in the case of the former ability to carry a man in a burst over a big hunting country, and with, for the last fifty years, a disregard for stamina and temper which has gone far to remove many of them from the type of animal suitable for cavalry. Situated as we are in regard to knowledge of horses, and hampered as we are in our preparation for war by the difficulty of teaching the essentials of campaigning horse management during peace time, we shall always find that it is in the early part of a war that our cavalrymen will fail to comprehend the necessity for nursing the strength of their horses, for discarding all unnecessary impedimenta, and 1 Most interesting deductions are to be found in General Daumas's book, The Horses of the Sahara, in which conversations with the celebrated Chief Abd-el-Kader are related. 24 Our Cavalry limiting the task to what is absolutely necessary. In peace time, horses which are in regular work are not appreciably affected by their rider sitting on their backs for five or ten minutes at a halt instead of dismounting, or by his not allowing the horse to pick a few mouthfuls of grass twenty or thirty times in the day, or by his not watering him at every chance. In peace time the horse will get food and water on his return home ; but in war these little things in the aggregate matter greatly. They are like the snatches of sleep which a tired man gets when he can ; they keep him going. The man can sustain himself by the hope of sleep at a future time. The man has certain traits in his nature which carry him through. It is said that Murat, in Napoleon's Kussian campaign, though he crossed the Niemen with 43,000 horses, could only put 18,000 in the field two months later. Murat had worn them out by keeping them saddled up sixteen hours a day, by giving them insufficient food, and by chasing wisps of Cossacks. A propos of this, Nansouty said to Murat : " The horses of the cuirassiers not, unfortunately, being able to sustain themselves on their patriotism, fell down by the roadside and died." Tired men soon ex- press their feelings, the horse is unable to do so. Verb. sap. Intimately connected with this question is the feeding of the horses. We know that no concentrated ration can constitute a substitute for bulk for con- The Horse 25 tinued periods, but it is not generally known how many articles of diet a horse will relish when hungry In the Pamirs the ponies eat the offal of game which is thrown aside, thus recalling the story of our child- hood of Black Bess, Dick Turpin's celebrated mare, who had a beefsteak tied round her bit on the ride to York. Ruskin once said in a lecture to the cadets at Woolwich : Whilst all knowledge is often little more than a means of amusement, there is no science which a soldier may not at some time or another find bearing on the business of life and death ; your knowledge of a wholesome herb may in- volve the feeding of an army, and acquaintance with an obscure point of geography the success of a campaign. This is applicable to the cavalryman and his horses. De Brack devotes eight pages of his valuable work, Cavalry Outpost Duties, to a chapter on " Forage and Subsistence," every word of which should be known to any cavalry officer who may have to serve in Europe or elsewhere. The theory of horse management is brought now to a very high standard by our Veterinary Depart- ment, and their publication of an excellent book on Animal Management marks a step forward which must be appreciated by all who are in agreement with the theory expressed earlier in this chapter, that the horse question is one- tenth in war. It is little different from Frederick the Great's saying that "Victory lies in the legs." One word of caution is necessary for those who 26 Our Cavalry command cavalry in war. They must metaphorically keep a finger on the equine pulse, and this is, most of all, necessary when working horse artillery in heavy ground, or horses fed on anything less than full rations, or horses in bad weather. Wet saddle- blankets put next a horse's back act like a poultice. There is no alternative in wet weather in a bivouac but to keep the blanket dry, or dry it before a start is made. Further, since the health of their horses is vital to the efficiency of cavalry, their leader must be willing to take risks in grazing, off- saddling, and foraging for food. Against surprise on these occasions long range rifles and our guns now confer on us great advantages. In this matter of attending to the welfare of the horse, however, it must be fully realized when it is permissible and when the horse must be sacrificed to the exigencies of the situation. An instructive example of what far-reaching results may come from ill-judged watering of horses is given in the American Civil War, by General Alexander. In June 1864 Grant, after his encounter at Cold Harbour with Lee, undertook the bold step of moving south across the James Kiver and attacking the Confederate right flank. For three days, though the movement was reported to Lee, he would not believe it. On the 15th of June the Federal General Smith, with 1600 men, was moving on Petersburg, a vital point on Lee's right. Beauregard, the Confederate commander, then had only about 2500 men to hold his The Horse 27 extended lines with ; he, however, expected reinforce- ments by night. Every hour's delay of the Federal advance was therefore invaluable. With one cavalry regiment and a battery he delayed Smith's column for three hours, and it was not till 5 P.M. that that General had completed his reconnaissance of Beau- regard's position. By 6 P.M. everything was ready for the attack ; but it was then found that the Chief of Artillery had sent all the artillery horses to water. This delayed the attack till 7 P.M. It was partially successful, and a portion of the Confederates' lines were captured ; but night came on, and with it the Confederates' reinforcements. " Petersburg was lost and won by that hour." That was on the 15th June 1864, and Petersburg did not fall into Federal hands till April 1865. The question, whether the present day greatly- extended r61e of cavalry on the battle-field, hitherto entirely confined to theory, will answer in practice, is a burning one for the horse -master. Without an enormous force of cavalry will there be squadrons available for these services ? In Frederick the Great's army the horses were a first consideration, and he got the greatest results. In Napoleon's campaigns there is not much evidence of the horses being considered. Frederick saw that the task suited the horse. Napoleon made the horse suit the task or perish in the attempt. The latter's lost campaigns teach lessons about cavalry which we cavalrymen cannot afford to ignore. Cavalry worn out in the first week of a 28 Our Cavalry campaign, with scores of horses scattered along a line of communication in vain efforts to effect some coup, entail a bitter retribution. Campaigns of three weeks' duration are not the rule, and every extra exertion for which horses are called upon has its price. It is only in the pursuit that we can afford to disregard our horses. CHAPTER IV TACTICS OF CAVALRY V. CAVALRY FOR the purposes of making this subject plain, the Squadron, the tactical unit, will be first considered. Let us picture, then, a squadron led at a trot with absolute cohesion (that is, every man's knees close against those of the next man, 1 but not so as to prevent the pace being increased to such a gallop as is compatible with that of the slower horses in the squadron). This squadron being led till they are within 50 to 100 yards of their opponents, and then at a command breaking into the full pace of the charge with a crashing, ear-splitting yell rather than a cheer, will, it is universally allowed, go through, break up, and cause to turn an opposing squadron which has any intervals in its ranks. 2 In the latter, men and horses can, since there is room, turn or pull round ; and they will do so. Your men and horses cannot turn ; there is no room. Weapons in this case may be ignored, the 1 Von Schmidt, p. 72. But by cohesion is not meant that the men are to be jammed together, for this only produces disorder, men being forced out of their places, the number of ranks increased. 2 The reader who desires full information, examples, and proof of this well- ascertained fact should consult Colonel Ardant du Picq's book, one of the most interesting military works ever written and one constantly referred to by French writers on cavalry. 29 30 Our Cavalry horses' weight and momentum is the weapon. Horse and man total upwards of a thousand pounds in weight, they represent 9 feet in height by 3 feet in width. The front extends for, say, 70 or 80 yards. The pace is 10 yards per second. It is a rushing wall, there is nowhere any gap. The opposing squadron has started out with equally gallant intentions, but before they reached the charging point, or even later, something has occurred to prevent them appearing like a wall ; more often than not their direction has been changed, and, whilst shouldering, these on the hand turned to may be closed up well eno.ugh, but those on the outer flank have not had time to gain the direction ; pace may not have been uniform ; a direction may not have been given by the leader ; or his order may have been mistaken. No matter what it is : fifty things may happen. It is just enough to prevent that squadron being the more com- pact, well-built wall of the two. And what follows ? They are defeated and disgraced. They will not, as a squadron, again face the cavalry of the enemy whose squadron defeated them. Better, far better draft the squadron and send the leader to another arm or work if, unfortunately, he has survived. Why be so severe ? Why treat them thus ? Because the heart, the moral of the defeated squadron has lost two -thirds, whilst the winning squadron is elated, believes in itself and its leader, and despises the enemy. It will charge three squadrons next time and will not turn. Still keeping before us the idea Tactics of Cavalry