Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/274

Rh 262 CAVALRY the Roman armies. According to Vegetius, the Roman cavalry was organized into ten troops or squadrons, forming a regiment of 726 horses, either intended to act in dependently or, more usually, attached to some special legion. As the Roman empire increased and brought many tributaries under its flag, the cavalry began to be drawn from those countries whose inhabitants were specially devoted to equestrian pursuits. The Gauls for many years furnished the principal part of the cavalry both in the Carthaginian and in the Roman armies, and appear to have rivalled the Numidians in efficiency. Strange to say, saddles were never used until the time of Constantine, and stirrups were introduced by the Franks about the middle of the 5th century. In the Middle Ages the unwillingness to intrust any military power to the serfs rendered the upper classes the only soldiers, and as these did not deign to fight on foot cavalry became the basis of European armies. The knights and esquires were the nucleus, mounted attendant bowmen and pikemeu being the .secondary portion of the fighting power. The invention of gunpowder and the decline of the feudal system wrought a change in military tactics, and from the organization of a standing army by Charles II. of France, in 1445, cavalry as it now exists may be said to date. As in early days, each country produced a species of cavalry in accordance with the characteristics of its inhabitants and the nature of its institutions. From Hungary came the Hussars, whose name is derived from the Hungarian word &quot; Husz,&quot; twenty, and &quot; ar,&quot; pay. Marshal Luxsmbourg appears to have been the first person who disciplined and organized these hussars, and in 16 ( J2 they were attached to his army as light troops and recon- noitrers. Carabineers were of a somewhat earlier date, and seem to have come originally from Basque and Germany. The word carbine has been traced to an Arab word &quot; karab,&quot; but this derivation is somewhat doubtful. Originally it was the custom for carabineers or horsemen armed with firearms to mount infantry behind them, and iu 1543 King Louis of Nassau made vise of this hybrid force in his operations against Bergen. A few years later, in 1 554, Marshal De Brissac formed a corps of mounted infantry and called them Dragoons, thus justifying Dr Johnson s definition of the word as &quot; a man who serves indifferently either on foot or on horse back.&quot; The actual origin of the term dragoon has been ascribed to the dragon s head which, as a rule, adorned the muzzle of the firearm with which these horsemen were armed, although this derivation again cannot be regarded as very certain. As firearms became more generally used, so the tactics and organization of cavalry underwent modifications. In the time of Francis I. the gens-d armes of France were reckoned the best cavalry in Europe, and were formed in single rank. Somewhat later the Spaniards, and afterwards the Germans, carried off the palm ; they went to the other extreme as regards formation, being formed in six and eight ranks, and were composed of a mixed force of arquebusiers and lancers. At this time military leaders failed to appreciate the true mission of cavalry, and assigned too great importance to the effect of firearms, too little to that of &quot;cold steel.&quot; Maurice of Nassau was the first to train cavalry with a view to their mobility, and teach them to act by separate bodies, and in distinct lines. Now for the first time cavalry was organized by regiments, each regiment being composed of four squadrons, formed in five ranks, and numbering about 1000 horses. During the Thirty Years War, from 1618 to 1548, the lance as a cavalry weapon gradually dis appeared, partly on account of the amount of training which is necessary to insnre its efficient use, and partly on account of the exaggerated value attached to firearms as cavalry weapons. After Maurice of Nassau, Gustavus Adolphus appears as the next great cavalry leader, and was so successful in the employment of his cuirassiers and dragoons into which two divisions his horsemen were classed that all other European nations began to imitate him, and adopted his formation in three ranks. After the death of Gustavus Adolphus, until the wars with the Turks, the French appear to have been the most instructed and efficient in the employment of cavalry. The wars of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. soon developed military art, and such great leaders as Turenne, Coude&quot;, Montecuculi, and Marlborough made their name. At this period defensive armour for cavalry was abolished, and lances were unknown except among irregular horsemen, who came from the plains of Poland and Russia. Excellent, however, as the French cavalry at this period undoubtedly was, it could not vie with that of the Turks either as regards its own efficiency or the results that it achieved. So formid able and so much feared were the Turkish horsemen that the Russian infantry when opposed to them invariably carried chevaux-de-frise in light carts for their protection. It has been very justly remarked that no other cavalry has ever obtained such an ascendency as this over in fantry. Hitherto but little attention had been paid to the employ ment of cavalry off the field of battle for purposes of recon noitring, although it had long exercised an important influence in action. Marshal Saxe, however, may be said to have introduced a new and more enlightened era in the history of the arm, he not only was the first to recognize the true mission and use of light cavalry, but also the necessity for celerity in movement and manoeuvre on all occasions. Although he cannot be said to have introduced horse artillery, which did not appear on the field of battle till 1762, still, by his timely use of guns in conjunction with cavalry at the battle of Fontenoy, he first showed how the two arms might be combined. It cannot, however, be said that cavalry has ever before or since played the important part in war that it did in the days of Frederick the Great. This monarch recognized that the &quot; arine blanche,&quot; and not the firearm, was the proper weapon for a mounted soldier. He discontinued firing in line, and the pitch of excellence at which his horse men arrived under the leadership of Seidlitz, and the results they obtained, have never been equalled by the cavalry of any other nation. The battles of Zorndorf, Rosbach, Striegau, Kesselsdorf, and Leuthen still remain the most signal examples of what may be attained if to long previous training and preparation are joined brilliancy and rapidity of execution in the field. It required, however, long experience and the occasional disasters which befell him in the first and second Silesian wars before Frederick the Great appreciated the true principles of mounted warfare or put them into execution. The next period in the history of cavalry may be said to date from the rise of Napoleon I. until the battle of Water loo. The Republican armies of France were but ill provided with mounted troops, and the disaster of Wurzburg in 1796 nearly annihilated the comparatively few squadrons that France then possessed. The genius of Napoleon evinced itself as remarkably in the organization as in the leading of his armies, and his first care was to create a force of cavalry such as would enable him to reap the fruits of his victories. To his cavalry he was mainly indebted for some of his most signal triumphs, notably Marengo and Austerlitz, and to the manner in which he employed his mounted scouts and reconnoitrers he owed the facility with which he so often out-manoeuvred and anticipated hie enemies. The Russian campaign of 1812 annihilated the