But In The Larger Operations Of The War It Is
Difficult To Say That Cavalry, As Cavalry, Have Justified Their
Existence.
In the opinion of many the tendency of the future will
be to convert the whole force into mounted infantry.
How little is
required to turn our troopers into excellent foot soldiers was
shown at Magersfontein, where the 12th Lancers, dismounted by the
command of their colonel, Lord Airlie, held back the threatened
flank attack all the morning. A little training in taking cover,
leggings instead of boots, and a rifle instead of a carbine would
give us a formidable force of twenty thousand men who could do all
that our cavalry does, and a great deal more besides. It is
undoubtedly possible on many occasions in this war, at Colesberg,
at Diamond Hill, to say 'Here our cavalry did well.' They are brave
men on good horses, and they may be expected to do well. But the
champion of the cavalry cause must point out the occasions where
the cavalry did something which could not have been done by the
same number of equally brave and equally well-mounted infantry.
Only then will the existence of the cavalry be justified. The
lesson both of the South African and of the American civil war is
that the light horseman who is trained to fight on foot is the type
of the future.
A few more words as a sequel to this short sketch of the siege and
relief of Kimberley.
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