As They
Neared Them, All Broke Off And Galloped In, Ventre A Terre, Discharging
Their Shotted Guns With Much Recklessness Against Objects Assumed To
Denote The Enemy.
But ball-cartridge seemed to be plentiful hereabouts;
during the whole of this and the next day, I remarked that bullets,
notched for noise, were fired away in mere fun.[FN#4]
[P.268] Barbarous as these movements may appear to the Cavalry Martinet
of the "good old school," yet to something of the kind will the tactics
of that arm of the service, I humbly opine, return, when the perfect
use of the rifle, the revolver, and field artillery shall have made the
present necessarily slow system fatal. Also, if we adopt the common
sense opinion of a modern writer,[FN#5] and determine that "individual
prowess, skill in single combats, good horsemanship, and sharp swords
render cavalry formidable," these semi-barbarians are wiser in their
generation than the civilised, who never practise arms (properly so
called), whose riding-drill never made a good rider, whose horses are
over-weighted, and whose swords are worthless. They have yet another
point of superiority over us; they cultivate the individuality of the
soldier, whilst we strive to make him a mere automaton. In the days of
European chivalry, battles were a system of well-fought duels. This was
succeeded by the age of discipline, when, to use the language of
Rabelais, "men seemed rather a consort of organ-pipes, or mutual
concord of the wheels of a clock, than an infantry and cavalry, or army
of soldiers." Our aim should now be to combine the merits of both
systems; to make men individually
[p.269] excellent in the use of weapons, and still train them to act
naturally and habitually in concert.
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