A British army, as it was,--is,--and ought to be : $b illustrated by examples during the Peninsular War; with observations upon India; the United States of America; Canada; the boundary line; the navy; steam warfare, &c.Campbell, James
History
A British army, as it was,--is,--and ought to be : $b illustrated by examples during the Peninsular War; with observations upon India; the United States of America; Canada; the boundary line; the navy; steam warfare, &c.
Campbell, James
Great Britain. Army
I do not intend in this work to make many remarks upon our cavalry, but
I must say, that I hope yet to see some of our lights made heavier,
and mounted on powerful yet sufficiently active horses. I confess I am
not one of those who admire what are called hussars, &c., because I
know how to value our heavy cavalry, and am therefore induced to draw
a comparison between the two; and I boldly assert, that no cavalry
in the world can stand before our splendid heavy dragoons and their
noble steeds. One regiment--and I am enabled to judge from what I saw
of them upon several occasions--would with ease cut their way through
all the Cossacks of the Don, or any such _Lights_, which are seldom
of any other use but to follow up a beaten enemy; and, I must say,
that it has often surprised me, how we could think of copying the
inefficient cavalry of any nation. Sir Thomas Picton, but he was an
infantry officer, was also no great admirer of our light cavalry, and
some of them may, perhaps, remember an opinion he publicly expressed
of their efficiency at Roncesvalles, when he, in his emphatic way,
and, I must admit, not very politely, drew a comparison between them
and the dragoons of the German Legion, who were not only excellent and
experienced, but always effective. We were all greatly attached to the
German dragoons, and for nothing more, than for their literally making
companions, or playfellows, of their fine English horses, which they
always thought of, with respect to care and food, before they did of
themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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