Scientific American Supplement, No. 664, September 22,1888Various
History
Scientific American Supplement, No. 664, September 22,1888
Various
Science -- Periodicals
The necessary rest required by Europe after the exhaustion of the wars
of Napoleon resulted in the long peace which succeeded the campaign of
1815. This, and the improvement that took place in fire arms in the
next forty years, gave room for speculation as to whether cavalry
would play as important a part in the future as it had done in the
past, under Marlborough, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, and
Wellington. The Crimean war helped to confirm the opinion that the
days of cavalry had gone by. No account was made of the enormous
distance by sea that the cavalry had to be transported, the
unfavorable nature of the seat of war for that arm, the little scope
given in a campaign that resolved itself into a siege, the smallness
of the cavalry force employed, and the difficulty in keeping up a
fresh supply of horses. After this war came the introduction and
improvement in the breech loader, and with it opinions were
strengthened that cavalry duties would be still further limited, and
its traditions for a time appear to have been lost.
The awakening from this transient period of theory came from a nation
not trained to arms, and it is to the American civil war that we owe
the revival that took place in the use of the cavalry arm. The raids
made by the Confederates under Morgan, Stuart, Forrest, and by the
Federals under Sheridan, drew attention to advanced cavalry work, such
as scouting, reconnaissance, outpost and dismounted work. As
particular examples we may select Morgan's boldest and greatest raid
in 1862, when he passed through Kentucky and Indiana, capturing large
stores from the enemy. By his rapid and skillful marches the Federal
officers were completely bewildered. He was absent from his army 24
days, in which time he traveled 1,000 miles, capturing 17 towns and
destroying all the government supplies and arms. In a second raid he
forced the Federal army to fall back by taking possession of the
railway in its rear which brought it supplies. In October, 1862,
Stuart made his greatest raid through Pennsylvania, around the
Northern army. He set out with 1,800 cavalry and four pieces of horse
artillery, and crossed the Potomac. The telegraph wires were cut in
all directions, railways obstructed, and a large number of horses
captured, and all the public stores and buildings were destroyed. His
position at this time was very critical, 90 miles from his own army.
He considered it less dangerous to return by the opposite way to which
he came.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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