The great value of hasty entrenchments, and the immeasurable
superiority of fire action over “cold steel,” were not the only lessons
taught by our war which were unheeded by Austrian soldiers steeped
in conservatism and basking serenely in the sunshine of their own
military traditions. Their use of cavalry showed either an ignorance
of, or contempt for, the experience of the American armies; but, in
this respect, the Austrians were not less perspicacious than their
adversaries. The campaign produced some fine examples of combats
between opposing forces of cavalry; but it also produced many instances
in which the Austrians hurled their cavalry against intact infantry
armed with breech-loaders, only to learn from their own defeat and an
appalling list of killed and wounded, that they had applied the tactics
of a past age to the conditions of a new era. Both armies seem to have
been afraid to let their cavalry get out of sight, and to have reserved
their mounted troops solely for use on the field of battle. If they had
studied the great raids of the American cavalry leaders, they would
have learned a lesson which there were excellent opportunities to apply.
It would, probably, have been impossible for the Austrian cavalry to
cut the Prussian communications before the junction of the invading
armies was effected. A cavalry column attempting to move around the
left of Frederick Charles would almost certainly have been caught
between the First Army and the impassable Isergebirge, and captured
before doing any damage. A column moving around the Prussian right,
into Saxony, would have encountered the cavalry division of Von Mülbe’s
reserve corps, to say nothing of the infantry and artillery; and the
movement would, doubtless, have come to naught. A movement against the
communications of the Crown Prince could have been made only _via_ the
valley of the Oder, where it could have been effectually opposed. But
it is certain that after the battle of Königgrätz the Austrians had
it in their power to balk the advance of Von Moltke by operating with
cavalry against his communications. In this case the raiders would have
been operating in their own country, and among a friendly population;
the railways could have been cut without difficulty, and the cavalry
could have retreated without serious danger of being intercepted. The
effect upon the invading army does not admit of doubt. We have seen
that, with unobstructed communications, the Prussian army was subjected
to no slight distress, after the battle of Münchengrätz, for want of
rations. Even two days after peace had been agreed upon, the Austrian
garrison of Theresienstadt, ignorant of the termination of the war,
by a successful sally destroyed the railway bridge near Kralup. The
line of communication of the Prussians with the secondary base of
supplies at Turnau was thus broken; and, though hostilities were at
an end, the invaders were subjected to much inconvenience. It is easy
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