Men. February 25 2 March 2 1 March 4 1 March 5 7 March 6 2 March 7 6 March 8 1 March 9 1 March 10 1 ―― Total 22 Which works out at less than one man per squadron and _sotnia_. The casualties in almost every company of infantry were more than in these twenty-four squadrons and _sotnias_. It is quite plain that these units did not fight, but merely avoided the enemy; and it is equally plain that, by avoiding battle, the cavalry neither checked the enemy’s movement nor got any information about him. The material of which our cavalry was composed was excellent, but everything depended on those in command. In the battle of Te-li-ssu the infantry of the 1st Siberian Corps lost 2,500 men; the Primorsk Dragoon Regiment, belonging to the same corps, lost one! But I repeat that where their leaders meant fighting the cavalry did their duty and suffered heavily. Take, for example, the Trans-Baikal Cossacks, which did so well under Mischenko, and the Caucasian Brigade. The Siberian Cossacks, under Samsonoff, fought at Liao-yang and the Yen-tai Mines with greater bravery than was displayed by some of Orloff’s infantry, while the independent _sotnias_ of the Don and Orenburg Voiskos, and the dragoons under Stakhovitch, were no whit behind them. Indeed, the men of the Primorsk Dragoon Regiment were good enough; it was the officers who failed in not getting the best out of them. The independent units of all the Cossacks did well, but it was out of the question to expect martial ardour or a keen desire to perform feats of gallantry in old men such as formed the 3rd Category Cossack regiments. But even these 3rd Category regiments could do good work when skilfully handled. The Cossack horses generally, and the Trans-Baikal horses in particular, were too small; while those of the Don regiments were sturdy, but rather soft. The Trans-Baikal Cossacks on their shaggy little ponies reminded one more of mounted infantry than cavalry. On the whole, however, our cavalry worked far better than in the Russo-Turkish War under Generals Kuiloff and Loshkareff at Plevna. The great difficulty now is to find and train cavalry leaders; in Manchuria, according to most accounts, the juniors were good, the field officers moderate, and the general officers, with few exceptions, bad.