The late cavalry battle.
It has been nearly six months since, in conjunction with several other papers of this city, we urged the absolute necessity of improving this arm of the service.
While we have been negligent in this respect, the
Yankees have been straining every nerve to place their cavalry on the best possible footing.
It is evident that they have been, at least partially, successful, from the desperate resistance which they made in the two last combats.
We have been too much in the habit of decrying Yankee horsemanship.
Any description of men may, by means of the riding school, be drilled into good cavalry.
A large portion of the
English cavalry, we are told, are men who are enlisted in
London, and have never been on horseback before entering the service.
Yet there are no better troops in the world, as they have proved upon an hundred fields in all quarters of the globe.
The
Yankees have evidently been drilling their awkward riders into good horsemen, and they have succeeded.
We mention not these things by way of discouragement, but as a stimulant to renewed exertion on the part of our officers, and renewed zeal on the part of our troops.
The Southern people constitute the best body of riders in the world.
They start at the point which the
Yankee attains only at the expense of a long and painful system of training.
It is perfectly easy for the
Southerner to maintain his superiority, provided only he be determined to do so. Strict attention to drill is indispensably necessary, because though a body of troops may be composed of individuals who are excellent riders, they may be beaten by an inferior body who act together.
Bonaparte tells us that the Mamplukes are the best riders in the world, and that in single combat they always slow their adversary.
But in bodies the
French could easily beat them, the instinct of discipline caused them to act in a mass, and made them more than a match for the isolated attracts of their enemy.
It is due to our troops to say that they appear to have acted with great bravery, as they always do. But it grieves us to see the
Yankees getting bold enough to encounter Southern horsemen.
Our advice is to take good care of the horses, to drill the men constantly to act in bodies, to keep an eternal watch, and in all respects to preserve the strictest discipline.
That only can successfully recover our advantage, which at present seems to be somewhat compromised.
