Table of Contents

Translator's Preface.

Preface to the Third Edition, 1863.

The Author's Introduction.

The Duties of Cavalry.

The Chief in Campaign.  The Officer.

Clothing.  Equipment.

Horse Equipments.  Packing.

Shoeing.

The Use of Arms in War.

Discipline.

The Study of the Terrain.  Drawing and Topography.

Indications.

Guides.

Spies.  Secret Messengers.

Questions to be Asked.

Bivouacs.

Forage and Subsistence.

The Pipe.

Grand Guards, Pickets, Small Posts, Vedettes, and Patrols.

Detachments.

Detachments Properly So-called.

Advance-guards.

Reconnaissances.

Reports.

Commands to be Used in War, Positions to be Taken on the Battlefield, and Movements to be Executed there.

Charges.

Courage.  Cowardice.

Morale.  Moral Effect.

Skirmishers and Flankers.

Prisoners.  Deserters.

Surprises and Ambuscades.

Flags of Truce.

Escorts and Convoys.

The Support of Artillery.

Partisans.

Led Horses.  Sutlers.

Rear-guards.

Cantonments.

Light Cavalry and Infantry acting Together.

Concluding Remarks.

 

Excerpt regarding the lance:

Q:  Is the lance a very effective weapon?

A:  Its moral effect is the greatest, and its thrusts the most murderous of all les armes blanches.

Q:  In war, should the use of the lance conform to the directions contained in the regulations?

A:  No; as a general rule the trooper must consider himself the centre of a circle whose circumference is described by the point of his weapon; but the lancer must limit his points to the half-circle in his front, and cover the rear half by the "around parry."

Q:  Why?

A:  The points are certain only so long as the nails are up and the forearm and body control the direction of the weapon.  Where these two indispensable conditions do not exist, points which the enemy might easily parry, and which might disarm you, should not be risked.  The very least objection to thrusts thus hazarded would be their uselessness, and, in war, uselessness is the synonym of ignorance and danger.

Q:  What then are the "points" to which one should confine himself in action?

A:  The "right-front" and "left-front" points; the "right" and "left" points against infantry; the "right," "left," and "around parries."

Q:  But, should the hostile cavalry follow and press you closely?

A:  Use against them the "right," "left," and "around parries," which become powerful offensive movements, when properly employed.  In fact, the point cannot fail to reach the man, or the head of his horse, and the weight of the arm doubling the force of its impulsion, the enemy will be at once overthrown, or the horse be immediately stopped by the thrust.   I have witnessed a hundred illustrations of the truth of this, and, among others, may cite the case of the intrepid Captain Brou (now Colonel of the 1st Lancers), who, while near Eylau, in a charge which we made upon the Cossacks, believed himself already master of one of them, whom he had taken on his left side, and who held his lance at a "right front;" but the Cossack, standing up in his stirrups, and executing rapidly an "around parry," threw the Captain to the ground; his horse was captured, and he would have been made prisoner also, but for a courageous and skilfully executed charge made by Major Hulot, then commanding the 7th Hussars.  I saw the Captain's wound dressed, and his shoulder was gashed as though cut with the edge of a sabre.

The parries should always be made vigorously, and with the movement of the forearm only; because if the body be also moved it becomes displaced, and may turn the saddle.  The art of parrying offensively and defensively consists in calculating justly the time required for the lance to pass over the circle it describes.   I have seen old Cossacks, charged by our troops with their short weapons, face and await them firmly, the point of the lance not to the front, because they judged from the boldness of the attack that their points would be parried - and that once closed in upon they would be lost - but with the lance to the right front, as in the first motion of "left parry," then responding to the attack with a "left parry," brush aside the attackers by this movement, volt to the left, and find themselves, in their turn, naturally taking the offensive by pursuing the enemy on his left.

Q:  How should lance thrusts be made in action?

A:  I repeat, the lance must always be held with the whole hand closed upon it, the fingers upwards, and no movement requiring the fingers to be held downwards, should be attempted, because the weight of the weapon may cause it, if parried by the enemy, to escape from the hand.  The regulations do not dwell sufficiently upon the details of this movement; insist then upon the position of the hand "in quarte."  The staff of the lance should always be in contact with the body and forearm; the direction of the thrusts will then be more accurate, and the force be applied to the best advantage.  The movements should be diminished in extent so as to increase their speed and certainty.  To carry the hand to the rear only to thrust it forward again, is both useless and dangerous.  Your point will always have enough spring, strength, and reach to traverse the body of a man.

Q:  You would then forbid all pointing to the "right rear"?

A:  I would permit it in only one case - that of a general retreat before the enemy, or in case of a troop facing the enemy, being surrounded; then the position of "charge lances" in rear, by the second rank, as in front by the first, might produce a useful effect.  In campaign an officer should frequently inspect his lances, and see that they are kept sharp and well greased.  Wounds made in the body by lances kept in good condition are almost always mortal.  I have seen troopers of our army receive as many as twenty wounds, made by Cossack lances, without dying of them or even being disabled.

Q:  To what do you attribute that?

A:  To the inferior quality of the Cossack weapons, to the little care taken of them, and, above all, to a cause worth while to explain.  The lances of the Cossacks who used to fight against us were not shod at the butt end, so, when the lancer dismounted, to avoid leaving the lance lying on the ground, he stuck the point into the soil, and thus blunted it.  Hence you will remember that, under no pretext, are you to stick the point of your lance into the ground, and that it would be a hundred times better to throw it on the ground than to keep it standing up at such a cost.

The French lance needs improvement; the ash of which the staff is made is so heavy that it makes it difficult to handle, and, when carried in the socket, injures the horse's withers.  The wood does not, by its strength, compensate for this disadvantage; for being cut in blocks and the grain crossed, it breaks easily and in a way that makes repairing difficult.  Another fault is the too great size of the pennons which present to the wind so large a surface that the staves are quickly bent, so that points cannot be made as accurately as they should be; quickness and lightness in handling them are diminished, and on the road the horse and the lancer's arm are uselessly fatigued by the constant backward pressure.

To correct these faults, in route marches the pennons should be removed, and attached only when it is desired to make ourselves recognized by friends or enemies; to shift the lance alternately from the right boot to the left, and frequently to remove it entirely from the boot, so that it may be carried by the lancer himself.

The rolled coat may be considered a defensive weapon.  The habit of rolling it, and crossing it over the chest, in view of an engagement, has three advantages:  first, it clears the opening of the pistol holster; second, it allows the bridle hand to be carried nearer to the horse's neck, which facilitates the control of the horse; and, third, it protects the trooper.  But the trooper must be careful of two things:  first, to so roll and cross his coat as not to be constrainted by it, and, second, in a charge to avoid being seized by it, and unhorsed and captured.

Although to lose one's arms is, generally speaking, a shame, yet there is one case where a lancer is excusable for losing his lance - that is, when he has run it clean through an enemy.  Several times, I have seen lances so well used that the weapon, caught between the ribs, after having penetrated the shoulder blade, could not possibly be withdrawn; the dying man, convulsed with pain, carried away by his horse, drew along with him the lance and the lancer vainly struggling to disengage his weapon.   At Reichenbach, the bravest lancer of my regiment was killed under similar circumstances, in disobedience of my orders, through a misunderstood, stubborn sense of honor.  In vain I called out to him, "Your lance is well lost"; he did not believe me, and being cut off from his comrades, was overwhelmed by numbers, and killed.

Near Lille, a young soldier of the same regiment found himself in a similar condition; I made him abandon his lance.  The Prussian whom he had run through fell about fifty paces from the spot where he was wounded; we retook the ground which he had been obliged to yield for a few minutes, and my lancer having dismounted to recover his lance, succeeded in doing so only by carefully pushing it through in the same direction in which it entered.

At Waterloo, when we charged the English squares, one of our lancers, not being able to break down the rampart of bayonets which opposed us, stood up in his stirrups and hurled his lance like a spear; it passed through an infantry soldier, whose death would have opened a passage for us, if the gap had not been quickly closed.   That was another lance well lost.