[Elements of Military Art and Science by Henry Wager Halleck]@TWC D-Link bookElements of Military Art and Science CHAPTER X 18/30
.
60 45 Two days' rations of provisions and grain, 25 25 -- --------------- 300 250 The horse moves per minute-- At a walk, from 110 yards to 120 At a trot, 220 240 At a gallop, 330 360 But on a march over the ordinary average of good and bad roads, cavalry will walk about one hundred yards per minute, and at an easy trot, two hundred. An ordinary day's march for cavalry is about thirty miles, but on a forced march this arm can march fifty miles within the twenty-four hours.
A single horseman, or a small detachment, can easily exceed this distance. "Light cavalry," says Napoleon, in his Memoirs, "ought to reconnoitre and watch the motions of the enemy, considerably in advance of the army; it is not an appendage to the infantry: it should be sustained and protected especially by the cavalry of the line.
Rivalry and emulation have always existed between the infantry and cavalry: light cavalry is indispensable to the vanguard, the rearguard, and the wings of the army; it, therefore, cannot properly be attached to, and forced to follow the movements of any particular corps of infantry.
It would be more natural to attach it to the cavalry of the line, than to leave it in dependence upon the infantry, with which it has no connection; but it should be independent of both." "If the light cavalry is to form vanguards, it must be organized into squadrons, brigades, and divisions, for the purpose of manoeuvring; for that is all vanguards and rearguards do: they pursue or retreat by platoons, form themselves into several lines, or wheel into column, or change their position with rapidity for the purpose of outfronting a whole wing.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|