CAVALRY TACTICS. Authorities differ concerning the proportion that ought to be observed between cavalry and infantry in an army. In France and Austria, the ratio is about 1 to 5; in Prussia and Bavaria, 1 to 4; in Russia, 1 to 6; in England, 1 to 8.
So far as concerns actual duties, heavy cavalry charge the enemy's cavalry and infantry, attack the guns, and cover a retreat; while the light cavalry make reconnais sances, carry dispatches and messages, maintain outposts, supply pickets, scour the country for forage, ale the commissariat, pursue the enemy, and strive to screen the movements of the infantry by their rapid maneuvers on the front and flanks of their army. At the battle of Balaklava, the heavy cavalry charge was within the reasonable duties of the troops, but that of the light cavalry was not; the former succeeded, the latter failed, A cavalry horse will walk 4 m. in an hour on general service, trot 8 m. in maneuvering, and gallop 11 m. in making a charge. The cavalry usually attack in line against cavalry, en echelon against artillery, and in column against infantry. When an attack is about to be made, the cavalry usually group into three bodies—the attacking, the supporting, and the reserve. Close combat and hand-to-hand struggle are the province of cavalry; infantry and artillery may fight at a distance, but cavalry cannot. It is rare
that two bodies of cavalry stand to fight each other; the weaker of the two, or the less resolute, usually turns and gallops off. The work to be done by the horse is to pursue, to overwhelm, to cut down. They cannot wait to receive an attack like infantry; they must either pursue or retreat; and on this account it has been said, "rest is incompatible with cavalry." The infantry and artillery more frequently win the victory; but the cavalry prepare the way for doing this, capture prisoners and trophies, pursue the flying enemy, rapidly succor a menaced point, and cover the retreat of infantry and artillery, if retreat be necessary. Cavalry is necessary to finish off work mainly done by others; and, without its aid, signal success is seldom obtained on the field. Many of the brilliant achievements of the British in 1857 and the following year, in India, were rendered almost nugatory by the paucity of cavalry, while, as a contrast, the German victories of 1870 were enhanced by the splendid services of their uhlans and other light cavalry.