nes, quite probable: but, in most other cases, a cavalry charge
will succeed, perhaps, only one time in ten.

4. The chief duties of cavalry in a _defensive_ battle are--

(1.) To watch the enemy's cavalry, to prevent its surprising our
infantry.

(2.) To guard our troops from being outflanked.

(3.) To defend our infantry and artillery while manoeuvring.

(4.) To be ready to charge the enemy the instant his attack on our
troops is repulsed.

5. _Used offensively_, it must promptly attack--

(1.) The enemy's flanks, if uncovered.

(2.) His infantry, when, from any cause, its attack would probably
succeed.

(3.) All detachments thrown forward without support.

6. When cavalry has routed cavalry, the victorious squadrons should at
once charge in flank _the infantry protected by the cavalry just
beaten_. The great Conde, when only twenty-two years of age, by this
means, won the victory of Rocroi.

7. Deployed as skirmishers, by their noise, dust, and smoke, cavalry may
furnish a good _screen_ for our movements.

8. Cavalry skirmishers _scout their corps_, to prevent the enemy
reconnoitring it too closely.

9. When a cavalry rear-guard has to defend, temporarily, a defile, a
bridge, or a barricade, a part should _dismount_, and use their carbines
till the rest are safe.

So, a cavalry vanguard, by its fire, dismounted, may prevent the enemy
from destroying a bridge.

In these, and in similar cases, the cavalrymen should habitually
dismount, in order to render their fire effective; acting and
manoeuvring as skirmishers.

VI.--How it Fights.

1. The success of cavalry in battle depends on the _impetuosity of its
charge_, and its _use of the sabre_. When deployed as skirmishers,
mounted or dismounted, its proper weapon is the carbine or pistol; and
in individual combats, these weapons may occasionally be very useful.
But when acting as cavalry proper, in any compact formation, it must
rely on the sabre. The aim with a pistol or carbine in the hands of a
mounted man is so unsteady, that the fire of a line of cavalry is
generally ineffective; and there are few occasions where it should be
resorted to. When cavalry has learned to realize that these are not its
true arms, and that it is never really formidable but when it closes
with the enemy at full speed and with uplifted sabre, it has acquired
the most important element of its efficiency.

2. Cavalry should, therefore, not fight _in columns_, as most