NOLAN'S CAVALRY. *
CAPTAIN" NOLAN investigates the principle of cavalry tactics, in order to introduce a practical reform into that branch of the ser- vice. For this purpose, he takes a rapid historical review of the principal nations of horsemen, as well as of the most celebrated and effective bodies of regular cavalry, from the earliest period to the present day, briefly describing their exploits and deducing the military conclusions. Among these are the Nnmidian horse of Hannibal ; to whose numbers and the skilful use made of them Captain Nolan ascribes the Carthaginian victories and successful stand in Italy. The improvements made by Gustavus Adolphus in the cavalry of his army, and their results—the manner in which Rupert abused the power of his horsemen, and the good service which Cromwell got from his Ironsides, trained,and led by him- self—are exhibited. The great change in cavalry formation and tactics made by Frederick the Great, and the victories he obtained through it, are dwelt upon at some length ; Captain Nolan evi- dently considering that Frederick's age was the palmy time of regular cavalry, when the "arm" was raised to the highest pitch of excellence, the principal commanders unrivalled for quickness of eye, promptness of decision, the knowledge that to "charge home " is the essential action of cavalry, and the determination to do. it. The most remarkable exploits during the Revolutionary and Imperial wars, as well as our late campaigns in India, are then considered ; the author holding, that notwithstanding some dashing things, the large and decisive results produced by the Prussian cavalry during the Seven Years War are no longer at- tainable. During the Peninsular war and at Waterloo, the British, charging without proper reserves, effected the immediate object, lint, rushing recklessly on, were mostly beaten at last when the horses were blown and the.men exhausted. Even Murat himself is estimated rather cheaply by Captain Nolan. Speaking of Bona- parte, he says that "even allowing for all the brilliancy of Murat, it may be doubted whether he (Napoleon) had one cavalry leader whom Frederick the Great would have pronounced good." After the historical survey, the author considers the principles that should govern the formation, training, mounting, arming, and tactics of cavalry, in order to restore that branch of an army to the effective power which it has frequently possessed. These topics are discussed in detail, many of them being of a purely technical character. Beyond the obvious requirements of good, sharp, and appropriate weapons, which, strange to say, are gene- rally allowed to be wanting in the English cavalry, and the neglect of reserves in action, (which, however, we believe are always or- dered, and in fact placed,) the objections of Captain Nolan are greatly resolvable into weights. Everything is too heavy, both in our own and the Continental regular cavalry. In heavy ca- valry, the men and the accoutrements are so weighty as to render the horsemen useless except for a sort of slow charge in a great battle. The dragoons are too heavy both in men and equipments ; in fact, tbey are often heavy cavalry, except in the article of their horses. A similar remark, though not to the same extent, applies to the light cavalry. Men too tall are taken, and short men are rejected though well adapted for the service. This is Captain No- lan's picture of heavy cavalry in general.
" The power of heavy cavalry lies in the strength and breeding of the horse, and the courage and activity of the rider. The size of the rider, his cuirass, defensive armour, and heavy equipments, detract from the speed and lasting qualitics of the horse, and only render the man helpless; for they impede and unfit him for any exertion in which activity and endurance are necessary. " If a heavy-armed horseman gallops and exerts himself only for a few • Cavalry; its history and Tactics. By Captain L. E. Nolan, Fifteenth Hussars. "Published by Bosworth. minutes, the horse is beat by the weight, and the rider is exhausted in sup- porting himself and his armour in the saddle; his sword-arm hangs help- lessly by his aide, he can hardly raise his heavy broad-sword : such a man is at the mercy of any light horseman that may turn upon him.
" Speed is more than weight : in proportion as you increase weight you decrease speed, and take from your cavalry that impetus which ought to be its principal element. We are not the only military nation who have com- mitted this error. With horses far inferior to ours—inferior both in also and in breed—our neighbours have gone for weight. In the last war the French cuirassiers were reduced to charge at a trot, their horses being un- able to carry such weight at a quicker pace. In their attacks on an ene- my a position, the losses they sustained from the want of speed were fre- quently awful. Under the improved fire of the artillery and infantry of the
• present day, these slow attacks never could be carried out at all.
Heavy Russian cuirassiers, when opposed to the Turks, were obliged to form in close columns or in squares, requiring artillery and infantry to pro- tect them from the sharp scimitars of the Moslem. These Turks had no discipline, no lances—had nothing but their good swords and steeds to trust to.
" And what in battle is the real value of the cuirass or other ponderous defensive armour for the body ? So long as arms, legs, and heads arc un- protected, it signifies little that the cheat be covered with armour; for the moment either of the horseman's arms is wounded, (it signifies not which arm,) he is at the mercy of his adversary. • • •
" Heavy cavalry should have the largest and most powerful horses, but the men and their accoutrements should be light. If you weight the power- ful horses with heavy men and accoutrements, you bring them to a level with smaller and weaker horses. Thus a great heavy man in armour, on a fine strong horse, could not catch or ride down a Cossack on a good pony ; but the same horse, with a light active man on his back, would ride down a dozen of such Cossacks, one after the other."
As light a weight as the horse can carry consistently with the efficiency of the horseman—the rejection of all useless finery, such as the braiding and hanging jacket of the hussar, or of mis- chievous equipments, as the clattering, sword-blunting, metal scab- bard—the substitution of guards on really exposed parts, as gauntlets for the fore-arm, and of good weapons for indifferent ones, together with a less pedantic system of tactics—are the main propositions of Captain Nolan. Besides professional suggestions, the military reader or historical student will find in the volume a good deal of general information on the subject of cavalry as a military arm, as well as of military history applied. The 'fol- lowing depreciatory account of Turkish cavalry has an extrinsic interest at present from its connexion with the great Eastern ques- tion, though Captain Nolan does not seem to have written with any view to passing events.
"For ages the finest cavalry seen in Europe was indisputably that cif the Turks. In great part, both men and horses were brought over from the Asi- atic provinces of the empire, and the rest of the men and horses were prin- cipally of Asiatic descent. The horses, though not large, (seldom much ex- ceeding fourteen hands,) were nimble, spirited, and yet docile, and so trained and bitted as to be perfectly under control: the hollow saddle was rather heavy, but all the rest of the appointments were light : the soldier rode in the broad short stirrup to which he and his ancestors had always been ac- customed, and on which they had a firm and (to them) natural seat, out of which it was most difficult to throw him : his scimitar was light and sharp, and in addition to it he generally carried in his girdle that shorter slightly- curved weapon called the yataghan, with an edge like that of a razor. Some of the Spahis carried long lances or spears ; but these were always thrown aside, as useless, in the melee of battle. Their tactics were few and simple. If they could not get in the small end of one wedge, they tried another and another wedge; if they penetrated the hostile line, they dealt death around them, their sharp weapons usually inflicting mortal wounds or lopping off limbs. If the enemy gave way, they spread out like a fan, and while some pressed on the front others turned the flanks and got into the rear. Occa- sionally, to gain time, the Turks mounted some of their infantry en croupe behind their Spahis. Thus,• early in the battle of Ryminik, when they had to contend with Marshal Suwarow and some Austrians, a body of 6000 Janis- saries jumped up behind an equal number of Turkish horsemen, and were carried at full speed to occupy a commanding eminence, of which the Aus- trians were also desirous of taking possession. We have seen, quite in our own day, this effective and really brilliant cavalry reduced, by the spirit of imitation and ill-understood reform, to a condition beneath contempt. The late Sultan Mahmoud must needs have his cavalry disciplined all& Franca, or in Christian fashion ; and he imported a number of French, Italian, and German noncommissioned officers, to teach his men to ride with long stir- rups, and to form, dress, and look like Europeans. To the disgust and even dismay of his Moslems, he buttoned them up in close jackets and put them into tight pantaloons. With a most perverse determination the system has been continued and extended these last twelve years, under his son and suc- cessor, the present Sultan Abdul Medjid ; and it may now safely be said that the Turkish cavalry is the very worst in the world. The men, always ac- customed to sit cross-legged, and to keep their knees near the abdomen, cannot be taught to ride with the long stirrup a in Franeaise. They are always rolling off, and are frequently ruptured ; they are armed with the lance, and have seldom any other weapon except an ill-made, blunt, awk- ward sabre. Their horses are now wretched roues. The good breeds have died out ; and the imperial centralizing tyranny—masked under the names of reform and civilization—which has. been raging with more or less inten- sity these last fifty years, has not left on the surface of the em- pire a man of hereditary rank and wealth, or any private country gentleman, with the means of restoring the lost breeds, or of supplying such good light cavalry horses as existed in abundance at the com- mencement of the present century. The Karasman Oglus, the Paswan Ogles, and all those great Asiatic feudatories, together with the hereditary Spahi chiefs of Roumelia who kept up the principal studs, are all gone. Mounted as they are, armed as they are, and riding as they do, instead of dealing with European horsemen alter the summary fashion of the grhdaioflel English hussar ought to be a le to dispose in a minute o lizren1/2oafnibLl Medjid's troopers, trained ails Franca, though ho (the hussar) were armed only'witli a stout walking-stick. Add to these effects of ill-con- sidered European imitation, (which has scarcely been better as applied to the Turkish infantry,) the decline or rather utter extinction of religious fervour and all national feeling, and it will be understood how well prepared is the army of the Ottoman empire to resist an attack, let it come whence it may or when it may."
The question so often mooted, and generally decided according to the preconceptions of the writer, " Can infantry squares resist caval- ry ?" is not overlooked by Captain Nolan, who decides in favour of his own arm. Considered mechanically,. it is probable that the im- petus and weight of the horse ought to overpower the resistance of the arm and musket of the man; because even if the horse is wounded he will still struggle on unless he is shot through the brain. There. is however, a moral as well as a physical question to consider will the men, or even will the horses, go on P If in a charge of cavalry it very rarely comes to actual shock, one party or the other giving way, the same hesitation may reasonably be felt when ap- proaching a serried hedge of bayonets in the face of a severe fire. That squares can effectually resist the finest cavalry is known by Waterloo ; that cavalry have broken squares is said, and that they have caught infantry in the act of formation and cut them up is well known. But surprise, or some soldierly superiority, is per- haps at the bottom of these exploits. The evidence and the weight of opinion are in favour of the infantry.
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