LAST MONTH's PROGRAM:
THE JANUARY 19 PRESENTATION:
"Cavalry: From its origins to the Civil War and Beyond"
by Tom Cundill CWRT/GK
Having been cheated by inclement weather from presenting on Jan. 12, Tom Cundill braved the snowstorm of Jan. 19 to give the 10 more stalwart members an interesting presentation on cavalry, before and indeed after the Civil War, our main focus.
After confessing that he had never been on a horse, Tom was challenged - or challenged himself - to immerse himself in the art and science of cavalry throughout the ages, complete with a massive array of data-projected images of cavalry from ancient world to the brave but disastrous charge of Polish cavalry against the German armour in 1939.
In the absence of our Official Scribe, Tom Brzezicki, Tom kindly sent along a much more compressed version of his much more detailed and lengthy account.
He began by stating that a successful commander on the field wants to choose when, where and how to engage his enemy and that from 1800 BC to 1914 AD the horse, with or without a chariot provided the needed mobility. The Bronze Age brought the horse-drawn chariot to the fore and upset if not destroyed the civilizations of the Nile, Euphrates, Indus, Ganges and Hwang Ho river basins. From 1000 BC the addition of iron weapons brought an age of combined forces, a core infantry with cavalry on the flanks.
Tom said that from 400 AD to 1400 cavalry -using bigger horses bred for strength and the additions of saddles and stirrups - brought an age of migration and sudden conquest by Huns, Mongols and others of that ilk, to the general disadvantage of civilization. There was also a lot about the Avars and other nasties as well as some detailing of composite bows etc, which did not survive Tom's cutting-room floor despite their many appearances in his script.
From 1400 to 1848, Tom said, the age of smoothbore gunfire added artillery and firearms to the deadly duo of a core of infantry and cavalry on the flanks. However he failed to mention that cavalry added a little tone to the otherwise sordid brawl of battle. He then summed up the historical background by noting that from 1848 to 1914 the Industrial Revolution brought so much new technology that dashing - if sometimes ill-advised - cavalry charges became very inadvisable, as he pointed out as demonstrated in the current firm, War Horse, where machine guns and artillery proved too deadly for good horseflesh.
Tom then dragged the storm-bound stalwarts of the CWRT out of sometimes less familiar ground and onto the better-known fields of battle of the American Civil War. West Point lectures before the Civil War, Tom said, stressed the tactics that worked best for Napoleon Bonaparte, including the development of light or horse artilleryy, as discussed in a recent presentation on Civil War field artillery, part 1, and had been used with great success in the American war on Mexico. But even this innovation had its antidote in the form of rifled small arms fire which cut down gunners and horses from a distance.
During the Civil War, Tom said, cavalry was used for scouting, foraging, protecting one's own flanks and threatening the other's flanks, pursuing defeated enemies and in rear guard actions during retreats.
Because of the growing risk to horse and rider from more accurate rifle fire the better commanders developed an affinity for mounted infantry tactics, dismounting their men once they had arrived an at advantageous position so they could fire like infantry. The opening of Gettysburg by Union cavalry under Buford demonstrated its effectiveness against Confederate infantry. Using mounted infantry saved the two-year training of horses for battle. Union Gen. James Harrison Wilson is purported to have said: "The best cavalry is infantry mounted."
Repeating rifles, such Spencers or Henrys, a Union advantage, also changed the balance and helped the Northern cavalry especially from 1864 on.
Tom then discussed the holding attack, taught by the Chinese Sun Tsu in 500 BC and used up until today, using a divided army into a holding force, a flank force to add to an enemy's imbalance and a reserve to take advantage of any opportunity. Cavalry was critical in the flank operations of the doctrine during the Civil War.
Because communications were less easy then than now it helped Civil War generals if they had an aggressive and competent assistant - with or without cavalry - who could successfully strike an enemy's flank. He suggested the se "executive duets" included at the battle of Stones River where Bragg and Hardee cooperated successfully, as did Hardee and Cleburne when the Union changed front. Then at Chancellorsville, Lee and Jackson defeated Hooker, Sheridan and Crook worked well at Qpequan, Fisher's Hill, Sayler's Creek and I should add at Cedar Creek. At Nashville. Thomas and Wilson defeated Hood and Wilson and Upton worked well for the Union at Selma.
In his conclusion, Tom said that in the Civil War cavalry could no longer confront infantry by direct force but became decisive in moving men to the right spot. Many early Confederate successes were made possible by superior scouting and virtually all final Union victories were won using mounted infantry. He was thanked by V-P Dick Lee in the absence of Pres. John Fox.
By Murray Hogben
