Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/149

CAVALRY 141 cember, 1809. Tie was the son of a Neapolitan physician, completed his education in the uni- versity of his native city, and went at an early age to England with a view of becoming a merchant ; but he devoted himself to natural philosophy, and gained reputation as a writer and experimenter in electricity and the physi- cal sciences. He invented an instrument called a condenser, and another called a multiplier of electricity, and other instruments. His best work was his "Elements of Natural and Ex- perimental Philosophy" (4 vols. 8vo, London, 1803). CAVALRY (Fr. cavalerie, from cavalier, a horseman), a body of soldiers on horseback. The use of the horse for riding, and the intro- duction of bodies of mounted men into armies, naturally originated in those countries to which the horse is indigenous, and where the climate and gramineous productions of the soil favored the development of all its physical capabilities. While the horse in Europe and tropical Asia soon degenerated into a clumsy animal or an undersized pony, the breed of Arabia, Persia, Asia Minor, Egypt, and the north coast of Africa attained great beauty, speed, docility, and endurance. But it appears that at tirst it was used in harness only ; at least in military history the war chariot long precedes the armed horseman. The Egyptian monuments show plenty of war chariots, but with a single ex- ception no horsemen ; and that exception ap- pears to belong to the Roman period. Still it is certain that at least two centuries before the country was conquered by the Persians, the Egyptians had a numerous cavalry, and the commander of this arm is more than once named among the most important officials of the court. It is very likely that the Egyptians became acquainted with cavalry during their war with the Assyrians ; for on the Assyrian monuments horsemen are often delineated, and their use in war with Assyrian armies at a very early period is established beyond a doubt. With them, also, the saddle appears to have originated. In the older sculptures the soldier rides the bare back of the animal ; at a later epoch we find a kind of pad or cushion intro- duced, and finally a high saddle similar to that now used all over the East. The Persians and Medians, at the time they appear in history, were a nation of horsemen, though they re- tained the war chariot, and even left to it its ancient precedence over the newer cavalry. The cavalry of the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Persians consisted of that kind which still pre- vails in the East, and which up to very recent times was alone employed in northern Africa, Asia, and eastern Europe, irregular cavalry. But no sooner had the Greeks so far improved their breed of horses by crosses with the eastern horse as to fit them for cavalry purposes, than they began to organize the arm upon a new principle. They are the creators of both regu- lar infantry and regular cavalry. They formed the masses of fighting men into distinct bodies, armed and equipped them according to the pur- pose for which they were intended, and taught them to act in concert, to move in ranks and files, to keep together in a definite tactical formation, and thus to throw the weight of their concentrated and advancing mass upon a given point of the enemy's front. Thus or- ganized, they proved everywhere superior to the undrilled, unwieldy, and uncontrolled mobs brought against them by the Asiatics. We have no instance of a combat of Grecian cav- alry against Persian horsemen before the time the Persians themselves had formed bodies of a more regular kind of cavalry ; but there can be no doubt that the result would have been the same as when the infantry of both nations met in battle. Cavalry, at first, was organized only by the horse-breeding countries of Greece, such as Thessaly and Boeotia; but, very soon after, the Athenians formed a body of heavy cavalry, besides mounted archers for outpost and skirmishing duty. The Spartans, too, had the elite of their youth formed into a body of horse guards ; but they had no faith in cavalry, and made them dismount in battle and fight as infantry. This is the earliest mention made of mounted infantry, which forms so impor- tant an element in modern warfare. From the Greeks of Asia Minor, as well as from the Greek mercenaries serving in their arm,y, the Persians learned the formation of regular cav- alry, and there is no doubt that a considerable portion of the Persian horse that fought against Alexander the Great were more or less trained to act in compact bodies in a regular manner. The Macedonians, however, were more than a match for them. With that people horseman- ship was an accomplishment indispensable to the young nobility, and cavalry held a high rank in their army. The cavalry of Philip and Alexander consisted of the Macedonian and Thessalian nobility, with a few squadrons re- cruited in central Greece. It/ was composed of heavy horsemen (cataphracti), armed with helmet and breastplate, cuisses, and a long spear. It usually charged in a compact body, in an oblong or wedge-shaped column, some- times also in line. The light cavalry, composed of auxiliary troops, was of a more or less irreg- ular kind, and served like the modern Cossacks for outpost duty and skirmishing. The battle of the Granicus (334 B. C.) offers the first in- stance of an engagement in which cavalry played a decisive part. The Persian cavalry was placed at charging distance from the fords of the river. As soon as the heads of columns of the Macedonian infantry had passed the river, and before they could deploy, the Persian horse broke in upon them and drove them headlong down into the river. This manoeuvre, repeated several times with perfect success, shows at once that the Persians had regular cavalry to oppose to the Macedonians. To surprise infantry in the very moment of its greatest weakness, that is, when passing from one tactical formation into another, requires the