Heavy Light
cavalry. cavalry.

The rider, . . . . 160 140 lbs. 
His arms and equipments, . . . 55 40
His horse equipments, . . . 60 45
Two days’ rations of provisions and grain, 25 25
-----------------
300 250

The horse moves per minute—­

At a walk,              from 110 yards to 120
At a trot,                   220          240
At a gallop,                 330          360

But on a march over the ordinary average of good and bad roads, cavalry will walk about one hundred yards per minute, and at an easy trot, two hundred.

An ordinary day’s march for cavalry is about thirty miles, but on a forced march this arm can march fifty miles within the twenty-four hours.  A single horseman, or a small detachment, can easily exceed this distance.

“Light cavalry,” says Napoleon, in his Memoirs, “ought to reconnoitre and watch the motions of the enemy, considerably in advance of the army; it is not an appendage to the infantry:  it should be sustained and protected especially by the cavalry of the line.  Rivalry and emulation have always existed between the infantry and cavalry:  light cavalry is indispensable to the vanguard, the rearguard, and the wings of the army; it, therefore, cannot properly be attached to, and forced to follow the movements of any particular corps of infantry.  It would be more natural to attach it to the cavalry of the line, than to leave it in dependence upon the infantry, with which it has no connection; but it should be independent of both.”

“If the light cavalry is to form vanguards, it must be organized into squadrons, brigades, and divisions, for the purpose of manoeuvring; for that is all vanguards and rearguards do:  they pursue or retreat by platoons, form themselves into several lines, or wheel into column, or change their position with rapidity for the purpose of outfronting a whole wing.  By a combination of such evolutions, a vanguard, of inferior numbers, avoids brisk actions and general engagements, and yet delays the enemy long enough to give time for the main army to come up, for the infantry to deploy, for the general-in-chief to make his dispositions, and for the baggage and parks to file into their stations.  The art of a general of the vanguard, or of the rear-guard, is, without hazarding a defeat, to hold the enemy in check, to impede him, to compel him to spend three or four hours in moving a single league:  tactics point out the methods of effecting these important objects, and are more necessary for cavalry than for infantry, and in the vanguard, or the rear-guard, than in any other position.  The Hungarian Insurgents, whom we saw in 1797, 1805, and 1809, were pitiful troops.  If the light troops of Maria Theresa’s times became formidable, it was by their excellent organization, and, above every thing, by their numbers.  To imagine