The Mounted Rifleman: A Method of Garrison Training and Field Instruction of Cavalry, Including Tests and Combat Exercises, As Used in the First Cavalry Brigade, U. S. Army (Classic Reprint)

The Power of Cavaley The decisive power of cavalry lies in its mobility and its rifle. The main value of cavalry now, as in the past, lies in opposing I nfantry. The term Mounted Infantry should be no longer one of reproach. On foot, the cavalry of today, man for man equal to infantry, can attack positions, with the same determination, the same resolution, as infantry. Cavalry that cannot fight on foot is worthless cavalry. But conversely, mounted infantry that cannot fight on horseback is worthless mounted infantry. Mounted infantrymen who are not horsemen and who cannot use the saber can be swept off the earth by good cavalry. They must be able to fight on horseback as well as cavalry. There is, then, no appreciable distinction between good mounted infantry and good cavalry. As a matter of fact, as regards their principal function, cavalry should be regarded as the mobile branch of the infantry. They use the same weapon, the rifle, which, often, their mobility enables them to use with great results. With this weapon in the American war of 1861- 65, they were constantly and consistently employed to carry positions by assault, to stop divisions and armies of infantry. The rifle is the principal weapon of the cavalryman of today. He is the rifleman on horseback, who in a few seconds can convert himself into a rifleman on foot, equal man for man to the best infantry, ready, like infantry, without quailing, to receive the mounted charge of cavalry and repel it. It is seldom possible now for horsemen to charge unshaken infantry.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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