DIFFERENT KINDS OF MOUNTED SOLDIERS.

Evening Post, Volume LIX, Issue 112, 12 May 1900, Page 1 (Supplement)

DIFFERENT KINDS OF MOUNTED SOLDIERS.

The New Zealand Contingent are mounted "infantry, and Col. Morris, the military contributor to the Dunedin Star, has bden asked by some interested in its members to explain wherein the duties of mounted iniautry differ from those of cavalry. Although myself an old cavalry ollicsr (he says) 1 will try and give an unbiased statement. In the first place, cavalry have frequently been well named as the eyes and ears of an army. A general without cavalry is like a blind man groping in the dark. 'i'ho first duty of cavalry is scouting, riding wide ot the main body, scouring the country, and keeping touch with the enemy, watching their movements, and kieping the general informed of them. Th; officers must keep their eyes and cars open for news, and be able to make field sketches showing the roads, rivers, brdsjcj, eic \vii v the iorce is Raited the cavalry have to form outposts with ou'.lymg pickets still turiher removed, and videttes, or cavalry sentinels, so that the enemy cannot approach without d.tection. When the lorce is on the move cavalry form the van of the advance guard, and the rear of the rear guard, and ateo flankers on either side of the moving army, with' small parties searching the ground to prevent ambuscades. No one would now order cavalry to attack an enemy organised and unbroken — breach-loading rifles and machine guns would swe.p them awaj\ but', with the enemy disorganised and broken, cavalry can attack with advantage, and they can pursue and complete a defeat. Now, it is clear from all this that cavalry have to be smart and active, go over all sorts of rough and broken ground, cross rivers, and have frequently to ride for their lives. Consequently they must bo properly annul for this work with sword, short carbine, or lance. Mounted infantry, on the other hand, as the name implies, are infantry with horses to enable them to move with celeritj'. They are armed with the long rifle and •sword-bayonet, and when they fight, they fight on foot, their horses being s.mply used lo carry them quickly from one place to another. Armed as they are, they cannot properly perform the duties which I have shown cavalry have to do. They cannot gallop over rough ground hampered with long rifle and bayonet wjthoul risking their necks. If attacked, say, by cavalry they should receive the attack on foot, like infantry, with fixed foayonets. Cavalry, on the other hand, fight on horseback, and not on foot, except under exceptional circumstances. As to the advantages of mounted infantry there are different opinions. Continental nations have condemned their use. For my own part I think that they would be most u.seful in a country like New Zealand, where troops are few and far apart, and it is .necessary to move them rapidly to concentrate in any particular spot ; but I think they are of little use with large armies as in South Africa. For the work there cavalry is the arm wanted, and not mounted infantry ; and I think when news is received from our Contingent it will be found that the long rifle and bayonet have been returned into store, and our boys are armed with swords and carbines and turned into cavalry. T think it would be dangerous for them to be employed on all duties as cavalry if armed with the long rifle. This opinion I have given more than once before this.