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French cavalry

Cavalry, along with Infantry and Artillery, was one of the three great classes of troops, and a formidable power in the hands of a leader who knows how to employ it with effect. This requires a bold and active spirit, able to avail itself, with quickness and decision, of every opportunity. The efficacy of cavalry arises particularly from the moral impression which it produces on the enemy. This is greater in proportion to the size of the mass and the rapidity of its motion. Its adaptation to speedy movements is another great advantage, which enables a commander to avail himself immediately of a decisive moment, when the enemy exposes a weak point, or when disorder appears in his ranks. It is a very important instrument in completing the defeat of an enemy, in disconcerting him by a sudden attack, or overthrowing him by a powerful shock.

The unequal size of the horse, the very great diversity in his strength and breed, have at all times rendered it necessary to divide the cavalry into light and heavy horse. There is sometimes, also, an intermediate class. These different sorts are employed for different purposes. The heavy cavalry, with defensive armor (cuirassiers), is more frequently employed in mass, where force is requisite ; the lighter troops are used singly, and in small detachments, where swiftness and continued effort are required.

The French cavalry had been for a long time divided into three classes:-

• Heavy or Reserve Cavalry-Cuirassiers and Carbineers ;
• Line or Medium Cavalry-Dragoons and Lancers ;
• Light Cavalry-Mounted Rifles, Hussars, Guides, and Spahis.

By the reductions of November 1865, which affected the cavalry very considerably, the cavalry of the Guard was placed on the following footing : -

• Heavy Cavalry - 1 regiment of Cuirassiers, 1 regiment of Carbineers;
• Line Cavalry - 1 regiment of Dragoons, 1 regiment of Lancers;
• Light Cavalry - 1 regiment of Mounted Rifles, 1 regiment of Guides.

In addition to these 6 regiments, there was also 1 squadron of Cent Gardes, which was a purely state troop; and 1 squadron of gendarmes of the Guard, who were also not intended to act as field troops. Each of the 6 above-mentioned regiments had 4 field squadrons, but only the 2 regiments of Light Cavalry retained their 2 depot squadrons, while the depots of the 4 regiments of Heavy and Line Cavalry were reduced to 1 squadron. But on the 6th of February 1867, these curtailed regiments also received back their second depot squadron.

The remaining cavalry was placed by the reduction of 1865 on this footing :-

• Heavy Cavalry - 10 regiments of Cuirassiers;
• Line Cavalry - 12 regiments of Dragoons, 8 regiments of Lancers;
• Light Cavalry - 12 regiments of Mounted Rifles, 8 regiments of Hussars, 3 regiments of African Rifles, 3 regiments of Spahis.

In addition to the 4 field squadrons, each regiment of light cavalry retained its 2 depot squadrons, while the depots of the heavy and line cavalry were reduced to 1 squadron. Up to 1870 no essential change was made in this footing, except that, by a decree of the 6th of February 1867, a fourth regiment of African Rifles was formed. Accordingly, France had, including the Guard, 63 regiments of cavalry. A field squadron consisted of (excepting in the case of the Guard, Spahis, and African Rifles) 7 officers, 164 men, and 150 horses. The whole cavalry, then- the Guards, Spahis, and African Rifles included-gave a total number of 38,675 horses and sabres in the field squadrons, and of 15,687 in the depot squadrons.

Such a strength on paper is by no means inconsiderable, but in case of war very important deductions must be made from it. Various circumstances had in bygone days greatly lowered the breed of horses in France, and the Empire was unable, in spite of many well - designed endeavours, to remedy the evil at once.

In the Crimea, and in Italy in 1859, the cavalry regiments rarely mustered more than 400 horses. The neglect which followed, and the Mexican expedition, made the gaps still larger. In the year 1866, the 4 field squadrons of a regiment could hardly parade with more than 350 horses. From the autumn of 1866 these gaps were to be filled up. In August large purchases of horses were ordered, but as these did not give the desired results, the bands of the mounted arms-cavalry and artillery-which until then had been extraordinarily strong, were, during the Luxemburg question, by a decree of the 4th of April 1867, reduced to the necessary number of trumpeters, so that their horses might be available to mount the real combatants. Moreover, both saddle and draught horses were bought up in England, in Ireland, in Holland, and in Germany.

Commissions were given to buy in Hungary. The horses purchased there passed through Austria and Northern Italy towards the end of June, and the transport lasted until far into December of 1867, spite of the serious breach which was said to exist at that time between Italy and France. The Hungarian horses, on the whole, did not please the officers of the French cavalry, and it was difficult to accustom them to French forage ; they proved troublesome to groom, and easily fell sick. In 1869 only one Hussar regiment was completely mounted with them.

Algeria also was brought in as a source for obtaining remounts. The Barbary horses for the service were all stallions. These were already employed in all mounted troops specially instituted for service in Algeria, in the Spahis, and African Mounted Rifles, and now they began to be used as remounts for other regiments of light cavalry, for Mounted Rifles and Hussars. The prevailing scarcity of fodder in Africa had lowered the market, so that they could be obtained at a very cheap rate. The Barbary horses had great endurance, were affected neither by heat nor cold, contented with any forage, and but little liable to sickness ; but they could only be employed for light cavalry, and as they were all stallions, could not be placed in one and the same regiment - scarcely in one and the same brigade - with European horses. Moreover, they necessarily made much noise; and this, though it may be unimportant in cavalry which had to work in the great deserts of Africa, would be very detrimental to the utility of light horsemen who were to operate in the cultivated ground of Europe - who have to observe the enemy in their immediate vicinity, and at times surprise them unawares.

In the greatest repute for the light cavalry were the horses of Tarbes (Pyrenees), of Arabic extraction, light, elegant, but spoilt by injudicious crossing with English blood in the reign of Louis Philippe - a deterioration which Napoleon III. strove to remedy. The horses of Brittany also, although less elegant and enduring than the Pyrenean, were also much valued for light cavalry and horse-artillery. The most mixed were the horses of the medium cavalry, drawn from the whole of France, and supplemented by remounts from Holland, England, and Germany. The heavy cavalry also were mounted to a great extent on horses from foreign countries, and from Normandy. As draught-animals for the artillery and trains, the horses of the Ardennes, of Normandy, of Brittany, and of Faverney, were in greatest request.

In the hasty purchases of 1866 and 1867 many very bad horses were bought, and in the calm which succeeded the peaceful settlement of the Luxemburg question, most of these were again got rid of; so that the increase of horses in the French cavalry was by 110 means so great as it was supposed to be abroad. The total number of horses added to the French army, draught included, between August 1866 and the end of the year 1867, cannot be computed at more than 36,000 ; and this, allowing for the waste caused by wear and tear, which had to be made good, only enabled a regiment to take the field with its four squadrons of 500 horses complete, while the number of serviceable horses at the depots remained far below the prescribed strength. The sixty-three regiments of cavalry which altogether enter into the calculation, could, in 1869 and 1870, place about 31,500 horses in the field, leaving 12,000 at the depots, of which, at the most, the half only were serviceable, while of the other half part would never be forthcoming, part only in the course of the following year.

In the year 1870 the regiments of the heavy and line cavalry, and of the African Rifles, were mobilised with four field squadrons ; the other light cavalry regiments with five field squadrons ; but each squadron had only 6 officers, 120 men, and 105 troop-horses. All horsemen carried as their weapon a sword. The Cuirassiers had, in addition, pistols; the Lancers, lances and pistols; the Dragoons, Mounted Rifles,and Hussars, carbines. The pistols carried formerly by the last three description of horsemen were abolished by a decree of the 14th of May 1867. The carbine introduced in 1870 was a rifle on the Chassepot system, shorter than that of the infantry, and with a lever bent down to the right with which to open and shut the chamber.