By Col. R. S. Liddell.

I feel that some apology is due from me for coming down to Aldershot and giving my opinions before so many officers whose daily experience renders them much more capable than I am of bringing this subject forward, and it was with some hesitation that I yielded to the flattering invitation of the Military Society of Aldershot to read a paper here to-day on cavalry. At the same time, if it is thought that anything I can say can increase the success that this society has already met with, I can only add that I render my services most willingly. It seems to me one of the many advantages that these meetings possess is the bringing together of the different branches of the service, and the mutual information they afford of each other's arm. When we look back only a few years, we have much to be thankful for in the disappearance of a vast amount of prejudice that used to exist between the different branches. Each arm thought that theirs, and theirs only, was worth studying. Infantry officers sometimes said, as long as their arm was sufficiently numerous and well equipped, that, with the exception of a few scouts and orderlies, cavalry might be dispensed with.

Artillery might think that unless guns were largely used, no infantry could ever make an attack at all; while cavalry officers, who were perhaps the most conservative of all, would point to the past, and show how every battle that had ever been fought was won by cavalry, and ever would be.

Confidence in one's own arm is most desirable, and should be fostered, if at the same time we can learn how to work with others, remembering that while cavalry gives the information to and hides the movements of the army, while artillery shakes and disperses the enemy's formation, and prepares the way for attack, it is the infantry alone who can assault and hold the position, and it is for their advance and to bring them up to the point that determines the battle in the condition most favorable to insure success that all the efforts of the other two arms must be devoted. I have made these preliminary remarks, as from my paper being entirely given to the actions of cavalry, it might appear that I am claiming more for that arm in the battle field than is reasonable; but I wish it clearly understood that whatever I may say is only in an auxiliary sense to the action of infantry, and I trust that I shall not be thought underestimating other arms, while showing unbounded confidence in my own.

The necessary rest required by Europe after the exhaustion of the wars of Napoleon resulted in the long peace which succeeded the campaign of 1815. This, and the improvement that took place in fire arms in the next forty years, gave room for speculation as to whether cavalry would play as important a part in the future as it had done in the past, under Marlborough, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, and Wellington. The Crimean war helped to confirm the opinion that the days of cavalry had gone by. No account was made of the enormous distance by sea that the cavalry had to be transported, the unfavorable nature of the seat of war for that arm, the little scope given in a campaign that resolved itself into a siege, the smallness of the cavalry force employed, and the difficulty in keeping up a fresh supply of horses. After this war came the introduction and improvement in the breech loader, and with it opinions were strengthened that cavalry duties would be still further limited, and its traditions for a time appear to have been lost.

The awakening from this transient period of theory came from a nation not trained to arms, and it is to the American civil war that we owe the revival that took place in the use of the cavalry arm. The raids made by the Confederates under Morgan, Stuart, Forrest, and by the Federals under Sheridan, drew attention to advanced cavalry work, such as scouting, reconnaissance, outpost and dismounted work. As particular examples we may select Morgan's boldest and greatest raid in 1862, when he passed through Kentucky and Indiana, capturing large stores from the enemy. By his rapid and skillful marches the Federal officers were completely bewildered. He was absent from his army 24 days, in which time he traveled 1,000 miles, capturing 17 towns and destroying all the government supplies and arms. In a second raid he forced the Federal army to fall back by taking possession of the railway in its rear which brought it supplies. In October, 1862, Stuart made his greatest raid through Pennsylvania, around the Northern army. He set out with 1,800 cavalry and four pieces of horse artillery, and crossed the Potomac. The telegraph wires were cut in all directions, railways obstructed, and a large number of horses captured, and all the public stores and buildings were destroyed.

His position at this time was very critical, 90 miles from his own army. He considered it less dangerous to return by the opposite way to which he came.

Forrest used his cavalry in every possible manner, dismounting in the battle field and employing it as infantry. In October, 1864, during a raid, he impeded the navigation of the Tennessee River, which was filled with Federal gunboats. Choosing a strong position on the bank, he masked his guns and awaited the approach of the enemy's vessels. He captured a gunboat and a transport, and manned them with his own men; but his naval expedition did not last long. Pursued by several gunboats, he had to run his ships on shore, when the troopers gladly mounted their horses again. His object was, however, gained - inspiring alarm throughout the country and occupying a considerable number of the enemy. Later on the Federals copied this system, when the raids of Sheridan, with his 10,000 horsemen, armed with the magazine rifle and revolver, with sword attached to the saddle, brought about the final overthrow of the Southern army.

The next campaign that took place was in 1866, known as the "Seven Weeks' War," when large bodies of cavalry were used by the Austrians and Prussians. This campaign was of such short duration that there was not sufficient time for the experience gained in the use of cavalry to be utilized while the war lasted; but when the war was over, both sides, having bought their experience, set out to reorganize their systems, and the course pursued by the Prussians after this campaign in largely increasing their cavalry was fully justified by the advantages reaped in the war in France in 1870. At the close of the Franco-German war the attention of the whole of Europe was called to the successful use of German cavalry during the campaign, more especially the advanced duties, when at times 60 miles in breadth and 50 in advance of the army was covered by the cavalry.