9. The order in echelons is as good in attack as in retreat; since the echelons mutually support each other.
10. Decidedly the most objectionable of all cavalry formations is that in deep columns:
(1.) From the almost entire loss which it involves of its sabres, which are cavalry's peculiar and most effective weapon.
(2.) From the long flanks which it exposes to attack.
11. The formation in one rank, instead of two, has been introduced by the new Cavalry Tactics, though it has been as yet but partially adopted in the field.
This innovation has two advantages. It doubles the number of sabres to be used against the enemy; and it enables the cavalry to cover double the ground; thus doubling, also, its power to outflank, which is a valuable advantage, especially when opposed to cavalry.
Its disadvantage is, that it must, more or less seriously, impair the solidity and vigor of the cavalry charge proper; in which a whole line, with "boot to boot" compactness, comes at once to the shock, like some terrific mechanical engine; and in which the riders in the front rank are compelled to dash on with full speed to the last; knowing that if they slacken rein, even for a moment, they would be ridden over by the rear-rank men one yard behind them. From there being no rear-rank to fill up the gaps caused, during the charge, by the enemy's missiles, or by casualties occasioned by obstacles of the ground, the charging line must generally arrive on the enemy broken and disunited, or as foragers. The moral effect of such a charge on our own men will be unfavorable, as they will not realize the certainty of mutual support at the critical moment; and its moral effect on the enemy must be decidedly inferior to that produced by a charge that is at once swift, solid, and compact.
But the force of this objection is somewhat weakened, by the consideration that the compact charge of "cavalry of the line" must hereafter be comparatively rare, in consequence of the introduction of rifled artillery and infantry weapons, with their greatly increased accuracy and range; which ought to cause such slaughter in a line or column of charging cavalry, that, if it arrive at all to the shock, it would generally be only in scattered groups.
12. In advancing over wooded, or other obstructed ground, it may be necessary to break the line into company columns of fours, as in the infantry manœuvre of advancing by the flanks of companies.
As the cavalry column of fours corresponds to the march of infantry by the flank, the use of this formation in action is open to the same objections that have been already pointed out as applying to flank marches by infantry.