Thus cavalry can defend itself against cavalry only by attacking; which it must do even when inferior to the enemy in number.
9. To attack artillery, cavalry should be in three detachments; one-fourth to seize the guns; one-half to charge the supports; and the other fourth as a reserve.
The first party attacks in dispersed order, as foragers, trying to gain the flanks of the battery. The second party should manœuvre to gain the flanks of the supports.
10. Where a cavalry attack can be masked, so as to operate as a surprise, a battery may be taken by charging it in front. The formidable Spanish battery in the Pass of Somosierra, was finally carried by a dash of Napoleon's Polish Lancers upon it, suddenly profiting of a temporary fog or mist. But, in ordinary cases, when cavalry has to charge a battery in front, its fire should be drawn by our own guns or infantry, immediately before the charge begins.
11. In an attack on an intrenchment, the office of cavalry can rarely be any thing else than to repulse sorties from the work, and to cut off the enemy's retreat from it.
VII.—Its Charge.
1. As cavalry acts effectively on the field of battle only by its charge, good cavalry of the line can be formed in no other way than by being exercised in this, its special and peculiar function.
On taking command of the Army of Italy in 1796, Bonaparte found the French cavalry to be entirely worthless. They had never been accustomed to charge, and he had the greatest difficulty in making them engage. Seeing the great importance of this arm, he determined to make good cavalry of them by compelling them to fight. So, in his attack on Borghetto, he sent his cavalry forward, with his grenadiers on their flanks, and his artillery close behind them. Thus enclosed, and led on by Murat to the charge, they attacked and routed that famous Austrian cavalry whose superiority they had so much dreaded. This was the first step in the formation of the splendid French cavalry to which Napoleon afterwards owed so many of his victories. And, at the battle of Hochstedt, on the Danube, in 1801, its superiority over the Austrian cavalry was, at last, completely established.
2. Cavalry charges—
(1.) In line; but this only on even ground, and at short distances;