One often hears a party of cavalrymen employed on reconnoitring work blamed because they continue to observe or follow up the enemy, whom they have just discovered, without a thought of conveying the information to those who sent them out. But this forgetfulness is not to be wondered at when we call to mind that in the first few weeks of the 1870 war German officers were sent on long rides of 60 or 70 miles, whilst little or no arrangement was made for the purpose of transmitting the information, obtained at great risk and trouble. It leads one to think that the subject of despatch-riding is one of those points connected with war of which the knowledge lapses or rusts in peace-time, or, like the manufacture of Waterford glass, becomes a lost art.

To begin with, to train men in the duties of despatch-riding with anything like thoroughness entails a certain amount of prearrangement for food, forage, and shelter for men and horses; for it cannot be taught in the immediate vicinity of the town where the men are quartered. In war it may entail140 cross-country work, if capture is to be avoided; whilst the task on roads can often be carried out much better by cyclists. It is suggested that this little-practised art, despatch-riding, may be made to take a form which will serve an excellent purpose in the general instruction of the cavalryman. By it he will learn (1) to take notice of the country passed through; (2) to see a good reason for the trouble now taken to instruct him in map-reading; (3) to gain immensely in self-reliance; (4) to become an expert in campaigning horse-management; (5) to gain knowledge of pace.

In regard to the last point, pace, it may be interesting to give some particulars of a despatch-riding scheme. In this exercise a series of despatches were sent from the east to the west of Ireland, 120 miles as the crow flies and about 135 by road, under the following circumstances:—About eighty cavalrymen under two years’ service and two subalterns were billeted along a certain route. The base of this route was shifted north or south after a few days, causing the greater part of the line to be altered. Two messages per diem were sent off at uncertain hours of day or night, and were carried on from post to post without intermission. The men were provided with maps at 4 miles to the inch. Three regiments furnished the above detachment for this work in three successive fortnights. The first regiment brought or took the despatches through on the average in twenty-eight hours; the second regiment in twenty-four hours; the third regiment in twenty-two hours. The pace was141 not to exceed the walk and trot. The roads were in fair condition.

When instruction in despatch-riding takes place, it is of considerable importance to shift the line to one flank or another after a few days. This may have to be done at any time in an unfriendly country, and, though it makes the exercise much more difficult, is capital practice.

In several of Napoleon’s campaigns there are incidentally indications of the extensive use then made of despatch-riders. In the course of the Jena Campaign Murat is reproached by Napoleon, who writes to him as follows:—

    A despatch took six hours to come to hand from Kronach to Coburg—15 miles. This is not quick enough. You have not placed a service of despatch-riders as I told you to do.

In the Ulm campaign despatches were sent through at regular intervals from Murat’s column of cavalry in the Black Forest to Napoleon many miles away on his left, but this work was usually performed by officers riding despatch.
TRACKING, ETC.

Nearly all men brought up in the country have a certain instinct, and habitually read the story of tracks on the ground wherever they go, but the remainder require a considerable amount of training not to ride over the most obvious tracks without any observation and deduction. A few lessons of following142 tracks in the early morning after a wet night across country and along roads will tend to establish this very necessary habit in a cavalry soldier, and once acquired, it will last him a lifetime.

The institution of regimental scouts has gone far to train our troops in all these forms o............