Post by markland on Apr 5, 2006 9:59:58 GMT -6
Found this in the Army & Navy Journal dated June 25, 1881.
"CAVALRY CARBINE PRACTICE
Under the head of "1st Cavalry," on another page of the JOURNAL, we present an interesting report of carbine and pistol target shooting by eight selected men of Bvt. Lieut.-Col. Parnell's company, under instructions from Headquarters Military Division of the Pacific. The interest taken by Generals McDowell and Kelton in the matter of cavalry skirmish drill with ball cartridges is a movement to the right direction. If every post commander and company officers [sic] if cavalry would pay like attention to this important duty, such disasters as that of White Bird Canyon, in June 1877, would rarely if ever occur again. Some officers are too prone to think such drill a nuisance, and unnecessary; they go at it by fits and starts, carrying it to extremes for a week or two, and then dropping it entirely for as many months, or until a Department order again sets them in motion.
We all know that it takes from six to nine months' careful and intelligent drilling to turn out out a good cavalry man; we know that horses must hear the discharge of firearms every day in order to make them perfectly quiet and controllable under fire, and that the aim mounted must be quick and sure to be effective. It will not do to wait until the horse cease champing the bit, and becomes like a wooden horse, before the fire is delivered, but, like the shot of an expert at a bird on the wing, it must be prompt and deadly. The position of a cavalry man in the saddle is too conspicuous a target to admit of the slow method of prolonged aiming, such as can be allowed dismounted; he must keep moving, and halt and fire immediately, otherwise either himself or his horse goes under.
Officers should remember that the lives of the men are in their hands; that their own lives are dependent on the skill and discipline of their men; and their time and energy cannot better be employed than in having their command as perfect as care, study, and constant drill can make it. Let a horse be as quiet as he may, if three or four weeks are allowed to pass doing nothing, at the first shot of a gun in resuming drill he may be as bad as ever, jumping about, flighty, restless, and uncontrollable. We hope cavalry officers generally will take this matter up and keep it going, until the everlasting annoyances are discontinued of taking cavarlymen away from their horses and their drill to police, dig, build, and a dozen other kinds of laborers' work, that unfit them for the more serous and life-and-death business of an active campaign."
"CAVALRY CARBINE PRACTICE
Under the head of "1st Cavalry," on another page of the JOURNAL, we present an interesting report of carbine and pistol target shooting by eight selected men of Bvt. Lieut.-Col. Parnell's company, under instructions from Headquarters Military Division of the Pacific. The interest taken by Generals McDowell and Kelton in the matter of cavalry skirmish drill with ball cartridges is a movement to the right direction. If every post commander and company officers [sic] if cavalry would pay like attention to this important duty, such disasters as that of White Bird Canyon, in June 1877, would rarely if ever occur again. Some officers are too prone to think such drill a nuisance, and unnecessary; they go at it by fits and starts, carrying it to extremes for a week or two, and then dropping it entirely for as many months, or until a Department order again sets them in motion.
We all know that it takes from six to nine months' careful and intelligent drilling to turn out out a good cavalry man; we know that horses must hear the discharge of firearms every day in order to make them perfectly quiet and controllable under fire, and that the aim mounted must be quick and sure to be effective. It will not do to wait until the horse cease champing the bit, and becomes like a wooden horse, before the fire is delivered, but, like the shot of an expert at a bird on the wing, it must be prompt and deadly. The position of a cavalry man in the saddle is too conspicuous a target to admit of the slow method of prolonged aiming, such as can be allowed dismounted; he must keep moving, and halt and fire immediately, otherwise either himself or his horse goes under.
Officers should remember that the lives of the men are in their hands; that their own lives are dependent on the skill and discipline of their men; and their time and energy cannot better be employed than in having their command as perfect as care, study, and constant drill can make it. Let a horse be as quiet as he may, if three or four weeks are allowed to pass doing nothing, at the first shot of a gun in resuming drill he may be as bad as ever, jumping about, flighty, restless, and uncontrollable. We hope cavalry officers generally will take this matter up and keep it going, until the everlasting annoyances are discontinued of taking cavarlymen away from their horses and their drill to police, dig, build, and a dozen other kinds of laborers' work, that unfit them for the more serous and life-and-death business of an active campaign."
