Experience has taught me that there is nothing more valuable than the
opinions of intelligent foreigners on the military and naval
excellences, and the failures, of our united service. Marshal
Excelmann's opinion about the British cavalry struck me as remarkably
instructive: he used to say, "Your horses are the finest in the world,
and your men ride better than any Continental soldiers; with such
materials, the English cavalry ought to have done more than has ever
been accomplished by them on the field of battle. The great deficiency
is in your officers, who have nothing to recommend them but their dash
and sitting well in their saddles; indeed, as far as my experience
goes, your English generals have never understood the use of cavalry:
they have undoubtedly frequently misapplied that important arm of a
grand army, and have never, up to the battle of Waterloo, employed the
mounted soldier at the proper time and in the proper place. The
British cavalry officer seems to be impressed with the conviction that
he can dash and ride over everything; as if the art of war were
precisely the same as that of fox-hunting. I need not remind you of
the charge of your two heavy brigades at Waterloo: this charge was
utterly useless, and all the world knows they came upon a masked
battery, which obliged a retreat, and entirely disconcerted
Wellington's plans during the rest of the day."
"Permit me," he added, "to point out a gross error as regards the dress
of your cavalry. I have seen prisoners so tightly habited that it was
impossible for them to use their sabres with facility." The French
Marshal concluded by observing--"I should wish nothing better than such
material as your men and horses are made of; since with generals who
wield cavalry, and officers who are thoroughly acquainted with that
duty in the field, I do not hesitate to say I might gain a battle."
Such was the opinion of a man of cool judgment, and one of the most
experienced cavalry officers of the day.