ilization for a
further offensive or retreat.

Deployment for surprise fire action, in order to disappear again
immediately.

Combined action of dismounted men with a mounted reserve, to ward off
an attack or pursue a retreating enemy.

In all these cases we require not only fundamentally different
methods, but the methods themselves will be different according to
whether the led horses are mobile or immobile, because in each case
the strength of the tactical units is an entirely different one.

These more or less elementary exercises, after the squadron
inspections, both mounted and on foot, have been concluded, must be
principally carried out in the regiment, which also when dismounted
remains the true tactical unit of the Cavalry; but they must be
continued by the brigade, in which the employment of the regiments
formed side by side--_i.e._, by 'Wings'--must be represented under
most varying circumstances.

It appears to me that in the present state of our training it is
exactly these elementary exercises which are the most important,
because more than any others they are adapted to make clear and
comprehensible the general conditions of successful fire employment.
This comprehension, owing to the specifically Cavalry tendencies of
our training, is in general almost entirely lacking in our Cavalry
Commanders, so that in this direction the tactical education of our
officers requires to be built up almost from the ground.

For the rest, these exercises, like the corresponding ones when
mounted, form only the basis for the true practical training, which it
is not possible to impart on a drill ground, and requires, as a first
condition, natural country, with all its changing features. For this
reason it must be insisted on that a part of the regimental and
brigade drill season should be spent in the country and on wide open
spaces, with great variety of topographical expression. Where such are
not to be had, then we must go to the troop training grounds; and
hence the desire, above expressed, to extend as far as possible the
period spent by the troops in the district or on these training
grounds, and which I have based on the necessity for holding annual
exercises for the higher units, in which all regiments should take
part, finds additional support.

Of course, this does not preclude the necessity of utilizing the
surroundings of the garrisons to their utmost.

As regards the arrangement and nature of these