Lancers

“ But lancers would be the best for this sort of work. There is no getting at these beggars on the ground with our swords, for the horses will always leap over a body, and so you cannot reach them with your swords; but a lance would do the business well. I don't care much for lances for regular work, but for this sort of fighting there is no doubt they are the real thing. ”

“ One moment there was a perfect whirlwind of scarlet pennons flapping around him, another and he was galloping alone across the grass, lance crossed from right to left, tugging at his bridle. Then he set the reeking ferrule in his stirrup boot, slung the shaft from the braided arm loop, and drew his revolver—the new weapon lately issued, with its curious fixed ammunition and its cap imbedded.
There were groups of gray infantry in the field, walking, running, or standing still and firing; groups of lancers and dragoons trotting here and there, wheeling, galloping furiously at the men on foot. ”

“ Powerful horses carry these powerful men, but we doubt whether the grey-clad riflemen could not bring them down, notwithstanding their iron breast-plates. Amid a cloud of dust the Cuirassiers and Dragoons ride on, and close in their rear come the Lancers with their short dark green tunics, with red collars and facings, richly decorated with yellow epaulettes, aiguillettes and cords, green trousers with red stripe, white cloaks and low-crowned chapkas of various colours with a tuft. Each man carries a long lance decorated with a black and yellow pennon. ”

“ The squadron of the 9th Lancers followed my example—a troop of horse artillery thundered up from the rear—more cavalry galloped out to the left of the guns—and, like magic, a line was formed to the front, the guns in the centre, with cavalry on both flanks. A trumpet sounded the "advance," and the "gallop," and away we swept over the plain, straight for the enemy's position, under a furious fire, too furious and rapid, fortunately, to do us much mischief. One round shot smote a man of the 9th Lancers full in the face. ”

“ In England, the lance not being indigenous and the conditions of foreign service making adherence to a logical system impossible, lancers are medium cavalry, but the difference of weights carried and type of horses is too small to render these distinctions of practical moment. ”

“ Occasionally 94 a carving or butcher knife lashed to the end of a fishing pole did good duty for lance,—not a whit more astounding in appearance and use than the concert of marrow-bones and cleavers which some years before had nearly frightened the Duchess of York to death on her arrival in England.
But the lancers were perfection compared with the infantry. Here there was no attempt at uniformity of dress, appearance or movement; a few had coats, others jackets ”

“ It was three o'clock when he clattered into the single street of Forbach amid the blowing of bugles from a cuirassier regiment that was just leaving at a trot. The streets were thronged with gendarmes and cavalry of all arms, lancers in baggy, scarlet trousers and clumsy schapskas weighted with gold cord, chasseurs à cheval in turquoise blue and silver, dragoons, Spahis, remount-troopers, and here and there a huge rider of the Hundred-Guards, glittering like a scaled dragon in his splendid armour. ”

“ As it is unlikely that the Seventeenth Lancers will ever again form part of a 5th Army Corps (for it is not often that England is so rich in army-corps) it seems well to record so unique an experience in a not uneventful career. ”

“ Of course they were French lancers, they could be nothing else, here in the rear of the army, but still they were rather odd-looking lancers, after all.
The eyes of a mariner and the eyes of a soldier, [Pg 105] or of a man who foregathers with soldiers, are quick to detect strange rigging. Therefore Jack unslung his glasses and levelled them on the group of mounted men, who were now moving towards him at an easy lope, their tall lances, butts in stirrups, swinging free from the arm-loops, their horses' manes tossing in the hill breeze. ”

“ I beg to address Colonel M’Dowall and the officers of the 16th Lancers: That you are gentlemen we all know, and none know it more than the privates of the regiment, and that they have a commander and officers who will ask nothing of them which they will not obey. I regard the 16th Lancers as the nucleus of another corps, which in future times will achieve another Aliwal. I tell you again, what I told you at Lahore, where Runjeet Singh asked if you were all gentlemen, and if her majesty had many such regiments of gentlemen ”

“ In this same year the Lancers’ tunic was embellished with a plastron of the colour of the regimental facings,—a change which made the dress of the Seventeenth, by general admission, the smartest in the Army. The plastron being an essential feature in the uniform of the German Uhlan, is presumably imitated from Napoleon’s Polish Lancers. No one will quarrel with so smart a dress; but it is nevertheless a little curious that the whole world should go to Poland for its Lancer fashions. ”

“ The usefulness and efficiency of the Seventeenth Regiment of Lancers;—the steadiness, good conduct, and attention to the rules of discipline, evinced by the soldiers;—and the admirable quality and training of the horses, afford abundant proof of the zealous and constant superintendence of the officers, and their regard to the credit and honour of the corps. ”

“ The regiment was raised in 1759. It served with distinction throughout the Peninsular War, from Talavera to Toulouse, during the greater part of which time it was attached to the Light Division. Subsequently, it fought at Quatre Bras and at Waterloo, where it lost heavily. It was the first Lancer regiment to serve in India, and the first British Lancers to use the lance in action. During a tour of service in India extending over a quarter of a century it won great fame on many fields. ”

“ Seeing that a second charge would be futile, Colonel Martin dismounted his men, and with magazine and carbine fire drove the enemy steadily back into the zone of the Anglo-Egyptian 450 infantry fire, the Lancers having accomplished their object by covering the enemy’s line of retirement, though at the cost of heavy casualties.
“This maiden charge of the 21st Lancers,” says an eye-witness, “is regarded as an extremely brilliant affair.” ”

“ To the French the exploit of the 9th Lancers, already described in this volume, is the greatest thing in the war. They would have died to have accomplished it themselves. The fine heroics of such an exploit gives them a crazy delight. Then there are the forlorn hopes, the bearing of messages across a zone of withering fire, the fights for the colors. One incident which closely resembles the exploit of the Royal Irish Fusiliers is recorded. A message had to be borne to another regiment and volunteers sprang forward eagerly to the call. ”

“ The question of sword or lance as the cavalryman's weapon has long been argued, and it may be of interest to consider what are the views of those whose experience is the most recent. Though I have had no opportunity of witnessing the use of the lance, I have heard the opinions of many officers both of the Guides and the 11th Bengal Lancers. All admit or assert that the lance is in this warfare the better weapon. It kills with more certainty and convenience, and there is less danger of the horseman being cut down. As to length, the general opinion seems to be in favour of a shorter spear. ”

“ They were Lancers, on bright bay horses, and very smart they looked with the little flags fluttering at the tops of their lances.
The Colonel of the regiment rode at the head of them. He came up to Colonel Jim, and saluted. “Just in time, eh, sir?” he said. Colonel Jim saluted, [Pg 228] too, and said, “Are your men ready for a charge, sir? If so, we can keep them off till the guns come up.”
The Colonel of the Lancer regiment threw one glance [Pg 229] at the approaching wooden soldiers. ”

“ The cloth is crimson. Of the same colour is the drum banner of the 15th Hussars. This regiment displays the royal crest, the King’s cypher, the figures XV., the battle honours, and a golden wreath of laurel and oak. A royal blue cloth is carried by the 16th Lancers; it bears the crossed lances, which figure on all Lancer drum cloths, except those of the 17th Lancers. In this case, the well-known device of a skull and crossbones is placed within a garter, surmounted by a crown and enwreathed with a band of oak and laurel leaves. ”

“ Kearney looked, to see a stream pouring out from the castle gates and running down the steep causeway which zig-zags to the bottom of the hill. A stream of men in uniform, by their square crowned shakos and other insignia, recognisable as Lancers. They had neither weapons nor horses with them; but both, as Rivas knew, would be at the Cuartel and stables below. ”

“ Since the thirteenth century the armies of England maintained large numbers of mounted archers in their ranks, the complement of bowmen to a corps of fifteen hundred fully equipped lancers being from three to five thousand, while each lancer’s equipment was five or six mounted soldiers, at least two of whom were archers. ”

“ The best place they could find was selected. The European square formed a guard, while the rest threw off jackets, and, with axes and choppers, went to work with a will. Some cut down bushes, some filled sandbags to form a breastwork for guns and ammunition, and others erected the bushy walls of their woodland fortification. The Lancers covered about three miles of country as scouts. ”

“ The ground on which the Square stood was such that the surrounding remarkably tall rye concealed it in a great measure, in the first attacks, from the view of the French Cavalry until the latter came quite close upon it; but to remedy this inconvenience, and to preserve the impetus of their charge, the Lancers had frequently recourse to sending forward a daring individual to plant a lance in the earth at a very short distance from the bayonets, and they then charged upon the lance flag as a mark of direction. ”

“ Court was killed in those very trenches to the south of the Menin Road at Hooge, when the 9th Lancers, badly gassed and heavily attacked on front and left flank—all but outflanked, in fact—held on gallantly during a day of the fiercest of fighting, and saved the line. ”

“ Whilst the greater part of the men with our arm expected to keep their spurs, which are worn very high, and were preparing their flourish of trumpets, the 1st Lancers, that is the mounted ones, could not have the same pretensions, as they were destined to share the fate of the 4th Army Division during nearly all the operations. ”

“ On the 18th the Lancers again held themselves in readiness to turn out at a moment's notice, owing to the enemy's crossing the river in large numbers. On the 19th we changed our ground, five miles to the right, and on our arrival the troop of the 9th, to which I belonged, was sent on picquet to a distance of nearly two miles to our right front, and pretty close to the Sutlej; indeed a picquet of the enemy was clearly seen on the other side. ”

“ Attack them from each side.’
Cornet Leland turned to his troop, his face beaming with pleasure.
‘Form ranks from the right!’ he cried. ‘Sergeant Barrymore, take the right column; the left follow me! Trot march!{124}’
In a very few seconds the two lines of Lancers were bearing down on the astonished Russians, who never dreamed that such a handful of men would have the impudence to attack them. Before they had recovered from their surprise the Lancers were close to them. ”

“ Their attack made some progress, and the 12th Lancers who advanced with them shared something of the glory. Although the final objectives were not attained, the line north of the Luce was stayed by their presence and made firm for the morrow. On this evening several of those heroic units which had fought themselves to the last point of human endurance from the beginning of the battle were taken from that stage where they had played so glorious and tragic a part. The remains of the Thirty-ninth, the Fiftieth, the Sixteenth, and the Sixty-sixth were all drawn back for re-organisation. ”

“ This was the first time on which the British cavalry fought lancers (at Albuera it was only infantry which were charged by the Poles) . Tomkinson of the 14th reports (Diary, p. 115) : ‘They looked well and formidable till they were broken and closed with by our men, and then their lances were an encumbrance.... Many caught in the appointments of other men, and pulled them to the ground.’
[721] That of Lamotte (1st and 3rd Hussars, 15th and 22nd Chasseurs) and that of Fournier (7th, 13th, 20th Chasseurs) . ”

“ British Government to manage a campaign at from three to six months’ distance from England, can be appreciated only by those who have read the original despatches.
In February there arrived in the Plata a reinforcement consisting of the 9th Light Dragoons, a fact worth noting, inasmuch as this is the only occasion on which this great regiment, the first of the Lancer regiments, has fought side by side with the Seventeenth. The 16th and Seventeenth fought together in their youth in America. ”

“ Heavier men and better mounted, the immense superiority of the lance over the sword in shock-tactics showed itself, and the{161} Russians were hurled back. The Lancers would have pursued; but at that instant Captain Norreys saw a battalion of infantry marching down upon his flank. At the same time the recall was being constantly sounded, so Captain Norreys gave the word to his squadron.
No sooner had they turned their backs to the enemy than the guns on the ridge opened on them, and shells began to plump amongst them; several casualties occurred, and Captain Norreys ground his teeth. ”