The cavalry question.
In your issue of yesterday you have some very sensible remarks about our cavalry; and in your paper of to-day, "Broadsword" has given you his views as to the cause of the inefficiency of this arm of our service. New, without meaning to attempt even to controvert, or to discuss, the merits either of your remarks or of the views of "Broadsword," I would respectfully beg to be allowed to refer to one other cause of this inefficiency. As you may be aware, the horses are owned by the men; and when a man loses his horse, unless able to get another, he is placed in the infantry. Now, in these times, when "horse flesh" is so high and the pay and emoluments of the privates so low, it is almost impossible for a man to supply himself again, after having once perhaps spent his last cent in the purchase of his horse, It is true, the Confederate States will pay the mighty sum of two hundred dollars for a horse actually killed in battle; but that sum will barely pay for the "red tape" with which his papers must be enveloped before he can even hope to get the account through the various offices through which it must pass. Seeing that the capture or other loss of the horse must be a dead loss to him, of course the man is going to do all in his power to save his horse; and may this not account in some measure for the time which some of them make in trying to fice the presence of the enemy. The true method, it would seem to me, would be for the Government to own the horses, or at least pay the full value for one lost (by capture or otherwise), so that the men would know the loss would fall where perhaps it could be better borne than by themselves. All that you say, and all that is said by "Broadsword," is very good; but I would like to have either one or the other of you to take these views of mine, put them in shape, and get something done to give justice to the poor fellow who loses his horse. I know of men who lost their horses nearly three years ago who have never yet been paid one cent for them. Cavalry.
