Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

HIS USE OF CAVALRY. 661tion to-day than ever before. Even some of the plainest requirementsof strategy as taught by Bonaparte have beenqualified by modern conditions and by the size of modernarmies.Alexander's battles are tactically brilliant examples ofconception and execution. The wedge at Arbela was moresplendid than Macdonald's column at Wagram. It was ascintillation of genius. No parallel exists to the battle of theHydaspes.Wonderful as Alexander's intellect was, his powerof execution exceeded his power of conception. It was hisability to seize openings with a rapidity perhaps never equaledwhich won him his battles, rather than his mere battle plan.However excellent this, he bettered it in the execution. Hiswill sometimes overrode his sagacity, but always in such away as to breed success. His stubbornness bore down theopposition which his limited numbers could not overcome.In the use of cavalry Alexander stands without a peer.No one ever hurled his cavalry on the enemy with such precision,momentum or effect. Its charge was always welltimed; it always won. No one ever headed horse with suchgodlike boldness, or fought it to the bottom as he did. HadAlexander not been one of the world's great captains, hewould have been the typical heau sahreur of the world's history.Alexander always saw where his enemy's strength andweakness lay, and took prompt advantage of them. He utilizedhis victories to the full extent, and pursued with a vigorwhich no other has ever reached. He was equally great insieges as in battles. The only thing he was never called onto show was the capacity to face disaster. He possessedevery remarkable military attribute ; we can discover in himno military weakness. Napoleon once, in a fit of exaggeration,is said to have characterized Alexander, the inan^ as