The infantryman is always more tired than the cavalryman, Colonel Ardant Du Picq reminds us:
His morale is therefore harder to keep up.
The infantryman is always more tired than the cavalryman, Colonel Ardant Du Picq reminds us:
His morale is therefore harder to keep up.
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“They were officers of cavalry, and their connection with the high-spirited but fanciful animal which carries men into battle seems particularly appropriate. It would be difficult to imagine for heroes of this legend two officers of infantry of the line, for example, whose fantasy is tamed by much walking exercise, and whose valour necessarily must be of a more plodding kind. As to gunners or engineers, whose heads are kept cool on a diet of mathematics, it is simply unthinkable.”
— The Duel: A Military Tale, by Joseph Conrad
Introduction of field fortifications greatly changed the game in this aspect too.
The infantryman can compensate for troublesome march with tenacity in defense. That is, the soldiers could run in the open, but as long as cover is not obviously useless, they naturally don’t want to leave it when the situation is bad enough as it is. So it may take much more of motivation to attack, but retreat is also inhibited.
Of course, exhaustion on a march still matters. The first iteration of “Defence of Duffer’s Drift” probably was not a rare failure before infantry was trained to start digging the moment they stop walking.