“Ride to the Sound of the Guns.” A directive that is attributed to Joachim Murat, Napoleon’s Cavalry Commander and Marshal who was nicknamed “the Lightning.” It is his explanation of how he was always where he needed to be, at the right moment, and at the right time, doing the right thing, acting with courage and daring. It has been repeated over and over again as the premier directive for soldiers and commanders over the years and was very popular with commanders on both sides during the American War Between the States. Any time coordination between units is difficult due to jamming or other issues it could still be a useful saying. I have read blogs of a former Master Sergeant, Colonel, and also a general who both mentioned that they heard it or used it with their units in Iraq and/or during training. So, like so many proverbs of Western Civilization it too, is not a dead phrase.
Welcome Freedom Troopers. If you have not been with us before let me take a minute to explain where we are coming from. A lot of the material, pictures, and phrases that I use come from the Cavalry. Case in point I call ya’ll Freedom Troopers. What’s all this about sabers, cav, and “Freedom Troopers.” Obviously, this site is about truth and freedom. SabersEdge “Cutting through the Lies to Get to the Truth.” The Saber is the traditional weapon of the cavalry and has been for hundreds of years. A Trooper is the proper name for a cavalryman; not a “soldier” but a “trooper.” The cavalry had troops instead of companies and squadrons instead of battalions, and they were formed into regiments instead of brigades, much like the old army. Thus, due to my association with the cav, here we have Freedom Troopers. People who with the undaunted and dynamic spirit of the cavalry work for freedom and speak truth to power.
I have had questions as to where the quote “Ride to the Sound of the Guns” comes from. It is a quote from Marshal Joachim Murat. He was Napoleon’s Cavalry General in Italy, and later a Marshal of France and King of Naples. Murat was nicknamed “the Lightning” and he was once asked how he always had his troopers in the right place just when they were needed on the battlefield. He said, “I don’t wait for orders or someone to tell me where I need to go. I ride to the sound of the guns.” Napoleon said that sometimes he didn’t listen to orders even when he was given them and complained that Murat waged war without maps. But at the same time, he found him very valuable and after Murat married Napoleon’s sister Caroline, they were family. In combat, he did not seem to make deep plans but relied on his eyes and ears to take him where he was needed. In peace and on long marches Murat was not the best as he was lacking in logistics and support operations, but in battle he outshone all others. His fearless action in combat and his effectiveness on the battlefield made up for all of his other shortcomings and Napoleon valued him as a cavalry commander.
When Napoleon invaded Russia, he called Murat from Naples to command four corps of cavalry to perform reconnaissance and to screen his forces as they were on the move. This was one of the largest armies the world had yet seen, Napoleon gathered an international force of 680,000 troops from several countries from Spain to Germany to support the invasion and he entered Russia with almost half a million men. Napoleon had 200,000 horses in the invasion (according to the World History Encyclopedia – Wikipedia says 150,000 horses and gives different numbers – needless to say I consider the Encyclopedia more reliable.) These including one of the largest cavalry forces yet gathered. (Four entire corps of cavalry, if that word doesn’t give you an idea of size you can refer to this Wikipedia article. I often complain about the inaccuracies and political bent of some posts on Wikipedia but this article is pretty reliable and will give you an idea of the units and sizes: French Imperial Army (1804–1815) – Wikipedia). Murat, turned the tide in Napoleon’s favor in several battles during the Napoleonic wars and during the invasion of Russia. Napoleon said there was no braver man in battle.
“Between the autumn of 1810 and the summer of 1812, Napoleon prepared the largest invasion force Europe had yet seen. By June 1812, twelve army corps had been assembled in northern Germany and Poland, amounting to a staggering force of 615,000 men. Slightly less than half (302,000) of these troops were Frenchmen, with the rest hailing from all corners of French-occupied Europe. These included 90,000 Poles and Lithuanians, 190,000 Germans (including troops from Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Hesse, Baden, and Westphalia), and 32,000 Dutch, Swiss, Italians, Spanish, and Portuguese. Apart from the French and Poles, however, few of Napoleon’s troops felt any affection for their emperor nor enthusiasm for his cause and were serving out of duress. This army also included approximately 200,000 horses and 1,372 guns.”
World History Encyclopedia
This article will give you the background history of the invasion of Russia Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia – World History Encyclopedia .
I have been asked for more anecdotes about myself, so the next few paragraphs are about my experience with the cavalry. My association and love of the cavalry stems from my service, my study of history, and learning to ride at an early age with my dad. We sat together on Sunday evenings in the winter months and watched Disney, Wild Kingdom, and old Westerns and Cavalry movies.
I was in 3/8 Cav which was the Third Squadron of the 8th Cavalry Regiment when I was stationed in Europe and our unit motto was “Honor and Courage” and our crest had a white mustang on it because mustangs were wild horses that were bold and quick (every symbol or phrase used in tradition has a meaning they are not random or meaningless as some in recent generations have been taught – they have been robbed of their education by public schools and government directives). In the 8th Cavalry you had to buy three sets of two unit crests to properly attire your dress uniform (even though the uniform only needed 3 crests total). That was because both of the horses on your shoulders and your cap, every one, all had to be facing forward. Many a trooper in his first formation was told, “Your horses are retreating” because if you only bought two packages of two (to get the three you needed for a uniform) then half of your horses would be facing the rear. Retreating is totally unacceptable.
If you are unfamiliar with cavalry on a modern battlefield watch “We Were Soldiers” with Mel Gibson. In Iraq the US 7th Cavaly did an end run around the Iraqi Army, travelling more miles (through a sand storm,) and fighting more battles than any other unit in history. Before that General Rommel’s Panzer Division had that distinction in the invasion of France in WWII.) The armored units of the 7th Cav were the first to arrive in Bagdad while the rest of the army was still fighting hundreds of miles to the south. Someday, I may talk about he missions of the Cavalry and why they still let us wear spurs and stetsons with our uniforms. The Cavalry rightfully considers itself an elite force while the rest of the army just thinks we are a bit crazy. My son called me when he was assigned to his first Cavalry unit (at Ft. Hood) as a tanker. “Dad, the cavalry is crazy. They never stop.”
But he also learned something I had tried to tell him his whole life. In High School he had “friends” who would start fights and expect him to get them out of it. I repeatedly told him “If there’s trouble and they don’t stand with you they are not really your friends.” When he was in Texas he got in a fight at a bar with a man and his buddies who was belligerant and tried to push him around. My son pushed back and as the fight started he suddenly realized that men from his unit were at his left and right. “I didn’t even know these guys and they were there for me.” I told him that was what I had been talking about. He finally realized how “disappointing” his friends had been on that score.
When I was stationed in Germany I was in the 3rd Squadron, 8th Cavalry. Our squadron did recon and screening for the 8th infantry Division and relieved the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment on the border along the Iron Curtain so they could go to their annual tank gunnery. As part of our Guard Mission – if World War III had started while we were there then we had the same job Buford’s Cavalry did at Gettysburg (See the movie Gettysburg where even many of the lines spoken by the actors are from quotes recorded from the time.) In case of war we deployed on the German Border (the 11th US Cavalry and 2nd US Cavalry were already on the border. Many of us believed we were there so that the politicians could point out that over 4000 men had died on the first day of the war in an unprovoked attack to ensure the US would be hot to respond and save Europe. If War in Europe had started with the Soviet Union our squadron of 1500 men were to deploy in a valley and slow the advance of a 22,000 man Soviet Tank Amy so that the German Bundeswehr and the US 8th Infantry Division had time to deploy in defensive positions. It is part of the cavalry’s mission that it almost always fights outnumbered and it is expected to win. It has more firepower to deliver down range than any other unit of the same size so, like the cavalry of old, it can move fast and hit hard.
Most people don’t know but a couple times a year (whenever tensions increased between the Soviets and the West,) we would be issued weapons and mobilized into our assembly area to await Deuce and a Halfs full of ammunition and our orders. Our tanks always had a full load of rounds and each track (M113 Armored Personnel Carrier) generally had some ammo in crates in the vehicle.
As JEB Stuart said to Stonewall Jackson when he took command of the Cavalry of the Shenandoah Valley at the start of the War Between the States “Know that I shall teach them to gallop toward the enemy, but we will walk away.” Meaning, he would teach the cavalry to be aggressive and never run from a fight. This is easier for cavalry as a horse can walk or canter faster than armed and equipped men can run. At the beginning of the war Stuart was known for taking his cavalry into a position where they were nearly surrounded and then walking them out of the trap they had ridden into as a way of teaching them they could always walk away from infantry and didn’t have to run. If you are not familiar with the Cavalry and its traditions you probably will be if you are here with us long enough.
The Movie Gods and Generals is criticized by some who have read a few books or gotten an undergraduate degree in history but not by any who have studied the letters and diaries of the soldiers. I recommend it because of the dialogue and presentation of both sides as human beings with legitimate motivations instead of the comfortable fiction of “good guys” and “bad guys.” There are good guys and bad guys in life but they are usually among the leaders.
In my research the dialogue and presentation of the officers in the movie is accurate and historical. Many feel it is not because they don’t understand the motivations of the Southern Soldiers. I have read widely on their motivations of soldiers in the Revolution, the War Between the States, and World War’s I and II. What soldiers of the losing side are fighting for is rarely what the history books accuse them of. In the War Between the States it was not for slavery that they were fighting, many specifically said they weren’t fighting for some rich man to keep his “n***ers” – their words, not mine. It was to preserve their homes from an invader and protect their way of life (now it may be that their way of life depended on slavery as much as ours do fossil fuels but they would no more fight for a rich man’s slaves than you could motivate American soldiers to fight for oil or trade deficits. To recognize this is not to embrace the “lost cause” mentality or to deny the holocaust. It is to recognize a fact of history. I daresay that you wouldn’t have been able to get more than 90% of the male population of Virginia to fight for slavery when even their top General Robert E. Lee considered it an evil that corrupted both the blacks and the whites involved in it. Stonewall Jackson taught a black Sunday School that he started because he was concerned for their spiritual welfare. Neither of these fit the stereotype modern propaganda would paint them with.
Unfortunately, history is written by the victors and in so doing the motivations of the losing side are obscured to make the winner look better. Soldiers rarely fight for the abstract ideas of history. They fight for their family and their way of life. If you don’t know why so many people would fight for slavery it is probably because that isn’t what they were fighting for. But even today the media tries to motivate us to do what the elite want. The only way we can defend against that is to use varying sources from media with different – even conflicting – motivations and then making up your own mind. It is hard to do when over 90% of our media is owned by four companies (or cut outs of those companies.)
I encourage you all to “Ride to the Sound of the Guns” in this culture war and speak truth to money and power without fear. There is an old saying where there is smoke there is fire. Look for the smoke and don’t take the simple explanations that it’s just someone “smoking” until you are sure it is. Remember, a good investigator doesn’t believe in coincidences until he has traced back and found the unique cause of each event that is “claimed” to be a coincidence.
We fight for life as we know it…no…we fight for a life better than the one we know today. A return to a government of, by, and for the people. A society that is one nation, under God (however you conceive that to be.) Wotan/Odin, Thor and Freya would be better than Scientism which denies the existence of anything that we cannot touch, see, or measure. A life and society without love, honor, truth, or fact – a life where there are no standards and no reality is nihilistic and doomed. The dead end ideas of both Modernism and Post-Modernism leave no room for the existential truth which exists in each of us and forms the Ground of All Being. This denial of truth manifests in the malaise and lack of ambition or hope in our younger generations. It cannot be replaced by consumerism and things. Such a life leaves a deep emptiness in all of us.
We will not retreat, and any strategic withdrawal will be so that we can wheel and counterattack from a new direction in the best tradition of the United States Cavalry. That is the way we do it. In this war, at this time, the pen is truly mightier than the sword. Yet it is a battle for our future none-the-less. Mount up Freedom Troopers and fight for your freedom – forth and fear no darkness!
This article demonstrates ways to affect the political system: https://sabersedge.online/make-your-voice-heard-by-government
If you are unfamiliar with Cavalry and its tactics this video will help you. The mechanics of the cavalry today are different today. However, the missions of cavalry – scouting or reconnaissance, screening the army, skirmishing or otherwise, harassing the enemy, locating the enemies positions, and seizing ground using fire and manuever, and routing an already defeated enemy, are standards of performance of the cavalry even today when we use tanks and helicopters. Cavalry is the first to join combat with the enemy and the last to break contact.
And a history of Murat:
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