All the pieces of the story are there, but no one has put it together
quite the way I heard it.
Yes, the original idea was to ride on the left because most people were
right handed, and thus the weapon hands were closest together. Either
to do battle, or inspect oncoming traffic, depending on the situation.
And Napoleon came up with the idea of travelling on the right. But
here's why: people doing reconnaisance could tell from quite far off
whether a troop column was coming or going, depending on which side of
the road was occupied by their travels. He decided to confuse the issue
by having his troops travel on the right instead of the left, and it
stuck. In some places, at least.
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