Cavalry

Cavalry is the part of an army that traditionally fought on horseback. Its speed and mobility made it useful for reconnaissance, screening, raiding, pursuit and shock attacks. In modern usage, the name is also applied to highly mobile armoured or helicopter-borne units.

The word “cavalry” entered English in the 16th century through French cavalerie and Italian cavalleria, ultimately deriving from the Latin caballus, meaning “horse.”

Among the earliest recorded forms of polo was the Persian game chovgan, played from about the 6th century BC. It was used as a training exercise for cavalry units, particularly royal guards and other elite troops.

The historian Livy related that in 200 BC Philip V of Macedonia publicly honoured cavalrymen killed while fighting the Romans, hoping to make his troops more willing to risk their lives. The sight of the men’s terrible sword wounds had the opposite effect, filling the soldiers with fear.

Ancient heavy cavalrymen known as cataphracts wore armour and rode armoured horses. They were used in massed shock attacks against enemy cavalry and infantry.

Stories that Sweden created or tested a moose cavalry regiment are a myth: no contemporary evidence shows that such a unit existed. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences did, however, offer a prize in 1779 for the successful domestication of a moose.

At the Battle of Vienna on September 12, 1683, a huge allied cavalry attack led by King John III Sobieski of Poland and his winged hussars helped break the Ottoman siege. The charge involved thousands of Polish, Austrian and German horsemen and is often described as one of the largest cavalry charges in history.

On January 23, 1795, French hussars crossed the frozen Nieuwediep near Den Helder and approached a Dutch fleet trapped in the ice. The often-repeated story that cavalry stormed and captured 14 warships and 850 guns is exaggerated: Dutch officers had already been ordered not to resist, and the horsemen negotiated an agreement that the ships would remain at anchor.

The modern circus grew from the equestrian exhibitions of former cavalry sergeant-major Philip Astley. In 1768, Astley opened a riding school near Westminster Bridge in London, teaching riding in the morning and staging feats of horsemanship in the afternoon.

During the Crimean War, a misunderstood order sent the British Light Brigade charging directly at Russian guns at Balaklava on October 25, 1854. Of the 673 men who attacked, about 260 were killed or wounded, and 475 horses were lost.

The Battle of Brandy Station, fought in Virginia on June 9, 1863, was the largest cavalry battle ever fought in North America. Nearly 19,000 mounted troops took part in the day-long engagement, which opened Robert E. Lee’s Gettysburg Campaign and demonstrated that the Union cavalry had become a match for its Confederate counterpart.

“Cavalry Charge Near Brandy Station, Virginia,” a drawing by Edwin Forbes

At the Battle of Omdurman in Sudan on September 2, 1898, the 21st Lancers charged into a concealed force of about 2,000 Mahdist fighters. The regiment lost 21 men killed and 50 wounded; a young Winston Churchill, attached from the 4th Hussars, took part.

Before writing the Tarzan novels, Edgar Rice Burroughs attended the Michigan Military Academy and failed the entrance examination for West Point. He then served as a private with the 7th US Cavalry at Fort Grant, Arizona Territory, from 1896 to 1897.

Giovanni Agnelli trained as a cavalry officer before leaving the military and co-founding Fiat in 1899. His grandson, Gianni Agnelli (1921–2003), spent time at the Pinerolo cavalry academy, before joining a tank regiment in June 1940 when Italy entered World War II.

On August 22, 1914, Corporal Edward Thomas of the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards is traditionally credited with firing the first British Army shot of World War I in continental Europe, during a clash with German cavalry near Casteau in Belgium. It was reportedly the first shot fired in combat by a British soldier on mainland Europe since the Battle of Waterloo 99 years earlier.

At Beersheba in Palestine on October 31, 1917, the Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade’s 4th and 12th Regiments charged Ottoman positions with bayonets held like swords. The light horsemen were mounted infantry rather than conventional cavalry, and their successful attack was one of the last major mounted charges of World War I—not, as is often claimed, the last successful cavalry charge in history.

The charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba, painted by George Lambert

On January 16, 1942, Lieutenant Edwin Ramsey led 27 horsemen of the 26th Cavalry Regiment (Philippine Scouts) in a pistol-firing charge against Japanese troops at Morong on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. It is recognised as the last horse-mounted cavalry charge in United States military history.

On August 24, 1942, Italy’s Savoia Cavalleria Regiment attacked Soviet positions near Izbushensky on the River Don with sabres, pistols and hand grenades. The action, involving several hundred Italian cavalrymen against a much larger Soviet force, is remembered as one of the last major mounted charges by regular troops, rather than definitively the last cavalry charge in history.

Although the horse largely disappeared from front-line Western armies after World War II, the cavalry name survived. Modern cavalry units use armoured vehicles or helicopters to perform many of the traditional cavalry roles of speed, reconnaissance and rapid attack.