Cavalry and Related Topics

Infantry

13 links

Military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot.

Various infantry of the 17th through 18th century (halberdier, arquebusier, pikeman, and mix of musketeers and grenadiers) of Duchy of Württemberg

Infantry of the US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment enter their M2 Bradley IFV during a combat patrol, Tall Afar, Iraq, 2006

Ancient Greek infantry of the Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BC): light infantry (left, slinger), and the heavy infantry (middle and right, hoplites)

Rocroi, el último tercio ("Roicroi, the last tercio") by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau, portraying infantry of a battered Spanish tercio at the 1643 Battle of Rocroi

French infantry line performing a bayonet charge in 1913

Swiss infantry kits arrayed in front of a field kitchen in Spitalacker, Bern during a workers' strike, c. 1918

Russian weapons from the 13th to 17th centuries

The Roman testudo performed during a siege, as shown on Trajan's Column.

Ancient depiction of infantry formations, from the Stele of the Vultures, Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia), c. 2500 BC

The charge of the French Cuirassiers at the Battle of Waterloo against a British infantry square

Canadian army reserve infantrymen train in urban operations

From the mid-18th century until 1881 the British Army named its infantry as numbered regiments "of Foot" to distinguish them from cavalry and dragoon regiments (see List of Regiments of Foot).

Heavy cavalry

10 links

Early 16th-century French gendarmes, with complete plate armour and heavy lances

Spanish Heavy Cavalry - Royal Armoury of Madrid, Spain

The oldest known relief of a heavily armoured cavalryman, from the Sasanian Empire, at Taq-i Bostan, near Kermanshah, Iran (4th century)

A recreation of a medieval joust between heavily armoured knights at a modern Renaissance fair

Contemporary depiction in the Liber ad honorem Augusti, of Dipold of Acerra, an early 13th-century knight, when the knight was undisputed master of the battlefield

Mongol heavy cavalry in battle (13th–14th century)

Christian the Younger of Brunswick in the armour of a cuirassier

A re-enactor dressed as a Winged Hussar, who served as the heavy cavalry of the Polish Commonwealth

Heavy cavalry was a class of cavalry intended to deliver a battlefield charge and also to act as a tactical reserve; they are also often termed shock cavalry.

Lance

10 links

A lance head from the reenactment of the Eglinton Tournament (1839)

Drawing from The War Illustrated representing a Russian Don Cossack lancing a German infantryman.

Russian lance "cavalry pike", type of 1910.

A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier (lancer).

Light cavalry

7 links

The famous Charge of the Light Brigade, in the Battle of Balaclava in 1854 (painted by William Simpson in 1855)

Mongol soldier on horseback, preparing a mounted archery shot

French 4th Hussar at the Battle of Friedland, 14 June 1807. "Vive l'Empereur!" by Édouard Detaille, 1891.

Polish cavalry at the Battle of Somosierra in Spain, 1808

Light cavalry comprised lightly armed and armored cavalry troops mounted on fast horses, as opposed to heavy cavalry, where the mounted riders (and sometimes the warhorses) were heavily armored.

Chariot

9 links

Type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power.

Approximate historical map of the spread of the spoke-wheeled chariot, 2000–500 BCE

Han dynasty bronze models of cavalry and chariots

The area of the spoke-wheeled chariot finds within the Sintashta-Petrovka Proto-Indo-Iranian culture is indicated in purple.

Hittite chariot (drawing of an Egyptian relief)

Krishna Arjun Rath Monument at Brahma Sarovar. Bronze statue, by Ram V. and Anal R. Sutar, 2008.

Chariot detail at Airavatesvara Temple built by Rajaraja Chola II of the Chola Empire in the 12th century CE.

Stone chariot at Hampi, built under the Vijayanagara Empire, early 16th century CE.

A golden chariot made during Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE).

Relief of early war wagons on the Standard of Ur, c. 2500 BCE

Ramses II fighting from a chariot at the Battle of Kadesh with two archers, one with the reins tied around the waist to free both hands (relief from Abu Simbel)

The Charioteer of Delphi was dedicated to the god Apollo in 474 BCE by the tyrant of Gela in commemoration of a Pythian racing victory at Delphi.

Chariot, armed warrior and his driver Greece 4th century BCE

Two female charioteers from Tiryns 1200 BCE

A petroglyph in a double burial, c. 1000 BCE (the Nordic Bronze Age)

Detail of the Monteleone Chariot at the Met (c. 530 BCE)

Fresco depicting an Italic chariot from the Lucanian tomb, 4th century BCE.

A mosaic of the Kasta Tomb in Amphipolis depicting the abduction of Persephone by Pluto, 4th century BCE.

The goddess Nike riding on a two-horse chariot, from an Apulian patera (tray), Magna Graecia, 4th century BCE.

Procession of chariots on a Late Geometric amphora from Athens (c. 720–700 BCE).

Sculpture by Thomas Thornycroft of Boudica and her daughters in her chariot, addressing her troops before the battle.

Procession of chariots and warriors on the Vix krater (c. 510), a vessel of Archaic Greek workmanship found in a Gallic burial.

Modern reconstruction of a Hussite war wagon.

Bronze Chinese charioteer from the Warring States period (403–221 BCE).

Powerful landlord in chariot (Eastern Han, 25–220 CE, Anping County, Hebei).

However, by this time, cavalry was far more effective and agile than the chariot, and the defeat of Darius III at the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BCE), where the army of Alexander simply opened their lines and let the chariots pass and attacked them from behind, marked the end of the era of chariot warfare (barring the Seleucid and Pontic powers, India, China, and the Celtic peoples).

Dragoon

10 links

Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot.

Cartoon of a French dragoon intimidating a Huguenot in the dragonnades

French dragoon of the Volontaires de Saxe regiment, mid-18th century

French Dragoons with captured Prussian flag at the Battle of Jena

Baden dragoon in a World War I monument at Karlsruhe.
While almost an anachronism after the early stages of that war, German dragoons did see continuing service on the Eastern Front until 1917. Note the functional Stahlhelm helmet.

Memorial stained glass window at Royal Military College of Canada of 2770 LCol KL Jefferson, a member of the 12th Manitoba Dragoons, an armoured regiment of the Canadian Army and Canadian Forces

United States dragoons charging Mexican infantry at the Battle of Resaca de la Palma in May 1846.

From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat with swords and firearms from horseback.

Scotland Forever! [crop] depicting the cavalry charge of the Royal Scots Greys at the Battle of Waterloo.

Horses in warfare

6 links

The first evidence of horses in warfare dates from Eurasia between 4000 and 3000 BC. A Sumerian illustration of warfare from 2500 BC depicts some type of equine pulling wagons.

Chariots and archers were weapons of war in Ancient Egypt.

Haniwa horse statuette, complete with saddle and stirrups, 6th century, Kofun period

A Qin dynasty sculpture of a chariot with horses and rider from the Terracotta Army unearthed near the tomb of China's first emperor Qin Shihuangdi, Xi'an, China, 3rd century BC

Depiction of a Sasanian Persian Cataphract from Taq-e Bostan

Life-size model depicting c. 1850 horse artillery team with a light artillery piece

A horserider of probable Xiongnu origin: the rider wears a hairbun characteristic of the oriental steppes, and his horse has characteristically Xiongnu horse trappings. 2nd–1st century BC. Excavated in Saksanokhur (near Farkhor), Tajikistan. National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan.

Manuscript illustration of the Mahabharata War, depicting warriors fighting on horse chariots

Spanish and Moorish light cavalry (jinetes) skirmish at the 1431 Battle of La Higueruela

A re-imagination of Louis III and Carloman's 879 victory over the Vikings; Jean Fouquet, Grandes Chroniques de France

Jousting is a sport that evolved out of heavy cavalry practice.

Chasseurs of the Guard (light cavalry) to the left and cuirassier (Heavy cavalry) to the right, at the battle of Friedland.

"Napoleon I with his Generals" by Ludwig Elsholtz. This painting shows light cavalry horses which come into use as officer's mounts in 18th- and 19th-century Europe.

Kanem-Bu warriors armed with spears. The Earth and Its Inhabitants, 1892.

Native Americans quickly adopted the horse and were highly effective light cavalry. Comanche-Osage fight. George Catlin, 1834

Confederate general Robert E. Lee and Traveller. Cavalry played a significant role in the American Civil War.

Australian Imperial Force light horsemen, 1914

Polish Cavalry during a Polish Army manoeuvre in late 1930s.

A memorial to the horses that served in the Second Boer War.

U.S. Special Operations Forces, members of Task Force Dagger, and Afghanistan Commander Abdul Rashid Dostum on horseback in the Dari-a-Souf Valley, Afghanistan, in October 2001.

US Air Force Special Operations Command Combat Controller Bart Decker rides a horse in Afghanistan in the early stages of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Horse Cavalry Detachment of the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division demonstrating a mock cavalry charge at Fort Bliss, Texas

This was the original horse used for early chariot warfare, raiding, and light cavalry.

Cuirassier

5 links

Cuirassiers giving fire with their pistols (cuirassiers of Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim)

A pair of long-barrelled wheel-lock pistols, the primary weapon of the early cuirassier

French cuirassiers in Paris, August 1914. These regiments wore cloth-covered cuirasses and helmets during the early months of World War I.

Captain of Her Majesty's Lifeguard Cuirassier Regiment in winter uniform. Krasnoe Selo, Russian Empire, 1892.

Italian corazzieri during a public event

Saxon heavy cavalry (wearing rolled greatcoats instead of breastplates) and Polish lancers clashing with Russian cuirassiers, during the Battle of Borodino.

Cuirassier of the army of Napoleon I (reenactment of the Battle of Waterloo June 2011, Waterloo, Belgium)

Prussian Garde du Corps cuirassier during the Franco-Prussian War.

Nicholas II of Russia in the uniform of His Majesty's Cuirassier Guards Regiment, 1896

Three-quarter armour (early 17th century)

French Cent-garde breastplate (19th century)

Ceremonial cuirass of the Spanish Escuadrón de Escolta Real (20th century)

Cuirassiers were cavalry equipped with a cuirass, sword, and pistols.

Mounted archery

5 links

Japanese mounted archers in the Gosannen War, 14th century painting by Hidanokami Korehisa

Young prince (later Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I) hunting for birds as a horsed archer. Woodcut by Albrecht Dürer.

A Timurid drawing of an Ilkhanid horse archer. Signed (lower right) Muhammad ibn Mahmudshah al-Khayyam Iran, early 15th century. Ink and gold on paper

Parthian horse archer shooting at full gallop, undated relief at the Palazzo Madama, Turin.

Qing Dynasty mounted archers face off against Dzungar mounted musketeers.

Bashkirs and Cossacks fighting French infantry with bows and lances at the Battle of Leipzig (1813).

Wall fragment from a Chinese tomb, with an incised relief decoration showing a hunting scene with mounted archery, Han dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) National Museum of Oriental Art, Rome

A horse archer is a cavalryman armed with a bow and able to shoot while riding from horseback.

A young rider at a horse show in Australia

Equestrianism

5 links

Equestrianism (from Latin equester, equestr-, equus, 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding (British English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting.