Cavalry

A military unit consisting of mounted soldiers is commonly known as cavalry. Cavalry fight from the backs of their mounts, which most often are horses (or in some cases camels). Infantry travelling by horse and fighting on foot are instead known as mounted infantry or dragoons. Historically cavalry improved mobility, an "instrument which multiplied the fighting value of even the smallest forces, allowing them to outflank and avoid, to surprise and overpower, to retreat and escape according to the requirements of the moment."

In some modern militaries (especially the United States Army), the term Cavalry is often used for units that fill the traditional horse-borne light cavalry roles of scouting, screening, skirmishing and raiding. The shock role, traditionally filled by heavy cavalry, is generally filled by units with the "Armoured" designation.

A military unit consisting of mounted soldiers is commonly known as cavalry. Cavalry fight from the backs of their mounts, which most often are horses (or in some cases camels). Infantry travelling by horse and fighting on foot are instead known as mounted infantry or dragoons. Historically cavalry improved mobility, an "instrument which multiplied the fighting value of even the smallest forces, allowing them to outflank and avoid, to surprise and overpower, to retreat and escape according to the requirements of the moment."

In some modern militaries (especially the United States Army), the term Cavalry is often used for units that fill the traditional horse-borne light cavalry roles of scouting, screening, skirmishing and raiding. The shock role, traditionally filled by heavy cavalry, is generally filled by units with the "Armoured" designation.

Origins

Before the Iron Age, the role of cavalry on the battlefield was largely performed by light chariots. The power of mobility given by mounted units was recognized early on, but was offset by the difficulty of raising large forces and by the inability of horses (then mostly small) to carry heavy armor.

The chariot originated with the Sintashta-Petrovka culture in Central Asia and spread by nomadic or semi-nomadic Indo-Iranians. The chariot was quickly adopted by settled peoples both as a military technology and an object of ceremonial status by the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom of Egypt as well as Assyrian and Babylonian royalty.

Cavalry techniques were, again, an innovation of equestrian nomads of the Eurasian steppe. Use of chariots in battle was obsolete by the Persian defeat at the hands of Alexander the Great, but chariots remained in use for ceremonial purposes, for instance carrying the victorious general in a Roman triumph. The first cavalry consisted of pairs of men, one using a bow while the other guided both of their horses.

In the armies of the Ancient Greeks and the Roman Republic, cavalry played a relatively minor role; in both civilizations, conflicts were decided by massed armored infantry. The cavalry in the Roman Republic remained the preserve of the wealthy landed class known as the Equites. Later on, as the class became more of a social elite instead of a functional property-based military grouping, the Romans turned to Gauls and Iberians to fill the ranks of their auxiliary cavalry. Numidians were also highly valued as mounted skirmishers and scouts. Julius Caesar himself was known for his escort of Germanic cavalry, and the early Emperors maintained an ala of Batavian cavalry as their bodyguards until the unit was dismissed by Galba. In the army of the late Roman Empire, cavalry played an increasingly important role. The Spatha, the classical sword throughout most of the 1st millennium, originated as a Roman cavalry sword. The Eastern Roman Empire itself came to rely increasingly on Visigothic and Sarmatian heavy cavalry as the primary shock force of their armies.

It is noteworthy to mention that the most widespread use of heavy cavalry in ancient armies occurred in the forces of the Iranian Parthians and their Sassanid successors. Both, but especially the latter, were famed for the cataphract (fully-armored cavalry armed with lances) even though the majority of their forces consisted of lighter horse archers. During the Roman-Persian wars, the Parthians' swift mounted counter-attacks proved too much for the Romans at first, who were the master of hand-to-hand combat. However, later the Romans would successfully adapt such heavy armor and tactics by creating units of cataphracts and clibanarii within their armies

Go to page 2/2 or Cavalry in European Military History