Talk:Cavalry
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This should be checked by someone who understands the composition of eastern armies (Persian, Indian, Chinese, etc) better than I do.
Explanation of change: Musketeers, pikeman etc were totally useless against properly leaded and trained cavalry, up to some 1620s, and cavalry in eastern style still was able to defeat infantry surely during napoleonic wars (i don't know any such accidents later).
Anyway, i feel that changes i did should be reworded, but i am a bit tired and i will work on it later, unless someone else will eb able to came with inflammatory sentence which would reflect difference between Western and Eastern cavalry szopen
My understanding was that dragoons were trained and equipped to fight as both cavalry and infantry. Mounted Infantry referred to infantry that travelled to the festivities on horseback. Edmilne 13:25, Dec 4, 2003 (UTC)
I think that there should be a comment explaining the importance of the stirrup (and saddle). It allowed the cavalry to apply the full weight of both rider and horse to the tip of his lance. Backback cavalry could only poke at the opposition for fear of unseating themselves. Edmilne 13:25, Dec 4, 2003 (UTC)
The reason that earlier cavalry could only attack in the flank or rear was because of the presence of disciplined, closed infantry formations like the Greek phalanx and Roman legion. No horse wil plunge itself on such a dense thicket of spears. When such formations disappeared in medieval times frontal cavalry assaults became possible.
Cavalry is not a specific mode of battlefield transport, or rather a specific technology of war. Calvalry is a theory of opearation. The key component of this theory being rapid mobility. Units of the USA are not known as "Cavalry" for historical reasons, they are known as "Cavalry" becasue that is what they are. That the mobility is provided by helicopters today (and possibly tilt rotar aircraft in the future) is a minor distinction
dragoons were originally mounted infantry but later on, became more of heavy cavalry. for example Napoleon's "Cuirassiers" at waterloo were dragoons.
- I disagree - the word is specifically from cavalier, French for horseman, derived from Old Italian cavaliere, from Late Latin caballrius, from Latin caballus, horse. Fawcett5 22:12, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Demise
Didn't the Cossacks do some important, victorious calvary operations for the Germans in WWII?-LtNOWIS 04:12, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)