Cavalry
Cavalry is a word which came into use in military literature about the middle of the i6th century as applied to mounted men of all kinds employed for combatant purposes, whether intended primarily for charging in masses, in small bodies, or for dismounted fighting. Cavalry was subdivided into heavy, medium and dragoons. These followed the universal law that the best big horses went to the heavy charging cavalry, viz. the cuirassiers, the best light horses to the hussars, and the dragoons received the remainder, for in principle they were only infantry placed on horseback for convenience of locomotion, and were not primarily intended for combined mounted action. The hussars belong to the light, the lancers and cuirassiers to the heavy cavalry, while the uhlans and dragoons are intermediate arms.
Cuirassiers were a kind of heavy cavalry, originally out of the men-at-arms or gendarmerie forming the cavalry of feudal armies. Their special characteristic was the wearing of full armor, which they retained long after other troops had abandoned it. Hence they became known as cuirassiers. The Cuirass is the plate armor, whether formed of a single piece of metal or other rigid material or composed of two or more pieces, which covers the front of the wearer's person. A comparatively light cuirass is more strictly a breast-plate only. These defences continued in use after the other pieces of armour, one by one, had gradually been laid aside. Their use, however, never altogether ceased, and in 19th Century armies mounted cuirassiers, armed as in earlier days with breast and back plates, have in some degree emulated the martial splendor of the earlier time.
The hybrid arm of dragoons was introduced at the end of the 16th century, first in France, then in the other countries of Europe. Armed with muskets, they were intended to fight, according to circumstances, either as infantry or as cavalry. The most important feature in their formation was that they were the first body of regular cavalry which was completely deprived of defensive armor. But once these bodies have been formed, and they have come into collision with trained cavalry, the advantages of mobility, combined with the power of shock, have become so apparent to all, that insensibly the "dragoon" developed into the cavalry soldier.
Uniformity of speed is the essential condition for the execution of closed charges, and this obviously cannot be assured if big men on little horses and small men on big horses are indiscriminately mixed up in the same units. Horses and men have therefore been sorted out everywhere into three categories, light, medium and heavy, and in periods when war was practically chronic, suitable duties were allotted to each. It is clear, on purely mechanical grounds, that the greater the velocity of motion at the moment of collision the greater will be the chances of success, and this greater speed will be on the side of the bigger horses as a consequence of their longer stride. On the other hand, these horses, by reason of their greater weight, are used up much more rapidly than small ones. Hence, to ensure the greater speed at the moment of contact, it is necessary to save them as much as possible to keep them fresh for the shock only.
These are the general causes which have led to the differentiation of cavalry into the three types - hussars, dragoons and heavy. Obviously big men on little horses cannot maneuver side by side with light men on big horses. Also, since uniformity of excellence within the unit is the prime condition of efficiency, and the greatest personal dexterity is required for the management of sword or lance on horseback, a further sorting out became necessary, and the best light weights were put on the best light horses and called hussars, the best heavy weights on the best heavy horses and called lancers, the average of either type becoming dragoons and cuirassiers.
In 19th Century England, the lance not being indigenous and the conditions of foreign service making adherence to a logical system impossible, lancers were medium cavalry, but the difference of weights carried and type of horses was too small to render these distinctions of practical moment. In Germany, where every suitable horse founds its place in the ranks and men had no right of individual selection, the distinctions were maintained, and there was a very marked difference between the weights carried and the types of men and horses in each branch, though the dead weight which it is still considered necessary to carry in cavalries likely to manoeuvre in large masses hardly varies with the weight of the man or size of the horse.
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