Editing Cavalry (section)

==19th century==
[[File:Batalla de Carabobo.JPG|thumb|upright=1.35|The charge of the Venezuelan First Division's cavalry at the [[Battle of Carabobo]]]]

===Europe===
By the beginning of the 19th century, European cavalry fell into four main categories:

* [[Cuirassier]]s, heavy cavalry, adorned with body armor, especially a [[cuirass]], and primarily armed with pistols and a sword
* [[Dragoon]]s, originally mounted infantry, but later regarded as medium cavalry
* [[Hussar]]s, light cavalry, primarily armed with [[sabre]]s
* [[Lancer]]s or [[Uhlan]]s, light cavalry, primarily armed with [[lance]]s
[[File:Robert Gibb - The Thin Red Line.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|[[The Thin Red Line (Battle of Balaclava)|"The Thin Red Line"]] at the [[Battle of Balaclava]], where the 93rd Regiment held off Russian Cavalry]]
There were cavalry variations for individual nations as well: France had the ''[[chasseurs à cheval]]''; Prussia had the ''Jäger zu Pferde'';<ref>{{cite book|first=Ulrich|last=Herr|page=594|title=The German Cavalry from 1871 to 1914|year=2006|publisher=Verlag Militaria |isbn=3-902526-07-6}}</ref> Bavaria,<ref>{{cite book|first=Ulrich|last=Herr|page=376|title=The German Cavalry from 1871 to 1914|year=2006|publisher=Verlag Militaria |isbn=3-902526-07-6}}</ref> Saxony and Austria<ref>{{cite book|first=Richard|last=Knotel|pages=24, 182 & 230|title=Uniforms of the World. A Compendium of Army, Navy, and Air Force Uniforms 1700-1937|year=1980|isbn=0-684-16304-7}}</ref> had the ''Chevaulegers''; and Russia had [[Cossacks]]. Britain, from the mid-18th century, had [[Light Dragoons]] as light cavalry and Dragoons, [[Dragoon Guards]] and [[Household Cavalry]] as heavy cavalry. Only after the end of the Napoleonic wars were the Household Cavalry equipped with cuirasses, and some other regiments were converted to lancers. In the [[United States Army]] prior to 1862 the cavalry were almost always dragoons. The [[Imperial Japanese Army]] had its cavalry uniformed as [[hussar]]s, but they fought as dragoons.

In the [[Crimean War]], the [[Charge of the Light Brigade]] and the [[The Thin Red Line (Battle of Balaclava)|Thin Red Line]] at the [[Battle of Balaclava]] showed the vulnerability of cavalry, when deployed without effective support.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UreS--MoD0C&pg=PA40 |first=Guy |last=Arnold |title=Historical Dictionary of the Crimean War |publisher=Scarecrow Press Inc |year=2002 |isbn=0-8108-4276-9 |pages=40–41}}</ref>

====Franco-Prussian War====
[[File:Valladolid - Academia de Caballeria 3.jpg|thumb|upright|''Monument to the Spanish Regiment of light cavalry of Alcántara'']]
During the [[Franco-Prussian War]], at the [[Battle of Mars-la-Tour]] in 1870, a Prussian cavalry brigade decisively smashed the centre of the French battle line, after skilfully concealing their approach. This event became known as '''Von Bredow's Death Ride''' after the brigade commander [[Adalbert von Bredow]]; it would be used in the following decades to argue that massed cavalry charges still had a place on the modern battlefield.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h2wEeRuei6AC |title=The Franco-Prussian War: The German Invasion of France, 1870–1871 |first1=Michael |last1=Howard |first2=Michael Eliot |last2=Howard |publisher=Routledge |year=2001 |isbn=0-415-26671-8 |page=157}}</ref>

====Imperial expansion====
Cavalry found a new role in colonial campaigns ([[irregular military|irregular warfare]]), where modern weapons were lacking and the slow moving infantry-artillery train or fixed fortifications were often ineffective against indigenous insurgents (unless the latter offered a fight on an equal footing, as at [[Battle of Tel el-Kebir|Tel-el-Kebir]], [[Battle of Omdurman|Omdurman]], etc.). Cavalry "[[flying column]]s" proved effective, or at least cost-effective, in many campaigns—although an astute native commander (like [[Samori]] in western Africa, [[Imam Shamil|Shamil]] in the [[Caucasus]], or any of the better [[Boer]] commanders) could turn the tables and use the greater mobility of their cavalry to offset their relative lack of firepower compared with European forces.

In 1903 the [[British Indian Army]] maintained forty regiments of cavalry, numbering about 25,000 Indian [[sowars]] (cavalrymen), with British and Indian officers.<ref>{{cite book|first=David|last=Chandler|page=379 |title=The Oxford History of the British Army |year=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-285333-3}}</ref>

Among the more famous regiments in the lineages of the modern Indian and Pakistani armies are:
[[File:21lancers.JPG|thumb|upright=1.35|right|The charge of the 21st Lancers at [[Battle of Omdurman|Omdurman]]]]
[[File:18th Lancers, Mametz 1916.jpg|thumb|right|[[19th Lancers]] near Mametz during the Battle of the Somme, 15 July 1916]]
* [[Governor General's Bodyguard]] (now [[President's Bodyguard (India)|President's Bodyguard]])
* Skinner's Horse (now India's [[1st Horse (Skinner's Horse)]])
* Gardner's Lancers (now India's [[2nd Lancers (Gardner's Horse)]])
* Hodson's Horse (now India's [[Hodson's Horse|3rd Horse (Hodson's)]]) of the Bengal Lancers fame
* [[6th Bengal Cavalry]] (later amalgamated with [[7th Hariana Lancers]] to form [[18th King Edward's Own Cavalry]]) now [[18th Cavalry]] of the [[Indian Army]]
* [[5th Horse|Probyn's Horse]] (now [[5th Horse]], Pakistan)
* Royal Deccan Horse (now India's [[Deccan Horse|The Deccan Horse]])
* Poona Horse (now India's [[The Poona Horse]])
* Scinde Horse (now India's [[Scinde Horse|The Scinde Horse]])
* [[Guides Cavalry|Queen's Own Guides Cavalry]] (now Pakistan).
* [[11th Prince Albert Victor's Own Cavalry (Frontier Force)]] (now [[11th Cavalry (Frontier Force)]], Pakistan)

Several of these formations are still active, though they now are armoured formations, for example the [[Guides Cavalry]] of Pakistan.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://defencejournal.com/jun99/guides-cavalry.htm| title = The Guides Cavalry (10th Queen Victoria's Own Frontier Force)| access-date = 2006-11-12| archive-date = 2006-10-24| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061024192206/http://www.defencejournal.com/jun99/guides-cavalry.htm| url-status = dead}}</ref>
[[File:Spahis, fantasia, 1886.jpg|thumb|upright|Algerian spahis of the French Army 1886]]

The French Army maintained substantial cavalry forces in Algeria and Morocco from 1830 until the end of [[World War II]]. Much of the Mediterranean coastal terrain was suitable for mounted action and there was a long established culture of horsemanship amongst the Arab and Berber inhabitants. The French forces included [[Spahi]]s, [[Chasseurs d' Afrique]], [[French Foreign Legion|Foreign Legion]] cavalry and mounted [[Goumier]]s.<ref>L'Armee d'Afrique 1830–1962, General R. Hure, Paris-Limogues 1977</ref> Both Spain and Italy raised cavalry regiments from amongst the indigenous horsemen of their North African territories (see [[regulares]], [[Italian Spahis]]<ref>Plates I & IV, "Under Italian Libya's Burning Sun", The National Geographic Magazine August 1925</ref> and [[savari]] respectively).

Imperial Germany employed mounted formations in South West Africa as part of the [[Schutztruppen]] (colonial army) garrisoning the territory.<ref>{{cite book|first=Charles|last=Woolley|page=94|title=Uniforms of the German Colonial Troops|year=2009|publisher=Schiffer Publishing, Limited |isbn=978-0-7643-3357-6}}</ref>

===United States===
{{Main|United States Cavalry}}
[[File:Union cavalry charge culpepper.jpg|thumb|left|[[Union Cavalry]] capture [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] guns at [[Culpeper, Virginia|Culpeper]]]]

In the early [[American Civil War]] the regular United States Army mounted rifle, dragoon, and two existing cavalry regiments were reorganized and renamed cavalry regiments, of which there were six.<ref>Gervase Phillips, "Writing Horses into American Civil War History". ''War in History'' 20.2 (2013): 160-181.</ref> Over a hundred other federal and state cavalry regiments were organized, but the infantry played a much larger role in many battles due to its larger numbers, lower cost per rifle fielded, and much easier recruitment. However, cavalry saw a role as part of screening forces and in foraging and scouting. The later phases of the war saw the [[Union Army|Federal army]] developing a truly effective cavalry force fighting as [[Reconnaissance|scouts]], raiders, and, with repeating rifles, as [[mounted infantry]]. The distinguished 1st Virginia Cavalry ranks as one of the most effectual and successful cavalry units on the Confederate side. Noted cavalry commanders included Confederate general [[J.E.B. Stuart]], [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]], and [[John Singleton Mosby]] (a.k.a. "The Grey Ghost") and on the Union side, [[Philip Sheridan]] and [[George Armstrong Custer]].<ref>Starr Stephen Z. ''The Union Cavalry in the Civil War, '' (3 vols. LSU Press, 1979–81)</ref>
Post Civil War, as the volunteer armies disbanded, the regular army cavalry regiments increased in number from six to ten, among them Custer's [[U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment]] of [[Battle of the Little Bighorn|Little Bighorn]] fame, and the [[African-American]] [[U.S. 9th Cavalry Regiment]] and [[U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment]]. The black units, along with others (both cavalry and infantry), collectively became known as the [[Buffalo Soldier]]s. According to [[Robert M. Utley]]: 
:the frontier army was a conventional military force trying to control, by conventional military methods, a people that did not behave like conventional enemies and, indeed, quite often were not enemies at all. This is the most difficult of all military assignments, whether in Africa, Asia, or the American West.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert M. Utley, "The Contribution of the Frontier to the American Military Tradition"|title=The Harmon Memorial Lectures in Military History, 1959–1987|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K4w69q1_IAYC&pg=PA531|publisher=DIANE Publishing|pages=525–34|isbn=9781428915602}}</ref>

These regiments, which rarely took the field as complete organizations, served throughout the [[American Indian Wars]] through the close of the frontier in the 1890s. Volunteer cavalry regiments like the [[Rough Riders]] consisted of horsemen such as [[cowboy]]s, [[rancher]]s and other outdoorsmen, that served as a cavalry in the United States Military.<ref>Paul Mathingham Hutton, "T.R. takes charge", ''American History'' 33.n3 (August 1998), 30(11).</ref>