Napoleonic Cavalry Combat & Tactics

without cavalry Napoleon concluded battles are without result that said let's take a look at calorie combat and tactics during the era of apollyon at first we take a look at the types of cavalry used basically there were three types right there light cavalry medium or line cavalry and heavy cavalry the classification was based on the weight of the horses and Men light cavalry used smaller horses who has heavy cavalry consist of heavy horses with tall men consequently they use different types of tactics and combat methods the first type was light cavalry the rows of the light cavalry was to cover the Army during marches provide recon and security operations our light car was the most numerous yet at the same time its use on the battlefield was limited this seems very counterintuitive at first but you need to consider that battles were only part of larger campaigns in an age in which weeks and even months of manoeuvre preceded the decisive battle these light horsemen swamped the countryside probing for enemy weak points seeking out information on strength and location and doing new continuous battle with enemy light cavalry bent on the same mission so basically light cavalry served mainly before battle as screening for us and after the battle in pursuit or as rearguard depending on the outcome during a battle developed yet mostly due Scout terrain and Harris the enemy during the deployment of his formations nevertheless there were various occasions where the light cavalry also charged during a battle some examples for light cavalry units whether Hasan's the Cossacks and the French treasures a cheval next is the medium cavalry which was also called the line cavalry a typical example of medium covering where the dragoons they were originally intended as mounted infantry but they transformed into the medium cavalry at the end of the 18th century they were usually employed like the heavy cavalry by charging the enemy but also used to protect the flanks like light cavalry in some cases like in Spain they're also used in the original role as mounted infantry note that some authors consider dragoons as heavy cavalry usually those offers only distinguish between light and heavy their goons and Lance's Mulan's in the Austrian and Prussian armies were really a hybrid between heavy and light and thus they were often used for shock acts on the battlefield as well as traditional light cavalry missions British armies separated in Regan formations into heavy dragoons and light dragoons specifically to differentiate the role of a particular regiment although in then there was some cross were brought about by the exit changes of a campaign this brings us finally to the heavy cavalry which saw a revival under Napoleon who considered it the most valuable cavalry type a typical example of heavy cavalry were the French couriers named after metal breastplates called choruses note that the name can be a bit misleading for instance for a certain time period Prussian Croesus didn't have Icarus similarly some heavy cavalry didn't have body armor again the name heavy is derived from the weight of the horse not the equipment the manufacture of heavy cover was to write down enemy formations especially Napoleon used them extensively in this role now the overall equipment of all these camera types was rather similar the primary weapon was with the exception of the lenses the saber although there was a clear distinction between heavy and light cavalry namely the heavy cavalry the long straight saber was the light cavalry usually used through the curved sabers additionally nearly all of them carried some form of firearm usually a carbine a short belt musket and or pistols this was mainly a secondary weapon to do various reasons cavalry on the attack when a constant state of motion and it was not impossible for a galloping trooper to reload his pistol once he had discharged it pistols could also be used in caramely but in close action the sword was always preferable to an inner accurate single-shot pistol with a high incidence of misfire in terms of armor that was quite some variation the French courtesies were among the best armored units with breasts and back plates but many of the heavy cavalry units didn't have armor although they're held to a usual reinforce to an armored because during the charge depends forward and exposed the top of the head additionally improvised our most used as well it was common practice for dragoons to take their cloaks and roll them into a cross bag of heavy cloth that the board iron eagerly crossed the torsos this improvised armor actually provided some protection from enemy blades since we've got the foundation covered let's take a look at the three basic types of combat there was charging which was mainly performed by medium and heavy cavalry and the nervous care machine and fighting us for ages which was mostly the job of the light cavalry now the charge seems like around a simple affair although it is a little bit more complicated than it seems at first depending on the author the charge had three to five phases and was in theory very similar to the charge tactics of rhetoric the great information of a charge was usually as tight as possible ideally need to need so that the horses and the riders locked themselves in to deformation a charge to erratically develop the following way the cover at first would only walk then switch into a trot and only at the distance of around 100 meters with the gallop start trotting before meeting the enemies the Spurs were given and thus further increasing the velocity and speed of the charge by slowly increasing the speed it was easier to maintain the closed order formation of course the various regional variations and adaptations in practice for instance as opposed to the theoretical model employing a charge at speed in actual practice many heavy and medium cavalry regiments during the Napoleonic Wars only charged at the trot or even a fast walk another interesting aspect is Rondo according to regulation server should be drawn at the beginning of the charge veterans advised against this for several reasons first if the sabers are drawn immediately the enemy was in may add that the charge will occur thus allowing him to prepare for a longer time second the coordinated drawing of the sabers during the charge could have a strong psychological effect on both the charging unit and the defending units morale camera chart was not to be underestimated it had also it's limits and was rarely performed against fresh infantry for good reasons Napoleone used large calorie masses though he realized that Kaveri alone could not overcome unshaken and supported infantry or artery normally cavalry charges were preceded by heavy bombardment and support the Horse Artillery moretz great charge at Borodino was accomplished by 100 horse guns unsupported charges such as murder to charge with over ten thousand savers against the Russians at a law were the epic dash of the polish light horse at the sumo sierra pass in 1808 were exceptional and watered we'll unsupported mounted charges five and two hours were repulsed with heavy losses but steady British squares now in computer games and sometimes also movies they are scenes depicted the two cavalry units charge each other and full speed which usually ends in a furious class well when cavalry met cavalry and accounted charge there was much noise and commotion but surprisingly few casualties in cabaret meets cavalry general mob all concluded the slot is much less than when it is composed by infantry this is due to the fact that the closed or a camera formation is basically a moving wall it nearly no ride and no horse is crazy enough to ride into a wall as a result before two units met there was basically a psychological battle going on usually one side would lose fight and break off according to the military theorist to pick three quarters of the time this will happen at the distance before he can see each other's eyes yet there was also the very rare occasion that two units were evenly matched in psychological factors and both headed on against each other in closed order formation the question is what would happen in this situation while the result might surprise you this meant that in practice when two groups of veteran and brave troops faced off in the last two seconds the horses would start to pull back the cameraman reining in and two lines of carry would end up staring at each other face to face this happened for instance in 1812 between the French and British each side deployed along traditional two lines and then advanced at the charge but at the last moment the two forces pulled up so that the stood facing one another a few moments both groups were motionless until a French cavalry man made his wipe add English rider opposite him something similar happened at the Battle of Friedland in 1807 on an even larger scale but let's move on to a more looser form of combat skirmishing now skirmishing was all used by infantry and although skirmishing often doesn't inflict a lot of casualties and was performed quite regularly the question is of course why while one purpose of skirmishing was to harass the enemy thus idly provoking premature fire which would reduce the defensive capabilities of the unit until it could fully reload another purpose of the harassment was to force the enemy to deploy the battle formation earlier where the position not according to the plan or less suited thus influencing the enemy's commanders tactics and/or blocking a friendly units movement or a line of sight remember maneuver is one of the two basic components of combat the other is firepower and inner time and specific formations of large masses of infantry and cavalry were crucial to bring fire and civil power into action any disturbance in the force could have serious consequences another major rule of cavalry skirmishes were scouting both the enemy's positions and the terrain that should be passed especially since cavalry is more terrain sensitive than infantry and less able to take use of cover yet how was garnishing by the cavalry actually performed the skirmishing camera would adapt and extend order formation the small space between the individual horses was available it very important when a certain number of deformation would act the skirmishes the main force would still stay in closed order formation according to a sex and camera regulation from 1810 no more than 25% of the units should perform skirmishing at one point in time since garbageman could be concerned with harassing the enemy but sometimes just scouting the distance and actions could vary greatly for instance if scouting was the most important aspect the skirmishes would move just 20 to 30 meters ahead and if the goal was to harass the enemy they would move further ahead and also fight individually to create as much disturbance as possible in this case the distance to the main body could be several hundred meters although be aware there was a lot of variation between the different armies furthermore by the late Napoleonic Wars skirmish tactics had evolved to the point where there was cooperation between mounted and infantry skirmishes have been necessary in the open countryside the cavalry was to support its infantry counterpart when operating in rough broken terrain the roles were switched in the infantry moving and defending itself of Greater facility had always to look out for the cavalry now to the last form of combat which was called fight in for Asia while fighting as for Asia sometimes also called suami tech formation was looser than the closed order formation but tighter than the extended water formation of the skirmishes this allowed the cameraman to select individual opponents unlike in the closed water formation there were other advantages as well namely the maneuverability of the individual Horseman was increased that there was still a sufficient amount of troop concentration to provide shock and combat power finally during the last stages of stiff charge each kalman would select an individual target thus fighting as for rachels was useful when attacking enemy infantry deployed as skirmishes charging an already defeated enemy to prevent it from railing or the necessary attacking in artillery position it was also used to create the versions that is to create quickly an engagement so as to confuse the enemy and hide the arrangement of the main attack which would be delivered elsewhere note the camera fighting aspirators require the closed order formation as support nearby in the rear this would allow the four ages really easily in case of an enemy cavalry attack this was very similar to the skirmishes you need to remember unit cohesion is a central element for any combat formation so in a way these groups acted as rallying points now it's time to take a look at formations these were not important for various reasons they influence mobility the combat capabilities of units and sometimes also a lot to hide the activists rank for an enemy or the first let's take a look at the basic cavalry unit the squadron now to give you some idea on the squadron size I looked up the numbers for several offers and nearly every Auto I had a different size range for squadrons so to be on the safe side let's go over on 60 to 200 riders per squadron note that size changed between the factions over time and light cavalry units usually had more riders than heavy cavalry thus the variation in these numbers is quite justified what's important to consider here is the squadron needed to be small enough to maneuver but big enough to have significant combat and shock power a squadron was usually warmed up in two ranks as you can see here and several squadrons usually four to six made up a regiment so let's take a look at formations that were coming for cavalry regiment the most common formation was the lion formation it allowed for a wide front thus enabling the greatest numbers of Sabres to be deployed against the enemy and the width of the formation also increased the chances of out flanking the enemy the line was mainly used for charging the enemy since the charge was idly performed knee to knee is what create a moving wall of horses and man thus the density of deformation alone had a considerable shock value even at the distance yet the main disadvantage of the line was that it could be easily disturbed by movement or terrain and thus leading to disorder this is also one of the reasons why during a charge the speed was increased in several steps as mentioned previously the next dimension is the excellent formation which is basically a diagonal line this formation a lot for a higher amount of flexibility in movement and combat imagine the excellent information charging an enemy each element with the enemy at a different time thus reacting to the situation on the battlefield was possible for instance if the first squadron assault was successful in breaking the enemy line the second etholon could break through and exploit the gap yet if the first column was unable to break into the enemy the second echelon could reinforce the first one if the enemy was clearly repelling the attack subsequent echelons could be called often used to cover the retreat for the first echelons well at least in theory in practice it wasn't that smooth another major advantage of the excellent formation was that it could bypass friendly troops easier and in general was more flexible in changing into other formations than the line besides these advantages in general many cameramen felt this was the best formation to deliver an attack against enemy infantry most opinions about the use of the FMO information against enemy cavalry was not as clear some considered that a-- suited in the line formation others not now the final formation was the closed plum it allowed for the best control of the cavalry formation during movement although one might think that an extended order column or a line would be easier to control this was clearly not the case it was difficult to keep cavalry in line properly aligned and delays when necessary to straighten out the line lengthy columns like extended order columns tended either to bunch up or stretch out into uncontrollably long monstrosities the closed column was not only easier to control but it also helped to keep the enemy off guard about pawns owned numbers because dense formations from a distance looked very similar to units in line formation of the same with one major disadvantage of this formation was that it was mostly unsuited for an attack the information made it very warm to an artery especially the round rod additionally it was hard to maintain the formation during a lot and only the leading units could use their sabers the biggest weakness of the formation got a large flanks thus it was very vulnerable to account the charge from the side this was different from infantry unit in column formation which could turn 90 degrees rather easily whereas with horses that wasn't so easy only when necessary the column formation was used to charge an enemy formation this was either when it was cut off and needed to break out when opportunity presented itself and change information was not possible now I assume that some of you expect another information here namely the wedge formation well this is most likely to do a computer game yet there is little to no indication Linda which I contacted that the veg formation was coming during the pranic was or if so nobody seemed to have mentioned it thus informed throughout a new channel history gaming verified who already took a look at the call of duty and how to farm for to take a look at the game featuring that formation anyway time to take a look at some combat characteristics and fighting infantry and artillery first let's look at calories versus infantry combat cavalry military history was often used against infantry during the Napoleonic Wars even more than during the previous period during the early campaigns cavalry was still positioned on the wings of the battle line but Napoleon developed the arm as an instrument of shattering the enemy line and mass the rupture basically there were two major kinds of cavalry forces inventory engagements the first was the camera discovered the infantry in an unprepared situation the terrain allowed the cavalry to attack this was mostly common in the early or late stages of the battle the second type of engagement was and the cavalry specifically was ordered to overthrow an enemy infantry formation such a situation was coming during the peak of the battle and careless ideally suited for this job the infantry usually had taken losses from artillery and was weakened by marching and might already have been engaged by friendly infantry thus the infantry was in a less than ideal situation and the cavalry was sent in to deliver couped across or crush isolated elements which continued to offer organized resistance carrier officers knew that in order to break an enemy infantry formation it was necessary to break the units cohesion this in some cases could be achieved by simply charging the infantry the fast movement of the horses their weight the sound and many other factors could lead to an unsteadiness and shoveling in the formation considering that most people get wobbly knees when they have to give a public speech imagine a wall of cavalry charging at you the issue was if the infantry fire too early the shots were ineffective and the time to reload was very limited contrary to the expectations of many modern readers Carolee was usually not exposed the repeated firing once it started its attack in earnest many authorities felt in fact that inventory were able only to deliver one effective fire based on the reload times effective range of muskets and the speed of horses theoretically more than one shot was possible yet the problem was that the first star was usually the most of our aimed and concentrated since under the stress of an oncoming charge soldiers could freeze forget to load and deem suffered additionally for the charging current was the opposite once the infantry had fired new viscera unlikely did a second volume would follow it generally a few of the time was that a veteran infantry properly led could not be overflown by a cavalry attack although if the in fact he was caught off-guard the more on Laura's law or officer committed a blunder it could be overpowered thus the ideal was to take the infantry while it was moving or when it was shaking due to artillery fire another possibility was to use terrain to cover the calories approach to surprising the infantry to give you one example during the Battle of quarter bus Kellerman taking advantage of undulating terrain was able to lead the 8th corrosives to even 100 yards of the right flank of the 69th regiment of foot before the later was a way of the danger lacking sufficient time to prepare the British infantry was written down within moments of course and not important target for calorie was artillery as infantry was rather slow cavalry could cover the ground towards an interior position way faster than infantry as the number of bodies would be around a quarter of that an infantry unit would have been subjected to additionally during this approach that theory would have to recite its guns thus it's estimated the territory could only find two times before the cavalry reached its position of course when charging artillery the closed order formation was avoided since artillery firing canister rounds would have decimated such a formation thus usually an open skirmish information was used one way to attack a terrain was to use two groups one would fade an attack and draw fire and attention whereas the second will move in and perform the actual attack now let's conclude this video with some interesting points first let's answer the question why cavalry had such an importance in the Napoleonic Wars basically because it often turned into the desire of battle the use of concentrated cavalry masses for breakthrough and pursuit became standard feature only during their Peroni campaigns thus besides often deciding the battle it was also used to turn a tactical victory in a strategic victory by pursuing the enemy and inflicting heavy losses thus a lack of cavalry could have dire consequences in the opening battles of the 1813 campaign in particular Napoleon's lack of numbers and mediocre quality of the calories really limited his operations and preventing him from turning his victories at lützen and laid that pots into the decisive triumphs that in previous campaigns the most assuredly would have been remember the quote that started off this video without cavalry Napoleon concluded patents are without result now secondly as mentioned before infantry properly led and experienced enough could withstand a cavalry attack thus it was crucial that the cavalry attack was coordinated with other arms one way to do this was to provide the cavalry of its own organic artillery napoleon stated that it was imperative that carry assaults be supported by artillery since the horsemen and exclusively melee weapons could not generate firepower on their own consequently artillery batteries were attached directly to cavalry division's known as horse artery these units have mounted gun crews that enabled them to keep up with the cavalry horse a theory was assigned as integral part of every cavalry division in the French army now this passage never is quite ironic if we combine it with the following the Panzer Division included tanks to be sure but it also had its own organic reconnaissance infantry and artillery components emit own supply columns and breaching trains the principal innovation was that each of these supporting arms could move as rapidly as the tank or as channel James Metis the current Secretary of Defense of the United States once wrote ultimately a real understanding of history means that we face nothing new Under the Sun well I hope you learn something and if you like this content consider supporting me on patreon remember every dollar helps improving the videos special thanks to tech arrow here for helping me out as always sources are in description thank you for watching and see you next time

Channel: Military History Visualized

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Rating: 4.9187102 out of 5

Keywords: Military History, History, Education, Visualized, Animation, Napoleon, Military History Visualized, Napoleonic, Cavalry, Cavalry Tactics, Cavalry Combat, Hussars, Cuirassiers, Cossacks, Uhlans, Dragoons, Heavy Cavalry, Cavalry charging Cavarly, Cavalry Charge, Skirmishing, Forager, Combat Principles, James Mattis, Citino, Line, Echelon, Closed Column, Why Skirmishing?

Id: J4itcJ8Ur2c

Length: 23min 54sec (1434 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 20 2018