Can someone please tell me about historical cavalry vs cavalry going head to head on the battlefield? Im curious as to how these engagements commonly go, was it at all effective to fight cavalry with cavalry and are there many examples of this?
The only example I could find was between Custer and Stuart at the battle of Gettysburg, which just turned into a massive free for all.
Thanks in advance!
I’m very sorry to disappoint you, but cavalry charges were not as they are shown in film & video games. Cavalry vs Cavalry action is especially so:
First off in a cavalry charge the aim is to create shock and momentum. The practice of most European armies (but not necessarily what the field manual said) was to charge at a trot not very fast at all. The benefit of a charge wasn’t the individual soldier charging but instead the massive weight of horse and men bearing down on the enemy. They might have been going at the pace of a jog but the momentum of horse and rider is huge.
when cavalry met cavalry in a counter charge there was much noise and commotion but surprisingly few casualties... much less than when it is opposed by infantry.
Rothenburg The art of warfare in the age of Napoleon.
A cavalry formation is basically a moving wall - and a horse will refuse to keep going so in some cases a cavalry vs cavalry charge would result in two formations stopping at each other a rather bizarre situation.
Here is an example from the battle of Salamanca,
Each side deployed along the traditional two lines and then advanced at the charge but at the last moment the two forces pulled up so that they facing one and other. For a few moments both groups were motionless, until a French caverlyman made a swipe at the English rider opposite him.
Nosworthy, Battle tactics of Napoleon and his enemies
However this is very rare and most of the time a cavalry vs cavalry charge was a phycological battle between where one pulled away before contact often very much in advance.
Other cavalry vs cavalry actions that come to mind would be the charge bu the French on the British heavies at Waterloo.
Where to summarise it very simply the British had recently charged French infantry and were pursuing and had not yet reformed.
They were countercharged by French lancers and decimated.
Other instructive actions to consider:
Waterloo - the french cavalry under Ney failed to break the British infantry in square formation.
The battle of Garcia Hernandez - the day after the battle of Salamanca. Where British/German cavalry overran and broke three French battalion squares of fresh troops. It’s in bold because it’s an extraordinary feat. And even in this case a result of an extraordinary turn of events where the French held their fire too long resulting in a dead horse crashing into the square, the British cavalry then to their credit exploited well getting inside the square to break it. This caused the men of the second square to panic, the third square is dubious and there are conflicting sources that say the brush broke a square vs French ones that claim they surprised men out of formation.
The main point is that cavalry vs organised infantry will often lead go in the infantry’s favour unless, the infantry is poorly trained, it’s wet and muskets misfire, the infantry fire too soon leaving them vulnerable or too late in the case of Garcia Hernandez.
So overall main takeaways;
-Cavalry vs infantry - without support from friendly infantry/artillery will go badly for the cavalry unless circumstances are very favourable.