War Horse

by Louis A. DiMarco

  25. Muir, Tactics, 122–23; Haythornthwaite, Austrian Army, 7; D. Johnson, French Cavalry, 118.

  26. Muir, Tactics, 111.

  27. Quoted in Muir, Tactics, 117; Oman, Wellington’s Army, 111.

  28. Quoted in Muir, Tactics, 120. Oman, Wellington’s Army, 104; From Wellington’s dispatches cited in Oman, Wellington’s Army, 106.

  29. Haythornthwaite, Austrian Army, 8.

  30. D. Johnson, French Cavalry, 155, 152.

  31. Nosworthy, With Musket, Cannon, and Sword, 322, 313. The training concept would be to gradually expose the horses to the same conditions that the square presented, only the bayonets would not be dangerous. The horses would then have no fear of the square. Such training would take time and was not conducted during the Napoleonic period.

  32. Tomkinson, Diary of a Cavalry Officer, 280.

  33. Napoleon quoted in Bukhari, Napoleon’s Cavalry, 75.

  34. D. Johnson, French Cavalry, 77, 82.

  35. Muir, Tactics, 106.

  36. D. Johnson, French Cavalry, 115.

  37. Bukhari, Napoleon’s Cavalry, 76; Johnson, French Cavalry, 116–17; Quoted in Johnson, French Cavalry, 119.

  38. Ibid., 120, 123, 125.

  39. Ibid., 137.

  40. G. Tylden, Horses and Saddlery, 8.

  41. “Thoroughbred,” Horse Breeds of the World.

  42. Fletcher, Galloping at Everything, 31–32.

  43. Chenevix Trench, A History of Horsemanship, 156–57.

  44. Tylden, Horses and Saddlery, 116–17.

  45. Ibid., 127–28.

  46. Ibid., 131.

  47. Ibid., 131–32.

  48. Harris, United States Pony Club Manual, 435–36.

  49. Robichon de la Guérinière, Ecole de Cavalerie, 13.

  50. Interview with Sallie Spenard, U.S. Dressage Federation gold medal winner and Grand Prix level dressage competitor, 11 June 2006.

  51. Fosten, Wellington’s Heavy Cavalry, 12.

  52. D. Johnson, French Cavalry, 129; Fletcher, Galloping at Everything, 18.

  53. Muir, Tactics, 111; Chenevix Trench, A History of Horsemanship, 162.

  54. Ibid., 128–29, 138.

  55. Pembroke quoted in Chenevix Trench, A History of Horsemanship, 154, 158-59; Fosten, Wellington’s Heavy Cavalry, 23;

  56. Muir, Tactics, 114; Chenevix-Trench, A History of Horsemanship, 162.

  57. Ibid., 159–60.

  58. Quoted in Chenevix-Trench, A History of Horsemanship, 162.

  59. Fosten, Wellington’s Heavy Cavalry, 21; Fletcher, Galloping at Everything, 16.

  60. Oman, Wellington’s Army, 112.

  61. Johnson, French Cavalry, 77–78; Elting, Swords around a Throne, 228–29; Rothenberg, Art of Warfare, 142–43.

  62 Wellington quoted in Fletcher, Galloping at Everything, 13; Fosten, Wellington’s Heavy Cavalry, 10; Fletcher, Galloping at Everything, 18.

  63. Elting, Swords around a Throne, 228; Tomkinson, Diary of a Cavalry Officer, 272.

  64. Johnson, French Cavalry, 160.

  65. This description of the cavalry actions at Waterloo is based on the accounts contained in Fletcher, Galloping at Everything, 237–78; D. Smith, Charge! 222–41, 298–99; and Johnson, Napoleon’s Cavalry, 131–44.

  66. Fletcher, Galloping at Everything, 224.

  67. Quoted in Fletcher, Galloping at Everything, 246.

  68. Quoted in Fletcher, Galloping at Everything, 247.

  69. Quoted in Johnson, Napoleon’s Cavalry, 39; Farmer and Gleig, Adventurers of a Light Dragoon, 141–42.

  70. Elting, Swords around a Throne

  CHAPTER 8: INDUSTRIAL WAR AND CAVALRY

  1. Nosworthy, Bloody Crucible of Courage, 28–30.

  2. Katcher, Union Cavalryman, 4; Longacre, Lincoln’s Cavalrymen, 15–16.

  3. Nosworthy, Bloody Crucible of Courage, 479.

  4. Longacre, Lee’s Cavalrymen, 49.

  5. Starr, From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, 125; Katcher, Union Cavalryman, 4.

  6. Nosworthy, Bloody Crucible of Courage, 287; Longacre, Lee’s Cavalrymen, 39.

  7. Longacre, Lincoln’s Cavalrymen, 42.

  8. Nosworthy, Bloody Crucible of Courage, 476; Steffen, The Horse Soldier, 2:75.

  9. Longacre, Lincoln’s Cavalrymen, 43-44; Longacre, Lee’s Cavalrymen, 41.

  10. Ibid., 36; Steffen, The Horse Soldier, 2:75.

  11. Katcher, Union Cavalryman, 22, 48. Katcher discusses tests conducted by Guns and Ammo magazine where Sharps carbines under controlled conditions were able to put shot groups into a 5-inch circle at 100 yards, and the Spencer could only place shot groups in a 7-inch circle consistently at 50 yards.

  12. Quoted in Nosworthy, Bloody Crucible of Courage, 477-478.

  13. Starr, From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, 24; Longacre, Lincoln’s Cavalrymen, 41; Bilby, Revolution in Arms, 73; Steffen, The Horse Soldier, 2:75–77, 84–85; McAulay, Carbines of the Civil War, 5–12.

  14. Longacre, Lee’s Cavalrymen, 38; Quoted in Nosworthy, Bloody Crucible of Courage, 287.

  15. Longacre, Lincoln’s Cavalrymen, 44–45; Longacre, Lee’s Cavalrymen, 40.

  16. Longacre, Lincoln’s Cavalrymen, 8; Longacre, Lee’s Cavalrymen, 47; quoted in Nosworthy, Bloody Crucible of Courage, 299.

  17. The essentials of this argument are made in Nosworthy, Bloody Crucible of Courage, 305–7.

  18. Longacre, Lincoln’s Cavalrymen, 7-8.

  19. Ibid., 11.

  20. Longacre, Lee’s Cavalrymen, 45; Nosworthy, Bloody Crucible of Courage, 286.

  21. Ibid., 292–93.

  22. Longacre, Lincoln’s Cavalrymen, 46; Starr, From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, 130; McAulay, Carbines of the Civil War, 8.

  23. Longacre, Lincoln’s Cavalrymen, 46

  24. Starr, From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, 141.

  25. Ibid., 124; Steffen, The Horse Soldier, 2:60–61, 166–74; Carter, U.S. Cavalry Horse, 160–62; An overview of American military saddles from the Grimsley through the 1859 McClellan is in Steffen, United States Military Saddles, 33–73.

  26. Ottevaere, American Military Horsemanship, 15.

  27. Longacre, Lee’s Cavalrymen, 30.

  28. Katcher, Union Cavalryman, 11–12.

  29. Quoted from the history of the Seventh Indiana in Starr, From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, 138–39.

  30. Starr, From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, 142.

  31. Longacre, Lincoln’s Cavalrymen, 50.

  32. This description of the Gettysburg campaign is a summary of actions described in Starr, From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, 396–441; Coddington, The Gettysburg Campaign; Wittenberg, Protecting the Flank, 43–121; Longacre, Cavalry at Gettysburg.

  33. Hooker’s order to Pleasanton quoted in Starr, From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, 397.

  34. Longacre, Cavalry at Gettysburg, 182.

  35. Quoted in Starr, From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, 419.

  36. Ibid., 430.

  37. Quoted in Starr, From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, 435.

  38. Howard, Franco-Prussian War, 115–18.

  39. Grbasic and Vuksic, History of Cavalry, 243–45; Brown, Unit Organizations, 46, 67–71.

  40. Ibid., 8–11, 20, 55, 58.

  41. Carter, U.S. Cavalry Horse, 159.

  42. Anglesey, History of the British Cavalry, vol. 2, 1851–1871, 416.

  43. Ibid., 419; Anglesey, History of the British Cavalry, vol. 3, 1872–1898, 401–3.

  44. Ibid., 403; Carter, U.S. Cavalry Horse, 175, 189.

  45. Bonie, “French Cavalry in 1870,” 28.

  46. Howard, Franco-Prussian War, 157.

  47. Kachler, “German Cavalry,” 170.

  48. Bonie, “French Cavalry in 1870,” 50–51; Kachler, “German Cavalry,” 176. Kachler provides exact loss numbers. The total number of troops committed in the two regiments is based on the strength of a full regiment, 600 men in four 150-man squadrons, minus one squadron in each regiment, for a total of 450 men in each regiment. The assumption is that the units were near full strength.r />
  49. Bonie, “French Cavalry in 1870,” 55–60; Howard, Franco-Prussian War, 159–60.

  50. Bonie, “French Cavalry in 1870,” 24–25.

  51. Ibid., 27–28.

  52. Howard, Franco-Prussian War, 112, 155–156.

  53. Bonie, “French Cavalry in 1870,” 90–91.

  54. Ibid., 86–91. Gallifet is quoted in Howard, Franco-Prussian War, 215–16.

  55. Anglesey, History of the British Cavalry, vol. 2, 1851–1871, 419–20.

  56. Boniface, Cavalry Horse and His Pack, 39; Duffy, Army of Frederick the Great, 95; “Trakehner,” Horse Breeds of the World; von Velsen-Zerweck and Schulte, Trakehner, 12.

  57. Goodman, “The Trakehner Horse.”

  58. Boniface, Cavalry Horse and His Pack, 40–43.

  59. Ibid., 44–45.

  60. Carter, U.S. Cavalry Horse, 175–78.

  61. Tylden, Horses and Saddlery, 46. Most of Tylden’s records are based on Carter, U.S. Cavalry Horse, 159–205.

  62. Chenevix Trench, A History of Horsemanship, 165.

  63. D. Williams, Great Riding Schools, 54–76.

  CHAPTER 9: MOUNTED GUERRILLA WARFARE

  1. Utley, Frontier Regulars, 2.

  2. Ibid., 4–5; Taylor, The Warriors, 20-23.

  3. Ibid., 23. Utley, Frontier Regulars, 5–6.

  4. Calloway, One Vast Winter, 280; Taylor, The Warriors, 54.

  5. Harry B. Carrington, “The Indian Question,” in Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 107; Taylor, The Warriors, 50–53.

  6. Fox, Custer’s Last Battle, 77–79.

  7. Calloway, One Vast Winter, 267–68; Howard, Horse in American, 46–49; Calloway, 268.

  8. Howard, Horse in American, 84-85.

  9. Ibid., 86–87.

  10. Quoted in Howard, Horse in American, 88.

  11. Calloway, One Vast Winter, 284.

  12. The chase of the Nez Perce is largely summarized from the account in Utley, Frontier Regulars, 305–28.

  13. General description of the Appaloosa and breed history is from “The Appaloosa,” Horse Breeds .

  14. Taylor, The Warriors, 33; Vernam, Man on Horseback, 232.

  15. Calloway, One Vast Winter, 269; Hunter Liggett, “Scouting under Miles,” in Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 390; Vernam, Man on Horseback, 219–30.

  16. Ibid., 227–28; Taylor, The Warriors, 33.

  17. Vernam, Man on Horseback, 229–30.

  18. Excellent examples of nineteenth century bits and bridles in Horse Capture, A Song For the Horse Nation, 34–36.

  19. Rickey, Forty Miles a Day, 75, 48-49;Utley, Frontier Regulars, 327.

  20. Utley, Frontier Regulars, 71–73.

  21. Rickey, Forty Miles a Day, 223.

  22. Dunlay, Wolves for the Blue Soldiers, 47, 169.

  23. Wesley Merritt, “Marching Cavalry,” in Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 84–89.

  24. Frederick C. Kurz, “Reminiscences of an Old 8th U.S. Cavalryman,” in Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 304; Forbes, “The United States Army,” in Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 13.

  25. Numerous horses survived the battle and were taken away by the victorious Indians. The army shot others too wounded to recover when it arrived on the battlefield two days later. Comanche was the only surviving horse of Custer’s battalion to continue service in the army.

  26. Lawrence, His Very Silence Speaks, 45, 49.

  27. Quoted in Ibid., 38.

  28. Ibid., 65–71.

  29. Ibid., 94–109.

  30. Rickey, Forty Miles a Day, 33–34, 43.

  31. Barthorp, The Anglo-Boer Wars, 51.

  32. Knight, Boer Commando, 9; Reitz, Commando, 20–23

  33. Kitchener quoted in Anglesey, History of the British Cavalry, 4: 215.

  34. Reitz, Commando, 137–40.

  35. Ibid., 231–32. Reitz and his companions did not become aware until many weeks later that it was British policy to execute any Boer captured wearing British uniforms. Although this was done by the Boers as a matter of supply, on several occasions British camps were surprised by Boer’s because they mistook them for friendly troops.

  36. Ibid., 223–25.

  37. Jan Smuts would later serve as a British army Field Marshal in both World Wars and Prime Minister of South Africa.

  38. Reitz, Commando, 219.

  39. Anglesey, History of the British Cavalry, 4: 243

  40. Ibid., 41.

  41. John Brown, “The Boer’s Worst Enemy,” Digger History; “Boer War,” Digger History.

  42. Chappell, British Cavalry Equipments, 33–34, diagram E.

  43. Pakenham, The Boer War, 559–61.

  44. Anglesey, History of the British Cavalry, 4: 216, 246.

  45. Anglesey, History of the British Cavalry, 4: 307.

  46. Ibid., 344–48.

  47. Ibid., 342.

  48. Ibid., 287, 298.

  49. Ibid., 301–3.

  50. Ibid., 308–11.

  51. Ibid., 331, 332, 334.

  52. Ibid., 350.

  53. Ibid., 357.

  54. Ibid., 356.

  55. Ibid., 357, 363.

  56. Ibid., 276, 370.

  CHAPTER 10: THE LAST CHARGE

  1. The U.S. Cavalry School estimated that the total was over 700,000 cavalrymen serving in over 100 cavalry divisions, Cavalry Association, Cavalry Combat, 8–9; V. Littauer, Russian Hussar, 296; Wrangel puts the peacetime strength of the Russian cavalry at 112 regiments at 1,200 men per regiment for at total strength of 134,400, Wrangel, The End of Chivalry, 2.

  2. V. Littauer, Russian Hussar, 33, 36, 295; Knox, With the Russian Army, xxvi.

  3. Clayton, Paths of Glory, 32–33.

  4. War Office, Handbook of the French Army, 233–34, 243; Summer, The French Army, 4; Grbasic and Vuksic, Cavalry, 265–67.

  5. Prioux, Cavalry, 509; German Army Handbook, 62.

  6. Nigel, The German Army of World War I, 22; German Army Handbook, 63, 64.

  7. Wrangel, The End of Chivalry, 2.

  8. Ure, The Cossacks, 12–20.

  9. Wrangel, The End of Chivalry, 3.

  10. Seaton, The Horsemen of the Steppes, 193, 208–9.

  11. V. Littauer, Russian Hussar, 296; Seaton, The Horsemen of the Steppes, 207.

  12. Knox, With the Russian Army, 103; Seaton, The Horsemen of the Steppes, 196.

  13. V. Littauer, Russian Hussar, 110; Knox, With the Russian Army, 109; German Army Handbook, 64; War Office, Handbook of the French Army, 236.

  14. Ibid., 236.

  15. V. Littauer, Russian Hussar, 115; Wrangel, The End of Chivalry, 55–56.

  16. War Office, Handbook of the French Army, 237.

  17. Bernhardi, Cavalry in Future Wars, 7–18.

  18. Childers, German Influence on British Cavalry, 15–36, 211-12.

  19. Quoted in Cavalry Combat, 6; Prioux, Cavalry, 9, 517.

  20. Anglesey, History of the British Cavalry, vol. 7, The Curragh Incident, 121–22.

  21. Ibid., 199.

  22. Ibid., 204.

  23. V. Littauer, Russian Hussar, 63–65; Wrangel, The End of Chivalry, 11.

  24. Seaton, The Horsemen of the Steppes, 202.

  25. Wrangel, The End of Chivalry, 4.

  26. Seaton, The Horsemen of the Steppes, 203; “Kabarda,” Breeds of Livestock; “Karabakh,” Breeds of Livestock; Wrangel, The End of Chivalry, 4–7.

  27. Stanley Washburn, The Russian Campaign, 265–68.

  28. Gullett, The Australian Imperial Force, 39.

  29. Quoted in “The Australian Stock Horse or Waler” Horse Breeds of the World; Anglesey, History of the British Cavalry, vol. 5, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, 4–11.

  30. Starr and Sweeny, Forward, 153–55.

  31. Wrangel, The End of Chivalry, 49; Mercy, Prairie Traveler, 37.

  32. V. Littauer, Russian Hussar, 204; Wrangel, The End of Chivalry, 49.

  33. War Office, Manual of Horse Mastership, 92–93; Carter, U.S. Cavalry Horse, 154.

  34. This discussion of the impa
ct of Caprilli is based on Chenevix Trench, History of Horsemanship, 248–71; Ottevaere, American Military Horsemanship, 59–66.

  35. Seaton, The Horsemen of the Steppes, 203–4.

  36. Gullett, The Australian Imperial Force, 31.

  37. Prioux, Cavalry, 92; Anglesey, History of the British Cavalry, vol. 7, The Curragh Incident, 81–82.

  38. This battle narrative is largely based on Gullett, The Australian Imperial Force, 677–792; Anglesey, History of the British Cavalry, vol. 5, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, 253–340; and Perrett, Migiddo 1918.

  39. Quoted in Anglesey, History of the British Cavalry, vol. 5, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, 340.

  40. Richter, Kavallerie, 11, 16.

  41. Ibid., 15.

  42. Ibid., 18–20.

  43. U.S. Military Intelligence Service, “German Horse Cavalry and Transport,” Intelligence Bulletin, March 1946.

  44. Boeselager would eventually be awarded the Knights cross with swords and oak leaves, one of only 159 German soldiers to receive the highest order of the Knight’s Cross. Boeselager was closely involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler but was not found out after the plot failed. He was killed in action on the eastern front leading his brigade in August 1944; Richter, Kavallerie, 29; Piekalkiewicz, Cavalry of World War II, 223, 229, 241.

  45. Piekalkiewicz, Cavalry of World War II, 241–43; Fowler, Axis Cavalry, 20–22.

  46. Piekalkiewicz, Cavalry of World War II, 223–24, 230, 242–43; Fowler, Axis Cavalry, 38–40; Huxley-Blythe, Under the St. Andrew’s Cross, 135–66.

  47. Glantz, Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War, 238.

  48. Ibid., 240.

  49. Ibid., 241.

  50. U.S. Military Intelligence Service, “German Horse Cavalry and Transport,” Intelligence Bulletin, March 1946.

  51. Piekalkiewicz, Cavalry of World War II, 235.

  52. Kournakoff, Russia’s Fighting Forces, 149.

  53. Piekalkiewicz, Cavalry of World War II, 222.

  54. Piekalkiewicz, Cavalry of World War II, 209

  55. Ibid, 214.

  56. A. Niessel, “Cavalry,” in The Red Army, 341.

  57. U.S. Military Intelligence Service, “German Horse Cavalry and Transport,” Intelligence Bulletin, March 1946.

  58. Burkhart Mueller-Hillebrand, “Horses in the German Army 1941–1945,” in Johnson, Horses of the German Army, 13.

  59. Hyland, Medieval Horse, 126.

  60. Yakushin, On the Roads of War, 87.

  61. Schulte and von Velsen-Zerweck, The Trakehner, 230.