...Besides, all you need to know about it is that the guy leading the charge named his horse “Ronald”
Charlemagne: Tendencur (“Strife”)
Robert E Lee: Traveller
Ulysses S Grant: Cincinnati
Lord Cardigan: R O N A L D
But first, why cavalry?
For example: when the 11th Light Dragoons became Hussars in 1840, their uniforms got more expensive. That’s it.
But still, if you wanted to smash up the infantry on an open battlefield, a cavalry charge was the way to go
Not because cavalry was amazing
But because muskets were SHIT
The calibre was .75” but the ball was only .69” so the bullet rattled out of the muzzle and whizzed off in who the fuck knew what direction
because muskets
There’s a regiment of cavalry galloping at you at 30mph (aka 880 yards/min)
Your muskets can fire 3-4 rounds a minute with a 50-100 yard effective range
If you don’t get the massed fire EXACTLY right, your odds of surviving are *bad*
A whole infantry battalion would form into a hollow square of 2-4 ranks and volley fire at the cavalry at point blank range as they charged and circled
Campbell didn’t form square
Because his men had just been issued a new gun: the Minié rifle
it was if anything a little slower to load than old Bess
But it was accurate to 600 yards
And the Russians are like LOL look at these skirt-wearing fools
And then the first Russian eats dirt 600 yards away
The Sutherland Highlanders only got off three volleys, at 600, 300 and 150 yards. But it was enough.
The Russians:
(ofc the Baker rifle during the Napoleonic wars, but that was rifle / scout regiments only)
...and was directly responsible for the Indian Mutiny two years later
but that is, as they say, another story
3-4 rounds/minute, 50 yard effective range
to
10 rounds/minute, 600 yard effective range
and charging at infantry on horseback became a losing proposition
(and yes, he’s biting the end of a paper cartridge off, pouring the charge, then spitting the bullet down the barrel.)
I mean
By the end of Crimea folks were already digging trenches
it is, no lie, how 90% of British public schoolboys learn their 19th cen military history