‘Who Shall Say That the Days of Cavalry Are Over?’ The Revival of the Mounted Arm in Europe,1853-1914

Abstract

By the middle decade of the nineteenth century, soldiers of experience across Europe were confidently asserting that, as a consequence of the new ‘arms of precision’ being issued to infantrymen, the ‘days of cavalry were passed’. This view has been echoed uncritically by subsequent generations of historians. Drawing on a range of original materials, it will be argued here that the disappointing performance of cavalry on the battlefields of the Crimea, Italy, and Bohemia owed more to doctrinal failure than infantry fire-power. While recognizing the changed conditions of the battlefield, the cavalry arm in fact successfully reformed and, despite the onward march of weapon technology, entered the global conflict of 1914 at the very peak of its efficiency and utility.