BOOK REVIEW – JAMES LAWFORD (EDITOR) – THE CAVALRY. 1976 Roxby Press. ORIGINS – JAMES LAWFORD
The opening essay
of the history of the horse in warfare , by the editor himself takes us naturally to the beginnings of horse-war. The earliest uses of horse in battle seemed to involve the drawing of chariots. Without stirrups or saddles, horses were not easy to balance on whilst needing hands to fire bows or wield swords. The chariot probably developed from use of horses to pull carts and transport goods by wagon. Such non-military use showed that a horse tied to a vehicle or machine proved easier to steer and manage. Chariot warfare was only good on flat even plains though, and falling off at high speed, when wheels had blades to do as much damage as a galloping hoof, could be extremely dangerous. From 750 BCE the Assyrians learned to trust a horse enough to ride it’s back. There are surviving pictures of the Assyrian archers using horses trained to stand perfectly still while the archer fires an arrow, before moving again. The earliest written account of horse warfare comes from Herodotus, describing the campaigns of Cyrus The Great. Clashing with King Croesus, of Lydia, who also had a large body of horse, Cyrus sent forward his smelliest camels so that the stench caused the enemy horses to bolt and thus disrupt Croesus’s lines. The ensuing battle was fierce, with each side gaining ground and losing it at different stages of the conflict. The Greeks had less cavalry, and it shows that he conflict between horse and infantry never had a guaranteed outcome. The Phalanx, a tight body of men in hedgehog formations with pikes, could hold off a horse charge if they kept their discipline and timing high. Lawford shows that Cavalry are formidable in attack, but weak in defence, making an easy target for arrows (and later, bullets) if stationary for too long. Cyrus initially won the battle, but he failed to regroup his men, - as many other commanders would find through the centuries, horse will tend to scatter widely and getting them back into formation quickly for further engagement with the enemy is time consuming. Infantry will generally exploit the time gained to gain advantage in terrain and positioning. Many generals and commanders who led horse and foot troops let them fight largely independently of one another, causing much confusion in their own ranks. That was to change with Alexander The Great, who consciously made infantry and cavalry work in tandem to smash the Persian Empire. Alexander was very fond of his own horse, Buchephelus, which he boasted that he alone could ride. Hannibal, best remembered for using elephants to cross the Alps, was a very able Cavalry commander. He used Numidian riders, famed for discarding their armour to ride almost naked for speed and agility. They proved able to run rings round the Roman cavalry who were much more heavily armoured and therefore slow to move. Romans put so much emphasise on the centurion foot divisions that they often neglected their 300 strong cavalry teams, who were mainly used for reconnaissance and foraging expeditions.