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The first mounted infantry units were raised during the Mexican–American War (as the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen, but redesignated Third Cavalry Regiment in 1861), and others followed, for example in Australia in the 1880s. Terms such as "mounted rifles" or "Light Horse" were often used.
Historically, cavalry (from the French word cavalerie, itself derived from cheval meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback.Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry in the roles of reconnaissance, screening, and skirmishing, or as heavy cavalry for decisive economy of force and shock attacks.
During the Second World War, the Army's cavalry units operated as horse-mounted, mechanized, or dismounted forces (infantry). The last horse-mounted cavalry charge by a U.S. Cavalry unit took place on the Bataan Peninsula, in the Philippines in early 1942.
By the Seven Years' War in 1756, their primary role in most European armies had progressed from that of mounted infantry to that of heavy cavalry. They were sometimes described as "medium" cavalry, midway between heavy/armoured and light/unarmoured regiments, though this was a classification that was rarely used at the time. [ 15 ]
Sheridan leads the charge at Five Forks (Frederick Phisterer, 1912). The American Civil War saw extensive use of horse-mounted soldiers on both sides of the conflict. They were vital to both the Union Army and Confederate Army for conducting reconnaissance missions to locate the enemy and determine their strength and movement, and for screening friendly units from being discovered by the enemy ...
These mounted crossbowmen could sally out from the rear ranks to provide a skirmish screen or a preliminary barrage of bolts. Later on, the tactical landscape featured harquebusiers , musketeers , halberdiers , and pikemen , deployed in combined-arms formations and pitted against cavalry firing pistols or carbines .
Charge of the Polish uhlans at the city of Poznań during the November uprising in 1831. The lancer (Polish: ułan, German: Ulan, French: uhlan) had become a common sight in the majority of European, Ottoman, and Indian cavalry forces during this time, but, with the exception of the Ottoman troops, they increasingly discarded the heavy armour to give greater freedom of movement in combat.
In the period 1335 to 1350, the mounted archer gradually surpassed the hobelar as the predominant mounted auxiliary, especially for foreign service. For example, of the troops summoned to serve at the siege of Calais in 1346–47, 600 were hobelars as against 5000 mounted archers. [ 10 ]