French Hussars: the Charge of the 12th Regiment (NAP0015)

French hussars: the charge that comes after the battle is decided

Four men of the 12th, knee to knee, sabres up, mouths open — the red dolman, the blue pelisse swinging from the shoulder, the shako with its plume, the number 12 on the shabraque and a carbine slung at the saddle. They are not riding at a square of infantry. They are riding at men who have already turned round, and that is a different job entirely.

Light cavalry does not break things, it exploits them

Cuirassiers were built to smash a formation that was already shaken. Hussars existed for what happened next: the pursuit. An army that is beaten but allowed to walk away in order will be back in a fortnight; an army that is ridden after for twenty miles, harried at every halt and never permitted to re-form, stops being an army. This is the work that turns a won battle into a result, and it is done by the lightest, cheapest horsemen on the field.

The noise was part of the weapon

Look at the faces: they are shouting. A charge was deliberately loud — the yelling, the hooves, the trumpet — because most of the effect of cavalry is produced before contact, on the nerve of the men waiting. Infantry that stands is almost never broken by horses. Infantry that hears this coming from behind, after a bad afternoon, frequently does not stand.

Two trades in one man

The curved sabre is made for the pursuit: a cut delivered at speed from a horse going past, which needs no skill in the last instant and does not risk the blade lodging. But note the carbine slung at the saddle — the same men spent most of the campaign on outpost duty, dismounted, watching a road. A hussar was expected to be a scout, a sentry and a raider first, and a shock trooper about twice a year.

What actually wore them out

Light cavalry was consumed by routine, not by charges. Screening an army means being the first awake and the last to sleep, every day, for a whole campaign — and the horses feel it before the men. The regiments that disappeared in Russia in 1812 were not destroyed in battle; they were used up doing this until there was nothing left to ride.