Toltec

This is a question that popped in my head reading another post. Has the US at anytime in history had units of heavy (horse) cavalry?

Chookie

From what I've read they seem to have been dragoons more than anything else......

Salah

What exactly do you mean by heavy cavalry? If you are implying lancers - yes. As late as the Civil War both sides had units of lance-armed cavalry who ended up discarding their "pig-stickers" partway through the War in exchange for carbines like everybody else's...

Toltec

Dragoon is a very ambiguous term though and mounted infantry and light, medium and heavy cavalry have all been Dragoons in their time.

Chookie

Granted, but I'm using the term to describe a sort of light cavailryman who rode to battle but mostly fought on foot (against the Plains Indians anyway)even though the US cavalry carried sabres. I should have been more precise.

pikeshot1600

There were no regiments of mounted troops that would have corresponded to European cuiraissiers or unarmored "heavy" cavalry. The likley opponents of the US did not have them so there was no need for such mounted troops.

Now, having said that, the usual designation for mounted regiments in the Continental army, and then the early US army was light dragoon in the former, and dragoon in the latter. In 1846, when the US fought Mexico, the US army had two (yes, two / 2 / count 'em, t.w.o) regiments of dragoons. There were some mounted companies in the state militias, but as with most militias, they were "chowder and card playing" clubs.

During that war, a regiment of mounted rifles was raised, but that to me means dragoons. By the time of the Civil War, US regiments were designated as cavalry regiments, whether regular or volunteer.

When not at war with Mexico, or with ourselves, US cavalry almost never carried sabres in the field. These were reserved for parade and inspections, etc. Revolver and carbine were the useful weapons in the west.

Edgewaters

I don't think the US did, but Mexico certainly had heavy cavalry forces like the Tulancingo Cuirassiers. Cuera cavalry might count as heavy too - not sure.

huskerguy77

Wasn't Chuck Norris in the heavy calvary?

pikeshot1600

Nah....Texas Rangers.

Richard Stanbery

Perhaps the terms "Heavy Cavalry" and "Light Cavalry" Cavalry might be better studdied in mideaval terms. One might see the heavy Cavalry of the Christ Knights" as opposed to the light Cavalry "Knetchens", both of these types being in the Teutonic Order.

Yes, I play Midieval War II. Its a fun game.

By the time of the advent of American military power, the heavy Cavalry was just not useful for US needs. There was really no nobility, no feudal system and no justification for such types. Once armor plate went away in the face of the gun, then the lines began to blurr where Cavalry was concerned. They became a force more focussed on mobility rather than hitting power. So, the heavy Cavalry was pretty much a gone goslin by the time of America. And...the Indians would have made short work of them anyway. Lancers in the age of rifles muskets? No way.

The American West had more rifles going around in the hands of potential enemies than we might expect to see in Europe of Mexico. Rifles made everything different where US military thinking went. Small experiments with lancers were usually discarded soon enough, as stated above.

Now, the US did adapt some age old horse soldier traditions with our "Mounted rifles" units. But these units were not intended to fight from horseback. They were just infantry who were mounted to give them greater range and speed. In battle, they fought on the ground with rifles, and skirmished and such. They may not have kept to standard infantry tactics, but they did fight on the ground as riflemen.

I t5hink we would still be using mounted rifles today ( on motorcycles) if not for the invention of helicopters.

The US did invent a Heavy cavalry unit in modern times. They took weapons systems such as the M-1 and the M-3 Bradley, and adapted them to Cavalry, rather than Heavy Mech tactics and usages. The were the Armored Cavalry Regiments of the 1980s. They were smaller than a tank unit, didnt always do the heavy tank style tactics, but they were quite a force. I suppose they were very much like the "Kampf Gruppe" of the German army of WWII.

I dont know if any of the Armored Cavalry Regiments as we had in the 1980s are still around like they were, or have been converted to some other type unit.

The whole idea behind the Armored Cavalry Units of the 1980s was the Cold War/ WWIII European scenario. That was considered a useful type of unit to fight the Red Army with.

So, I guess that we could say that the US did, in a way, have heavy Cavalry at one time, but not in a mideival sense.

As usual, I provide another highly muddled and poorly written load of drivel in hopes that somebody finds something interesting, or even amusing in there somewhere. Feeling a little out of sorts today. What was the question again?