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Crippled Splendour: The French Cavalry from Valmy to Toulouse
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Crippled Splendour: The French Cavalry from Valmy to Toulouse
GRACEFUL and
agile, the horse combines strength, agility,
and intelligence in a degree found in no
other beast of burden. Used to toiling long
hours in harness to plough, cart, wagon or
coach, the horse could also be found beneath
his master, bearing him to market or into
battle. With the invention of gunpowder, and
the development of weapons to use it, the
horse soon found himself harnessed to heavy,
cumbersome artillery pieces. With the
evolution of lighter and more mobile
artillery in the eighteenth century, the
horse came to dominate draught work,
exceeding all other work-animals in its
capacity to move artillery at speed. Discover the role played by the French cavalry during the Waterloo campaign, from period eye-witness accounts and testimonies. This unique series, using over 400 archival accounts of Waterloo, many not being in print before, bring the battle of Waterloo to life in a dramatic way in the two volumes that deal with the British and French cavalry forces in the battle (see the companion volume Charge the Guns! Wellington’s Cavalry at Waterloo). We see how the Allied light cavalry provided one of the hammer blows that defeated Napoleon when it rode down the Old Guard. Many cherished myths of Waterloo are also examined, for example that the Imperial Guard heavy cavalry charged under orders, contrary to Napoleon’s own take on the battle. The French training system, as demonstrated in the author’s book Au Galop! Horses and Riders of Napoleon’s Army, shows that the French were superior horsemen with a training regime that gave the French superior battlefield manoeuvrability, so that the French cavalry could charge time and time again, a trick the British only seem to have partially learned through hard fighting in Spain. It is obvious that the lack of training for the British was the death knell for the Union and Household Brigades – they had not been in action in some cases for over a decade, and this was exposed at Waterloo when the French rode over the Union Brigade and the King’s Dragoon Guards (see the companion volume Boots and Saddles: Horses and Riders of Wellington’s Army). This series of four complementary books by Paul L Dawson, a postgraduate of the University of Leeds with an MA in historical research as well as being an noted equestrian, brings to light new ground-breaking research into the study of cavalry in the Napoleonic wars. No similar study has been undertaken since Valentine Wood’s partial study at the turn of the 20th century. The author’s work goes far deeper, and using material overlooked by Wood, primarily French as well as archive sources, overturns a lot of the received wisdom on Napoleonic cavalry, its battlefield performance and theoretical training.
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