Mounted Warriors

From Alexander the Great and Cromwell to Stuart, Sheridan, and Custer

Gene Smith

• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780471783329
• eBook ISBN: 9781620459706
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

Men, Horses, and All Kinds of Weapons

It may startle some people to remember that, little more than a century ago, the horse was not only humanity's primary means of swift transportation, it was also a major participant in warfare. For more than four thousand years, men mounted horses and galloped at one another in large numbers, wielding clubs, axes, lances, swords, bows and arrows, pistols, rifles, and more. They charged into swarms of arrows, hales of bullets, volcanoes of cannon fire, and legions of other men on horseback, chopping, stabbing, hurling spears, and firing guns. And their exploits became the stuff of romance, drama, and legend.

Mounted Warriors brings you back through the millennia to discover the beginnings and the development of warfare on horseback and meet some of the most remarkable, daring, and courageous men who ever spurred a charger from trot to gallop. You'll find out how Alexander trained Bucephalus to the saddle when all others failed, how Cromwell was transformed by battle, what several British generals had to say about Light-Horse Harry Lee, and why Phil Sheridan changed his horse's name. You'll even learn how the romantic novels of Sir Walter Scott influenced the nature of the American Civil War.

The age of the cavalry charge may be past, but when you read Mounted Warriors, you'll rediscover all of its drama, pageantry, and glory.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Beginnings
• 2 Xenophon and Alexander
• 3 Barbarians and the Age of Chivalry
• 4 The High Middle Ages
• 5 “Terrible as Death, relentless as Doom”
• 6 “My children, follow me!”
• 7 Light-Horse Harry
• 8 The Highest Calling a Soldier Could Know
• 9 “The crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood”
• 10 “The best damned cavalryman ever foaled in America”
• 11 The War
• 12 Little Phil
• 13 “For this are we soldiers”
• 14 “No one ever came to grief—except honorable grief—through riding horses”
• 15 The Desert Mounted Corps
• 16 “It was a bit of a façade, wasn’t it?”
• 17 The Last Cavalry Charge
• Bibliography
• Index