Cavalry is so good

[Gael]

You guys are testing my memory ...

The first successful cavalry charge I recall was Jeb Stuart's cavalry charging into the right flank of the Fire Zouaves during the Battle of 1st Manassas.  I remember reading about one of the officers carrying a horse pistol and shooting one Soldier in the chest and blew a sizable hole all the way through.  Stuart had about 400 cavalry and it was very effective at that moment.  The Fire Zouaves were recruited from the fire houses in the city of New York.

The use of square formations was performed by BG Lane during the 1st day of the Battle of Gettysburg.  After causing the I Corps to retreat to Cemetery Hill, BG Buford played for time as best he could by lining his troopers in charge formation to attack Lane's right flank as he was moving toward Cemetery Hill.  By appearing readying to charge, Buford caused Lane to order his regiments to form squares - just in case Buford was serious.

The third cavalry case I recall was during the last part of the Battle of Cedar Creek in the lower Shenandoah Valley in 1864 when Sheridan's force outnumbered Jubal Early's II Corps by about 40,000 to about 11,000.  After the sudden dawn attack upon the Yankee force at the bottom of Massanutten Mountain surprised and defeated them, Sheridan (visiting with Grant elsewhere) rode full speed to the field of battle, rallied his troops and pinned back the Southerners to a fairly firm defensive position at Fisher's Hill(?).  Then Sheridan sent Custer and a large cavalry force to the right flank to form up for a cavalry charge to smash Early's left flank, which collapsed the Southern force.  This ended Early's foray to Washington DC and back, and Early's reputation as a general was basically shattered from then on.  This may have been the somewhat hidden reason that he was one of the main attackers against LTG Longstreet after the war - if one doesn't like the light shown on one's own record, some people often attack someone else to shift the boss's focus from themselves ...

                 --Gael

[Hitorishizuka]

More anecdotes:

1 brigade of melee cavalry killed 1 brigade of infantry in the opening skirmish

2 brigades of melee cavalry killed 1 brigade of artillery+1 brigade of infantry on two occasions on Day 1

4 brigades of melee cavalry + 1 ranged cavalry killed 1 brigade of infantry and wounded another, then 1 brigade of cavalry, then a number of skirmishers, and finally 1 brigade of infantry+1 brigade of artillery on Day 2

They're absurdly strong and critical for shattering otherwise healthy brigades that just happened to get isolated. You just have to either keep them close to take advantage of appropriate opportunities or deliberately send them hunting on big maps and pick your spots.

[Fletch]

You can repel cavalry in this game fairly easy with infantry.  One decent volley into them from a brigade makes them think twice, they are best used for running down already broken units or units with poor moral.

[Hitorishizuka]

4 hours ago, Fletch67 said:

You can repel cavalry in this game fairly easy with infantry.  One decent volley into them from a brigade makes them think twice, they are best used for running down already broken units or units with poor moral.

Best to use them as pack hunters. Use one to draw the attention of an enemy brigade but stay out of range, then have one come in from the side faster than it can say "clever girl".

[vren55]

Strangely enough I managed both Confederate and Union campaigns on medium difficulty without hiring any cav brigades. I honestly found them useless when I can swarm/over-firepower the enemy with infantry, or defend a point with a brigade of artillery supporting a brigade of infantry. Maybe it's because i'm bad at micro, but I just was able to use infantry + artillery combination to win all my battles.