# The last cavalry charge

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-cavalry-charge/63721>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 29, 2001, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-cavalry-charge/63721 "2001-04-29T12:43:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-cavalry-charge/63721/21 "2001-05-01T19:47:27Z")

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When I saw the subject in the index, I thought “that’s easy: Ombdurman”, where British forces under Kitchener defeated the Mahdi; Sudan, 1898. I’d always heard that described as the Last Cavalry Charge.

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**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-cavalry-charge/63721/22 "2001-05-01T21:13:49Z")

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If you take Archer Jones’ superb _The Art of War in the Western World_ at face value, the modern day equivalent of cavalry would be a tank. It is a rough battlefield equivalent to the breastplate-wearing cavalier carrying both sword and pistol; mobile, armored, capable of using both shock (or crunch) and ranged attacks.

Similarly, a Bradley fighting vehicle might be the rough equivalent of mounted infantry.

The motorcycle is still used by many nations in the same capacity that the horse served in for so long: reconaissance and communications.

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**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-cavalry-charge/63721/23 "2001-05-02T01:30:46Z")

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A little different take on this.

I am of the opinion that the last cavalry charge has not yet occured. There are an immense number of Mongolian mounted warriors out there (living not just in Mongolia, but Russia and Chine, cf. Little Nemo’s and JCHeckler’s posts). It wouldn’t take much to push these guys over the edge and into full Golden Horde action. It’s just a little border dispute away.

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**Author:** ![warinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@warinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/warinner)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-cavalry-charge/63721/24 "2001-05-02T15:07:54Z")

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A definitional quibble: ‘cavalry’ is trained and equipped to fight on horseback. ‘Mounted infantry’ gets to the battlefield on horseback but fights on foot. So, yes, there were ‘cavalry’ units that fought in WWII, but they were really mounted infantry.

David Cronan wrote:

> [@](#):
>
> He points out one drawback of horses over trucks-that of fuel.If you don’t use a truck for a few days it does not need any fuel.A horse,on the other hand,needs to be watered and fed every day even if its not doing any work.So you have to provide more transport just for horse feed.

Yabbut, motorized transport suffers from the same effect. Trucks burn gas/diesel transporting POL to the front lines. At some point fuel expended in transportation exceeds the fuel transported.

And mechanization requires huge amounts of supplies. Mechanized armies travel no faster than those did by hoof and shoe leather.

Andrew Warinner

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