History Main / CavalryOfficer

* General Hans Joachim von Zieten (1699-1786), colonel-in-chief of a Prussian hussar regiment was renowned as a leader of light cavalry; his propensity for ambushing the enemy earned him the sobriquet "Zieten aus dem Busch" (Zieten from the bush). However, he also subverted the trope somewhat, being a pious Lutheran of exemplary morals and also a competent leader of entire armies - when FrederickTheGreat had to leave on other business, he usually entrusted his army to him. One measure of his excellence as a ''leader'' as opposed to a mere fighter was that he is said to have drawn his sabre in anger just once during the entire UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar, even though he led plenty of charges, ambushes etc. (On one reconnaissance he and a few others were surprised by a group of Austrian cavalrymen, compelling him to literally cut his way through).

* The hero of Theodor Fontane's novel ''Schach von Wuthenow'' (which was also filmed) is an officer of an elite Prussian horse guards regiment, the Gens d'armes, the aristocratic officers of which were notorious for their arrogance and boisterousness. As it is set on the eve of the catastrophic defeat of 1806, there is a sense of dark foreboding.

The Cavalry Officer serves as the leader of a group of mounted soldiers. Although by no means restricted to the genre, he appears especially as a stock character in Western fiction. Given the ridiculously huge nature of the American west, cavalry forces were the [[JustForPun workhorses]] of military forces trying to control the frontier. The Cavalry Officer is typically a professional soldier but may also be represented by anyone in control of mounted civilian or paramilitary forces (such as Texas Rangers, for example).

In some ways the Cavalry Officer survived the death of cavalry as an important force on the battlefield, and that his heritage continued in the age of industrialized warfare. For instance, once WorldWarOne became dominated by trench warfare, quite a number of cavalry officers joined the nascent air service to become fighter pilots, the most famous one being former uhlan officer Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, the RedBaron. This probably helped contribute to air combat acquiring its "chivalric" image. Later on, many British cavalry regiments were re-equipped with tanks instead of horses, but cavalry traditions and modes of thinking persisted. British military historian Corelli Barnett blamed these factors, which for instance led to a tendency to neglect co-operation between armour, mechanized infantry, and artillery, for many British reverses in WorldWar2. Other cavalry units were equipped with armoured cars or helicopters.

* Max Hennessey's trilogy (''Soldiers of the Queen'', ''Blunted Lance'' and ''The Iron Stallions'') follows three generations of the Goff family, founders of the (fictional) [=19th=] Lancers, from the Charge of the Light Brigade to WorldWarII.

* Josh Goff in ''The Iron Stallions'' by Max Hennessey -- the third of this trilogy about the Goff cavalry family. As it takes place in WorldWarII, the [=19th=] Lancers have now become an armoured regiment.

Being a cavalry officer also required very specialized skills and a readiness to take (calculated) risks. To be successful, cavalry usually had to charge, and thus the stereotype of cavalry officers favouring AttackAttackAttack and ZergRush tactics, also when put in command of infantry, emerged. Conversely, cavalry standing in one place within the range of enemy artillery or infantry fire often meant having to take losses without being able to inflict some on the enemy, so a sensible officer would take his men out of range, which could lead others to charge the cavalry with not having the stomach for a real fight and waging a war of their own divorced from the real one. Thus in the first half of the AmericanCivilWar, a popular dig among the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac was the question: "Who ever saw a dead cavalryman?" To be fair there were plenty of dead cavalrymen, but unfortunately their most important work took place in skirmishes and recon missions far from the main army where no infantry could see their "deadness".

** The films of the "Cavalry Trilogy" - ''Film/FortApache'', ''Film/SheWoreAYellowRibbon'', and ''Rio Grande'' - are all about cavalry outposts in the West and show quite a bit of the conventions and rituals of the cavalry. Various types of Cavalry Officer appear, including some who serve as non-coms or other ranks - veterans of the AmericanCivilWar who had either served in the Confederate Army or with Northern commissions that only lasted for the duration of the war.
** ''The Horse Soldiers'', based on the real life Grierson Raid of 1863, relates an episode from the AmericanCivilWar. Here most of the officers are not professional soldiers, but very much shaped by their civilian jobs; the only exception is the medical officer.

* "Ole Devil" Hardin in the ''Ole Devil Hardin'' series (set during the Texan war of Independence) and his nephew Dusty Fog in the ''Civil War'' series (set during the AmericanCivilWar); both written by JTEdson.

* Several cavalry generals of the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar, notably the flashy J.E.B. Stuart and George Armstrong Custer, conformed to the image, while some of their more business-like peers like Nathan Bedford Forrest and Phil Sheridan showed how cavalry could be successfully used at the time as mounted infantry. Perhaps not suprisingly, Stuart and Custer had been professional cavalry officers before the war, while Forrest had been a civilian and Sheridan came from the infantry and only was transferred to the cavaly in May 1862.

* RealLife subversion: aristocrats in AncientGreece often preferred to get off their horses and take a place in the phalanx, lest all the {{Determined Homesteader}}s in the city think them wussy for refusing to fight like a Real Man. Another reason was that this was before the perfection of stirrups (1st century AD). A fighter on horseback was very likely to fall off -- the Battle of Lake Ticinus (in the PunicWars) started as a cavalry battle but ended as an infantry battle because so many riders did just that.
* Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Great Cavalier general of the EnglishCivilWar, but even he was unable to stop his officers' and men's tendency to go off in mad pursuit after a successful charge. Because his opposite number Oliver Cromwell, a newcomer to the military, averted the Cavalry Officer trope and always maintained strict discipline, the Parliamentarian side was able to exploit the absence of the Royalist horse, e. g. in the battle of Marston Moor.
* General Hans Joachim von Zieten (1699-1786), colonel-in-chief of a Prussian hussar regiment was renowned as a leader of light cavalry; his propensity for ambushing the enemy earned him the sobriquet "Zieten aus dem Busch" (Zieten from the bush). However, he also subverted the trope somewhat, being a pious Lutheran of exemplary morals and also a competent leader of entire armies - when FrederickTheGreat had to leave on other business, he usually entrusted his army to him. One measure of his excellence as a ''leader'' as opposed to a mere fighter was that he is said to have drawn his sabre in anger just once during the entire SevenYearsWar, even though he led plenty of charges, ambushes etc. (On one reconnaissance he and a few others were surprised by a group of Austrian cavalrymen, compelling him to literally cut his way through).

* Several cavalry generals of the AmericanCivilWar, notably the flashy J.E.B. Stuart and George Armstrong Custer, conformed to the image, while some of their more business-like peers like Nathan Bedford Forrest and Phil Sheridan showed how cavalry could be successfully used at the time as mounted infantry. Perhaps not suprisingly, Stuart and Custer had been professional cavalry officers before the war, while Forrest had been a civilian and Sheridan came from the infantry and only was transferred to the cavaly in May 1862.

* Eomer in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' is an example of a Cavalry Officer in a non-western setting.

If the Cavalry Officer is one of the good guys, you can expect him to be leading TheCavalry [[HorsebackHeroism as they come riding in to save the day!]] In this case, he is often a SupportingLeader. Cavalry Officers have a notoriously poor grasp of time, because they will always manage to arrive at the [[JustInTime last possible moment.]]

* In ''The GoodThe BadAndTheUgly,'' Blondie and Tuco encounter a Confederate cavalry officer, who turns out to be a Union cavalry officer after brushing the gray dust off his uniform. He is not amused.
* ''DancesWithWolves'' features Cavalry Officers, both good and bad.
* ''TheBurrowers'' includes perhaps the most brutally sadistic and completely oblivious Cavalry Officer since Custer himself.

** The films of the "Cavalry Trilogy" - ''FortApache'', ''SheWoreAYellowRibbon'', and ''RioGrande'' - are all about cavalry outposts in the West and show quite a bit of the conventions and rituals of the cavalry. Various types of Cavalry Officer appear, including some who serve as non-coms or other ranks - veterans of the AmericanCivilWar who had either served in the Confederate Army or with Northern commissions that only lasted for the duration of the war.
** ''TheHorseSoldiers'', based on the real life Grierson Raid of 1863, relates an episode from the AmericanCivilWar. Here most of the officers are not professional soldiers, but very much shaped by their civilian jobs; the only exception is the medical officer.
** ''SergeantRutledge'': White officers, black enlisted men.
** ''TheSearchers'': The regular cavalry somewhat lampooned, in particular with the young lieutenant who is the colonel's son and adjutant, and who in the charge only manages to cause an embarrassing wound to the head of the Texas Rangers with his sabre.
* ''{{Deadwood}}'' includes an episode with an arrogant Cavalry Officer on his way to avenge Custer. Almost everyone in town requests a favor of him, and he is not amused.
* Captain Love in ''TheMaskOfZorro'' is a twisted example, partially based on the director's vision of a young Custer.

* 'Ole Devil' Hardin in the ''Ole Devil Hardin'' series (set during the Texan war of Independence) and his nephew Dusty Fog in the ''Civil War'' series (set during the AmericanCivilWar); both written by JTEdson.

* Eomer in ''TheLordOfTheRings'' is an example of a Cavalry Officer in a non-western setting.
* Several characters in ''WarAndPeace'', notably Nikolay Rostov, Denisov, and Dolokhov.

* SirArthurConanDoyle's ''Brigadier Gerard'' stories, which to a large extent were based on the memoirs of the French Colonel Marbot.

* Lord Uxbridge and Lord Ponsonby in Sergey Bondarchuk's ''{{Waterloo}}''.
* ''TheDuellists''.
* Tom Cruise's character in ''TheLastSamurai'' is a prime example of a Cavalry Officer.
* [[{{Flashman}} Harry Flashman]] buys a commission as a cavalry officer shortly after being expelled from Rugby and spends most of his career more or less in that service. He displays most of the lifestyle traits, as do many of his comrades.
* Cavalry officers show up from time to time in the ''{{Sharpe}}'' series; they usually show contempt for the title character, an infantry officer who worked his way up from being a common soldier.
* John Carter of [[JohnCarterOfMars the Barsoom Cycle]] of books and...''Film/JohnCarter'' is an ex cavalry-man of the state of Virginia in the American Civil War. In the film, he is forced into being one again for the state of Arizona (despite three escape attempts in the space of five minutes). He is an OfficerAndAGentleman despite [[PermaStubble very much not looking the part]] (the only time we see him clean-shaven in the whole movie is the brief period before [[spoiler: his wife and child are killed and his house burned]]).
* ''WeWereSoldiers'' presents us with two modern flavors of this: The helicopter pilots, lead by Major Bruce "[[NomDeGuerre Snake Shit]]" Crandall go so far as to wear {{Custom Uniform}}s complete with the classic western Stetson hats. Meanwhile, the "Air Cav" ground troops are lead by Lt. Colonel Hal Moore, a paratrooper who believes that an officer's place in battle is at the front of his mean, "where the metal meets the meat." Both of course, were RealLife military officers.

* Major von Rauffenstein in ''TheGrandIllusion'', a cavalry officer turned fighter pilot.

* RealLife subversion: aristocrats in AncientGreece often preferred to get off their horses and take a place in the phalanx, lest all the DeterminedHomesteader s in the city think them wussy for refusing to fight like a Real Man.
** Another reason was that this was before the perfection of stirrups (1st century AD). A fighter on horseback was very likely to fall off - the Battle of Lake Ticinus (in the PunicWars) started as a cavalry battle but ended as an infantry battle because so many riders did just that.

* Several cavalry generals of the AmericanCivilWar, notably the flashy J.E.B. Stuart and George Armstrong Custer, conformed to the image, while some of their more business-like peers like Nathan Bedford Forrest and Phil Sheridan showed how cavalry could be successfully used at the time as mounted infantry.
** Perhaps not suprisingly, Stuart and Custer had been professional cavalry officers before the war, while Forrest had been a civilian and Sheridan came from the infantry and only was transferred to the cavaly in May 1862.

* ColonelKilgore in ''ApocalypseNow'', the commander of an air cavalry unit.

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The Cavalry Officer serves as the leader of a group of mounted soldiers. Although by no means restricted to the genre, he appears especially as a stock character in Western fiction. Given the ridiculously huge nature of the American west, cavalry forces were the [[JustForPun workhorses]] of military forces trying to control the frontier. The Cavalry Officer is typically a professional soldier but may also be represented by anyone in control of mounted civilian or paramilitary forces (such as Texas Rangers, for example).

However, as cavalry forces have operated in one form or another all over the world throughout history, the trope of the Cavalry Officer extends beyond the use in the Western. The role of the Cavalry Officer implies a certain amount of macho swagger and hubris. They are authoritative and demanding, and contemptuous of people of lesser social station. Even if the officer is in command of an infantry unit, if he is riding a horse while his men are hoofing it, he still counts as a Cavalry Officer. On the positive side, a CoolHorse is a LoyalAnimalCompanion giving the rider plenty of PetTheDog moments, and a cavalry charge looks [[RuleOfCool so cool]] even if often it is HollywoodTactics . And a CavalryOfficer will have more varied adventures roaming about in no mans land then an infantryman standing in formation. If the Cavalry Officer is a good guy, the negative traits may be played down or diminish over the course of the story. Depending on the setting, the Cavalry Officer is usually of noble birth, or at least very wealthy, and is characteristically arrogant and aristocratic.

If the Cavalry Officer is a bad guy, he will inevitably slaughter some innocents and spark a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. This will often lead to the hero seeking DisproportionateRetribution because ItsPersonal. If the villainous Cavalry Officer targets a group of Native Americans, it is guaranteed to lead to GenocideBackfire.

* Captain Love in ''{{The Mask of Zorro}}'' is a twisted example, partially based on the director's vision of a young Custer.

* Eomer in ''{{The Lord of the Rings}}'' is an example of a Cavalry Officer in a non-western setting.

* Lord Uxbridge and Lord Ponsonby in Sergey Bondarchuk's ''{{Waterloo}}''.

* The title character in ''{{Patton}}''. Not only was he once a horse CavalryOfficer, he played the trope to a hilt.

** Another reason was that this was before the perfection of stirrups (1st century AD). A fighter on horseback was very likely to fall off - the Battle of Lake Ticinus (in the {{Punic Wars}}) started as a cavalry battle but ended as an infantry battle because so many riders did just that.

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* Eomer in ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an example of a Cavalry Officer in a non-western setting.

* Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's ''Brigadier Gerard'' stories, which to a large extent were based on the memoirs of the French Colonel Marbot.

* Tom Cruise's character in ''The Last Samurai'' is a prime example of a Cavalry Officer.

* John Carter of [[APrincessOfMars the Barsoom Cycle]] of books and...''Film/JohnCarter'' is an ex cavalry-man of the state of Virginia in the American Civil War. In the film, he is forced into being one again for the state of Arizona (despite three escape attempts in the space of five minutes). He is an OfficerAndAGentleman despite [[PermaStubble very much not looking the part]] (the only time we see him clean-shaven in the whole movie is the brief period before [[spoiler: his wife and child are killed and his house burned]]).

* The title character in {{Patton}}. Not only was he once a horse CavalryOfficer, he played the trope to a hilt.

* In ''The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,'' Blondie and Tuco encounter a Confederate cavalry officer, who turns out to be a Union cavalry officer after brushing the gray dust off his uniform. He is not amused.

** ''The Horse Soldiers'', based on the real life Grierson Raid of 1863, relates an episode from the AmericanCivilWar. Here most of the officers are not professional soldiers, but very much shaped by their civilian jobs; the only exception is the medical officer.

* Captain Love in ''The Mask of {{Zorro}}'' is a twisted example, partially based on the director's vision of a young Custer.
* George Armstrong Custer's life and death became the subject of several films, including e. g. ''They Died With Their Boots On'' and ''Film/LittleBigMan''

* ''WeWereSoldiers'' presents us with two modern flavors of this: The helicopter pilots, lead by Major Bruce "[[NomDeGuerre Snake Shit]]" Crandall go so far as to wear {{Custom Uniform}}s complete with the classic western Stetson hats. Meanwhile, the "Air Cav" ground troops are lead by Lt. Colonel Hal Moore, a paratrooper who believes that an officer's place in battle is at the front of his mean, "where the metal meets the meat."

* George Armstrong Custer's life and death became the subject of several films, including e. g. ''They Died With Their Boots On'' and ''LittleBigMan''

The Cavalry Officer serves as the leader of a group of mounted soldiers. Although by no means restricted to the genre, he appeas especially as a stock character in Western fiction. Given the ridiculously huge nature of the American west, cavalry forces were the [[JustForPun workhorses]] of military forces trying to control the frontier. The Cavalry Officer is typically a professional soldier but may also be represented by anyone in control of mounted civilian or paramilitary forces (such as Texas Rangers, for example).

If the Cavalry Officer is one of the good guys, you can expect him to be leading TheCavalry [[HorsebackHeroism as they come riding in to save the day!]] In this case, he is often TheAragorn. Cavalry Officers have a notoriously poor grasp of time, because they will always manage to arrive at the [[JustInTime last possible moment.]]

* General Hans Joachim von Zieten, colonel-in-chief of a Prussian hussar regiment was renowned as a leader of light cavalry; his propensity for ambushing the enemy earned him the sobriquet "Zieten aus dem Busch" (Zieten from the bush). However, he also subverted the trope somewhat, being a pious Lutheran of exemplary morals and also a competent leader of entire armies - when FrederickTheGreat had to leave on other business, he usually entrusted his army to him.