What was the largest cavalry charge in history?
The relief charge at Vienna in 1683 is often called the largest cavalry charge in history. Late in the day King John III Sobieski led thousands of Polish and allied cavalry, the winged hussars at their head, down into the Ottoman camp. The charge broke the Ottoman siege of the city.
For thousands of years the cavalry charge was the most fearsome weapon on the battlefield: a wall of horses and steel that could shatter an army's nerve in minutes, or die uselessly against steady infantry. Here are the fifteen greatest cavalry charges in history, the triumphant and the doomed alike, ranked by a score rather than by date; how we chose and ranked them is explained right after the list. Many of the horsemen who rode in them, from the Companions to the winged hussars, rank among the famous cavalry units in history.
1 Vienna, 1683
- Where
- From the Kahlenberg heights into the Ottoman camp outside Vienna, Austria
- War
- Great Turkish War (Ottoman siege of Vienna)
- Who charged
- About 20,000 Polish, Austrian and German horsemen, winged hussars in front (an estimate)
- Against
- Kara Mustafa's Ottoman army, put at about 90,000 to 300,000
- Result
- Siege broken in about half an hour; Ottoman losses some 10,000 to 15,000
In the summer of 1683 Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa laid siege to Vienna, the Habsburg capital. On 12 September a relief army of some 70,000 Poles, Austrians and Germans under the Polish king John III Sobieski came down from the Kahlenberg heights on the Ottoman camp.1
First, says the Wilanów Palace Museum, Sobieski sent Prince Aleksander's hussar company and two others on a trial charge; they lost heavily and Stanisław Potocki was killed. Late in the afternoon came the main blow. The Wilanów museum and the Museum of Polish History both put it at 20,000 horsemen, Austrian and German squadrons riding beside the hussars, and the Museum of Polish History says the decisive charge lasted half an hour. The Ottoman army broke and fled, leaving its guns behind, and Sobieski wrote to the Pope: “Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit,” we came, we saw, God conquered. Ottoman losses are put at 10,000 to 15,000 men.2
Was it the largest cavalry charge in history? It is the usual answer, but it cannot be proven: nobody counted the riders, so 20,000 is an estimate. The main rival, Murat's charge at Eylau in 1807 (No. 9), had about 10,700 horsemen, roughly half as many; older contenders rest on even rougher numbers. In 1983 Pope John Paul II marked the 300th anniversary on the Kahlenberg.3
Why it ranks here: No. 1 because only this charge has top marks for recognition, shock, consequence and memory at once: it is the one most people name, and its victory, in the words of dzieje.pl, ended the era of Ottoman victories. Only certainty holds it back, since its size is an estimate.4
2 Beersheba, 1917
- Where
- Beersheba, southern Palestine (now Be'er Sheva, Israel)
- War
- World War I, Palestine campaign
- Who charged
- 4th and 12th Australian Light Horse Regiments, about 500 to 800 riders (accounts differ)
- Against
- Ottoman trenches held by about 1,000 riflemen with nine machine guns
- Result
- Town and its wells taken; 31 light horsemen killed, 36 wounded; over 700 prisoners
By October 1917 the British had twice failed to break the Ottoman line at Gaza. Beersheba anchored the inland end of that line, 43 km away, and its wells were the only dependable water in the region for the attacking army.5
On 31 October infantry attacks had made little headway by late afternoon. Lieutenant General Sir Harry Chauvel sent in the 4th Light Horse Brigade, and its commander, Brigadier General William Grant, ordered the 4th and 12th Regiments to charge the trenches. They set off in the last light from about 6 km out; after three kilometers Ottoman machine guns opened on them from the flank, but the lines kept going. Accounts put the riders at about 500 to 800. In less than an hour they had overrun the trenches and ridden into the town, taking over 700 prisoners for 31 killed and 36 wounded, and nearly all the wells were intact.6
Myth and fact: it is often called the last great cavalry charge, yet the light horsemen carried no swords or lances and charged holding their bayonets like swords. The result was real enough. The Gaza line was turned, Gaza fell a week later, and Jerusalem surrendered on 9 December 1917. The centenary in 2017 was marked in Beersheba itself.7
Why it ranks here: Memory scores the maximum, since the charge is a pillar of Australian war remembrance, and shock and consequence are high: a brigade at full gallop took a fortified town and its water intact and opened the road to Jerusalem. It ranks below Vienna because one brigade, not an army, charged, and outside Australia and New Zealand it is less widely known.
3 Waterloo, 1815
- Where
- Ridge of Mont-Saint-Jean, south of Brussels, Belgium
- War
- Napoleonic Wars, the Hundred Days
- Who charged
- Two British heavy cavalry brigades; later massed French cavalry under Ney
- Against
- D'Erlon's I Corps; then Wellington's infantry squares
- Result
- D'Erlon's attack routed, two eagles taken; Ney's charges repulsed
On 18 June 1815 Wellington's Anglo-allied army of 68,000 held a ridge south of Brussels against Napoleon's 72,000 while the Prussians marched to join it. The day produced two of the most famous charges in history, one on each side.8
In the early afternoon, as d'Erlon's I Corps pressed on Wellington's left center, the British heavy cavalry struck and rode into the French columns. The Union Brigade of English, Scottish and Irish dragoons routed d'Erlon's columns, and the Royals and the Scots Greys each captured a French eagle; Sergeant Charles Ewart of the Greys took that of the 45th Line. Then they rode too far, into the French guns, and French lancers and cuirassiers cut them to pieces. The Union Brigade lost 617 of its 1,186 men, according to one count, and its commander, Sir William Ponsonby, was killed. Lady Butler's 1881 painting of the Greys, Scotland Forever!, made the moment famous.9
By mid-afternoon it was the French cavalry's turn. Marshal Ney sent massed squadrons, charge after charge, against Wellington's center, and the infantry formed squares. The soggy ground hampered the French, the National Army Museum notes, and in Leggiere's account the charges had no infantry support; the horsemen could make no impression on squares that held despite the French artillery.10
Why it ranks here: Two charges with full shock on the most famous field of the age, and memory at the top: the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards still keep 18 June as Waterloo Day. Consequence holds it down, because neither charge decided the battle: one broke an attack and was then destroyed, the other failed.11
4 Gaugamela, 331 BC
- Where
- Plain of Gaugamela, probably near Tell Gomel, northern Iraq
- War
- Alexander the Great's war against the Persian Empire
- Who charged
- Alexander's Companion cavalry, part of 7,000 horse in an army of about 47,000 (Arrian)
- Against
- Darius III's army: over a million in Arrian, more than 50,000 in a modern account (EBSCO)
- Result
- Darius fled; the Persian army routed
On 1 October 331 BC Darius III met Alexander on a broad plain in northern Iraq with a far larger army, part of it ground his men had leveled for their chariots. Arrian, our main source, gives Alexander 7,000 cavalry and about 40,000 infantry, and credits Darius with 40,000 cavalry, a million infantry and 200 scythed chariots. That last figure is impossible; a modern reference account, EBSCO's, says only that the Persian forces numbered more than 50,000.12
Alexander led his line toward the right, off the leveled ground; the Persians stretched their front to follow and sent horsemen around his flank, and a gap opened. Then, in Arrian's words, he wheeled toward the gap, “forming a wedge as it were of the Companion cavalry and of the part of the phalanx which was posted here,” and led them “with a quick charge and loud battle-cry straight towards Darius himself.” Darius, Arrian says, was “the first to turn and flee.” A Babylonian astronomical diary of the time agrees on the essential point: “the troops abandoned their king.”13
Victory was not yet complete. Parmenion, hard pressed on the left, sent for help, and Alexander turned back from the pursuit into what Arrian calls the most stubborn cavalry fight of the day, in which about sixty Companions fell. But the Persian army was finished. Babylon, Susa and Persepolis lay open, and Alexander was proclaimed king of Asia.14
Why it ranks here: Consequence is the maximum: one charge decided the fate of the Persian Empire, and Alexander's name keeps it widely known. Certainty holds it down, because every number comes from ancient writers, and the charge was a wedge of Companions aimed at one man rather than a mass of tens of thousands.
5 Kircholm, 1605
- Where
- Kircholm on the Daugava near Riga (now Salaspils, Latvia)
- War
- Polish-Swedish War
- Who charged
- Chodkiewicz's army of about 3,600, some 2,600 of them cavalry, with the winged hussars at its core
- Against
- Charles IX's Swedish army, about 11,000 (one count over 13,000)
- Result
- Swedish army smashed within a few hours; 8,000 to 9,000 Swedes killed (estimate)
In September 1605 King Charles IX of Sweden was besieging Riga. The Lithuanian hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz marched to relieve it with about 3,600 men, 2,600 of them horsemen, against a Swedish army usually put at about 11,000; one count, of 10,868 infantry and 2,500 cavalry, makes it larger still. The two armies met on 27 September at Kircholm on the Daugava.15
The Swedes held strong ground. Chodkiewicz drew them off it with a trick: part of his force pretended to flee. When the Swedish line came forward, the winged hussars, the Commonwealth's heavy lancers, struck it in a series of charges. The Swedish cavalry was driven off, the infantry was left isolated in separate blocks for the hussars to pick off, and after three hours the army was destroyed. Swedish dead are estimated at 8,000 to 9,000. The Commonwealth lost only 100 to 200 men, among them just 13 hussars.16
The victory did much to end Charles IX's invasion of Livonia, but unpaid soldiers left the army and the war dragged on. Its fame spread at once: the rulers of England and Persia and the Pope sent their admiration, and today the battle is in every Polish history textbook.17
Why it ranks here: Shock and consequence both score the maximum: it is the textbook hussar charge, destroying an army three times larger in about three hours. Recognition holds it at No. 5, since outside Poland and among military historians the name is far less known than Vienna or Waterloo.
6 The Light Brigade at Balaclava, 1854
- Where
- Valley north of Balaclava, Crimea
- War
- Crimean War
- Who charged
- British Light Brigade, about 670 men (673 in the National Army Museum's count)
- Against
- Russian batteries at the end of the valley, with guns and riflemen on both flanks
- Result
- Reached the guns but fell back; about 110 killed and some 260 killed, wounded or captured
On 25 October 1854 Russian troops attacked toward Balaclava, the harbor base of the British army besieging Sevastopol. That morning the Heavy Brigade had already done what cavalry was meant to do: about 800 British heavy horsemen charged uphill into some 3,000 Russian cavalry and threw them into disorder in about ten minutes.18
Then came the order for the cavalry “to advance rapidly to the front” and stop the Russians carrying away captured British guns. The cavalry commanders could not see those guns. What they could see was a Russian battery at the end of a defended valley, and that is where the Light Brigade went, under fire from three sides. Captain Louis Nolan, who had carried the order, was the first man killed. Some riders reached the guns and drove off the gunners, but the brigade could not hold them and fell back. Of about 670 men, some 110 were killed and 161 wounded; the National Army Museum counts about 260 killed, wounded or captured and 475 horses lost.19
The battle ended in stalemate. The French general Pierre Bosquet is remembered for his verdict: “C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre,” it is magnificent, but it is not war. Tennyson's poem, with its “Some one had blunder'd” and its refrain “Rode the six hundred,” made it the most famous charge in English verse.20
Why it ranks here: Recognition, memory and certainty all score the maximum, but consequence is the lowest possible: the charge changed nothing and wrecked the brigade, and its futility is its fame. That keeps it at No. 6, behind charges that won battles, though recognition lifts it above Somosierra on the same score.
7 Somosierra, 1808
- Where
- Somosierra pass on the road north of Madrid, Spain
- War
- Peninsular War (Napoleonic Wars)
- Who charged
- One squadron of the Polish Light Horse of Napoleon's Guard, under 90 to about 200 riders (estimates vary)
- Against
- About 8,000 to 9,000 Spanish troops with 16 guns in four batteries
- Result
- Charge lasted about eight minutes; about 54 to 56 Poles killed or wounded
In November 1808 Napoleon was marching on Madrid, and the road ran through the Somosierra pass. General Benito de San Juan held it with 16 guns in four batteries strung along 2.5 km of road and some 8,000 to 9,000 infantry. On 30 November the impatient emperor ordered the 3rd squadron of his Polish Guard light horse to take the guns head on.21
The squadron rode up the winding road straight into the fire of the batteries. Its strength is disputed: one British account counts 87 or 88 riders, a Polish one about 200. According to General Józef Załuski's memoir, its commander Jan Kozietulski had the men draw their sabers and shout “Long live the Emperor!” The charge went on from battery to battery; Lieutenant Andrzej Niegolewski reached the last one with nine bayonet wounds and two bullet wounds, and survived. The whole charge lasted about eight minutes. The Poles lost about 54 to 56 killed and wounded, and some 3,000 Spaniards were taken prisoner.22
The road to Madrid was open: the French advance guard reached the city on 1 December and, in Rickard's account, entered it on 4 December. Painters and poets turned the charge into a national legend, and Poles and Spaniards still mark the anniversary at the pass, where it has become, in the words of the Polish Institute in Madrid, a day of Polish-Spanish brotherhood.23
Why it ranks here: Memory is the maximum, with a national legend still commemorated at the pass, and the consequence was large for a few minutes' work. Shock, recognition and certainty hold it lower: a single squadron charged, its strength is given as anything from about 88 to about 200 riders, and the battle is little known outside Poland and Spain.
8 Cannae, 216 BC
- Where
- Plain by the Aufidus river, Apulia, southern Italy
- War
- Second Punic War
- Who charged
- Hannibal's cavalry under Hasdrubal: about 10,000 horse in all
- Against
- Rather more than 6,000 Roman and allied horse, then the rear of about 80,000 infantry
- Result
- Roman army destroyed; 48,200 to about 70,000 dead (Livy, Polybius)
Hannibal came to Cannae with fewer infantry than Rome but far more horsemen: about 10,000 against rather more than 6,000, by Polybius's count. His plan for the infantry, a center that would give way and wings that would close in, could only work if someone shut the back door. That job went to Hasdrubal, who held the Spanish and Gallic heavy horse on the left, beside the river.24
There was no room to maneuver between the river and the infantry, so the two cavalry forces met head on and fought face to face; Livy describes horses jammed together and riders dragged from the saddle. The Roman horse was cut down or driven off. Hasdrubal then rode behind the battle to the far wing, where the Numidians were skirmishing with the allied cavalry, and the allies fled at his approach. Leaving the Numidians to chase them, he turned his squadrons on the rear of the legions and charged again and again at many points at once. Polybius puts the Roman dead at about 70,000; Livy gives 48,200. Both are ancient figures and disputed. Hannibal lost about 200 horsemen.25
Why it ranks here: No charge on this list did more to decide a battle, and Cannae is still the model of encirclement. It sits eighth: on the same score it beats Eylau on consequence and Blenheim on fame. It is no higher because the horsemen are remembered as part of Hannibal's trap rather than for themselves, and every number comes from ancient writers.
9 Eylau, 1807
- Where
- Preussisch Eylau, East Prussia (now Bagrationovsk, Russia)
- War
- War of the Fourth Coalition (Napoleonic Wars)
- Who charged
- Murat's reserve cavalry, about 10,700 horsemen
- Against
- Bennigsen's Russian army, about 67,000, and its center
- Result
- Russian attack disrupted and French center saved; about 1,500 French cavalry lost; battle a bloody draw
On 8 February 1807, in a snowstorm, Napoleon fought Bennigsen's Russians at Eylau in East Prussia with about 45,000 to 49,000 men against some 67,000. Augereau's corps, blinded by the blizzard, lost its way and ran into the Russian guns, which cut it to pieces and left a hole in the French center.26
Napoleon filled it with his cavalry. Murat gathered every horseman he could find: John Prados puts the charge at 10,700 horsemen, while J. Rickard counts 10,700 cavalry, mostly dragoons, with about 1,900 cuirassiers and 1,500 of the Guard on top. They beat the Russian cavalry in front of them and burst through the Russian infantry; in Rickard's account they first drove off the Russians who had attacked Eylau, broke through the infantry of the Russian center and then turned on it from the rear, and both writers say the Guard cavalry covered their return. It cost about 1,500 horsemen, but it disrupted the Russian attack and bought time for Davout's corps to reach the field.27
This is the main rival to Vienna for the largest charge in history. At about 10,700 horsemen it is roughly half the size usually given for Vienna, though both figures are estimates. The battle itself ended in a draw with huge losses on both sides. Balzac later made his Colonel Chabert a survivor of “Murat's famous charge.”28
Why it ranks here: Shock scores the maximum, with ten thousand horsemen through an army's center and back, and the charge saved Napoleon's army from defeat. Recognition and memory hold it to No. 9, and so does certainty: counts of its squadrons and riders differ. The battle was a draw, and outside Napoleonic history the charge is little known.
10 Blenheim, 1704
- Where
- Blenheim (Blindheim) on the Danube, Bavaria, Germany
- War
- War of the Spanish Succession
- Who charged
- Marlborough's Allied horse, from an army with 92 squadrons
- Against
- Tallard's French center, in an army of at least 60,000
- Result
- Tallard captured; about 14,000 French and Bavarians taken prisoner
In the summer of 1704 the Duke of Marlborough marched an Allied army from the Low Countries to the Danube to save Vienna from a French and Bavarian advance. On 13 August he and Prince Eugene of Savoy, with 56,000 men, attacked at least 60,000 under Marshal Tallard, Marshal Marsin and the Elector of Bavaria. The first Allied assaults on the villages failed, but each one pulled more French troops out of the center to defend the flanks.29
Late in the afternoon Marlborough saw the weakened center and sent his cavalry, with infantry in support, into the open ground between Oberglau and Blenheim, where the Allies now had more men. Tallard's horse broke under the charge; nine battalions of young French recruits were ridden over where they stood. The squadrons then wheeled and drove the beaten French toward the Danube, where, according to the National Army Museum, over 3,000 men drowned. Tallard was captured, the infantry trapped in Blenheim village surrendered, and the French and Bavarians lost about 14,000 prisoners. Vienna was safe, Bavaria left the war and the Grand Alliance held together.30
Why it ranks here: The charge decided one of the most consequential battles of its century and appears on the National Army Museum's own list of famous charges. Recognition holds it at tenth: outside Britain, Blenheim is better known as a palace than as a cavalry action.31
11 Adrianople, 378
- Where
- Near Adrianople (today Edirne, Turkey), Thrace
- War
- Gothic War of 376 to 382
- Who charged
- Gothic cavalry under Alatheus and Saphrax, with Alans
- Against
- Emperor Valens's Roman army; numbers unknown
- Result
- Valens killed; only about a third of his army escaped
In 378 the Eastern emperor Valens marched against the Goths, who were spreading devastation over the plains of Thrace. On 9 August he found their wagon camp near Adrianople. Valens had been told there were only about 10,000 of them. He did not know that a large body of Gothic horsemen under Alatheus and Saphrax was away from the camp, and the Gothic leader Fritigern spun out peace talks while he waited for them to come back.32
The Roman left wing had pushed right up to the wagons when the riders returned. In the words of Ammianus Marcellinus, the Gothic cavalry, with a band of Alans, dashed out “as a thunderbolt does near high mountains” and threw down everything in its path. The left, deserted by the rest of the Roman cavalry, collapsed, and the infantry were packed so tightly that men could hardly raise their swords. Valens fell mortally wounded at dusk and his body was never found. Ammianus writes that barely a third of the army escaped and that no defeat in Roman annals compared with it except Cannae. Ammianus is the only detailed source, and modern historians say the battle cannot be reconstructed with certainty.33
Why it ranks here: The charge killed an emperor and let the Goths settle inside the Empire, consequences few battles can match. It ranks eleventh because almost everything we know comes from one writer, and the army sizes are guesses.
12 Krojanty, 1939
- Where
- Krojanty, near Chojnice, Pomerania, Poland
- War
- German invasion of Poland, World War II
- Who charged
- Part of the 18th Pomeranian Uhlan Regiment, two squadrons in one account
- Against
- A German infantry battalion, then armored cars
- Result
- Infantry scattered; charge stopped by machine-gun fire, commander killed
On 1 September 1939, the first day of the war, the 18th Pomeranian Uhlans spent the day holding up the German advance near Chojnice. Toward evening their commander, Colonel Kazimierz Mastalerz, was ordered to counterattack and then pull back behind the Brda river.34
Near Krojanty the uhlans came upon a German infantry battalion that was not ready for battle, and charged it; in the account of Kombatant, the veterans' office monthly, two squadrons, some 200 riders, came out of the woods. The infantry broke and scattered. Then hidden German armored cars opened fire from the flank with heavy machine guns, and the uhlans suffered heavy losses. Mastalerz was killed, but the clash held up the German advance. On 2 September, the Institute of National Remembrance notes, the regiment received the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari.35
Myth vs fact: the Polish cavalry did not charge German tanks at Krojanty; it charged infantry and was cut down by armored cars, and the tank story grew after foreign correspondents were shown the field once German tanks had arrived, and was then spread by German propaganda. Heinz Guderian later repeated it in his memoirs.36
Why it ranks here: Krojanty is here for its fame and its living memory, both driven by the myth, so the myth note is the point of the entry. It ranks twelfth because the charge was small, stopped short and changed little.
13 Rossbach, 1757
- Where
- Rossbach, Saxony (today Saxony-Anhalt), Germany
- War
- Seven Years' War
- Who charged
- Prussian cavalry under Seydlitz, from an army of about 22,000
- Against
- French and Imperial army of about 41,000 to 45,000
- Result
- Allies routed with about 10,000 lost; Prussian loss about 550
In November 1757 Frederick the Great, beaten at Kolin that summer, faced a French army under the Prince of Soubise and the German Imperial army in Saxony. With about 22,000 men he was outnumbered roughly two to one. On 5 November the allies marched in a wide arc to get around his flank, sure that the Prussians were retreating.37
Frederick used the Janus Hill to hide his moves. As the allied columns came on, Prussian guns on the Janus Hill opened fire on their leading cavalry, and General Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz led the Prussian horse, hidden until then behind the rise, straight into them. The allied squadrons were shattered before they could deploy and fled into their own infantry. Seydlitz rallied his men and charged again into the flank of the columns, which Prussian infantry volleys had already shaken. The battle lasted less than two hours, and the German History in Documents project says it was decided by Seydlitz's cavalry. The allies lost about 10,000 men; the Prussians about 550. A month later Frederick won again at Leuthen, and the French never came so far east again in the war.38
Why it ranks here: Few charges won so complete a victory for so little cost, which gives Rossbach top marks for consequence. Recognition keeps it at thirteenth: outside Germany it is known mainly to students of Frederick the Great.
14 Klushino, 1610
- Where
- Klushino, west of Moscow, Russia
- War
- Polish-Muscovite War
- Who charged
- Polish-Lithuanian hussars under Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski; 3,000 to 6,500 horse (counts differ)
- Against
- About 15,000 to 30,000 Russians and 5,000 to 7,000 foreign mercenaries (estimates vary)
- Result
- Russian and mercenary army broken; road to Moscow open
In 1610, during Russia's Time of Troubles, King Sigismund III of Poland was besieging Smolensk, and a Russian army under Dmitry Shuisky, with a Swedish-hired corps of foreign mercenaries under Jacob De la Gardie, marched to relieve it. Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski went to meet it with an army made almost entirely of cavalry. J. Rickard counts 5,556 hussars and about 1,000 other horse, with 200 infantry and two small guns; a 2019 Sejm resolution puts his cavalry at about 3,000. Either way he faced a far larger army: Rickard gives 30,000 Russians plus 5,000 to 7,000 mercenaries, while Przemysław Gawron of the Wilanów Palace Museum cites Radosław Sikora's estimate of about 15,000 Russian soldiers.39
In Rickard's account, after a night march through the woods the Poles attacked the camp on 4 July, but a fence delayed them and gave the enemy time to form up. For about five hours the hussars charged again and again, first breaking the Russian horse. The mercenary reiters answered with the caracole, riding up to fire their pistols and wheeling away, and were swept off by lance and saber. The mercenary infantry held out until the two Polish guns came up, then surrendered. With its field army gone, Moscow accepted the Polish prince Władysław as tsar and Polish troops entered the Kremlin.40
Why it ranks here: Klushino has top consequence: one day of charges put a Polish garrison in the Kremlin. Low recognition outside Poland and Russia and disputed numbers keep it at fourteenth, though Poland still remembers it, and the Sejm named 2020 the Year of Hetman Żółkiewski.41
15 Patay, 1429
- Where
- Near Patay, north of Orléans, France
- War
- Hundred Years' War (Loire campaign)
- Who charged
- French vanguard under La Hire and Poton de Xaintrailles, about 1,500 mounted men-at-arms by one estimate
- Against
- Talbot's covering force of about 500 archers; English army of 1,000 to 5,000 (estimates differ)
- Result
- English army routed, Talbot captured; English losses from several hundred to 2,500 (disputed)
After the siege of Orléans collapsed in May 1429, the French, with Joan of Arc urging them on, retook the English strongholds along the Loire. Sir John Fastolf and Lord Talbot arrived too late to save Beaugency and fell back north, slowed by their baggage, with the French on their heels. On 18 June, south of Patay, Talbot took a covering force of about 500 archers to hold a dip in the ground while Fastolf formed the main body behind.42
The archers began driving their stakes into the ground, the usual English defense against cavalry, but the work was slow. Then, the story goes, a stag broke cover in front of them and they raised a hunting cry, which gave their position away to the French scouts. Shortly after two in the afternoon the vanguard of picked horsemen under La Hire and Poton de Xaintrailles charged straight in, turned both flanks of the archers and cut them off from the main body. The fight became a massacre. Talbot was captured, Fastolf withdrew, and the English field army was largely destroyed. English losses are put anywhere from several hundred to 2,500 dead, wounded or captured; the French lost very few. Within a month the Dauphin was crowned Charles VII at Reims.43
Why it ranks here: Patay ended the Loire campaign and opened the road to Reims, which gives it top marks for consequence; that is what won its tie with Mars-la-Tour. It sits last because it was more a surprise attack at the gallop than a set-piece charge, and every number is disputed.
How we chose and ranked these cavalry charges
We counted a cavalry charge as a mounted attack at speed meant to break the enemy by shock. Whole battles fought between masses of horsemen, such as Komarów in 1920, belong to our guide to the largest cavalry battles in history; the units themselves are in the most famous cavalry units.44
We considered 22 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which charges are the most famous; shock, consequence and memory count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the name is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of its kind, 1 if only specialists know it.
- Shock (×2). 5 if a massed charge at full speed broke its target, 1 if it was a small or stalled mounted attack.
- Consequence (×2). 5 if it decided a battle or a war, 1 if it changed nothing about the outcome.
- Memory (×2). 5 if it is still a living tradition (a day of remembrance, a monument, a unit custom, a song), 1 if it is forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if the numbers and events are confirmed by independent sources, 1 if they rest on one source or are disputed.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better-known charge, then to the one with the greater consequence, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them. It explains, for example, why the Charge of the Light Brigade, the most famous charge in English, is only sixth: it changed nothing about the battle, and that futility is exactly why it is remembered.
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Shock ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Memory ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vienna | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 48 |
| 2 | Beersheba | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 42 |
| 3 | Waterloo | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 42 |
| 4 | Gaugamela | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 41 |
| 5 | Kircholm | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 41 |
| 6 | The Light Brigade at Balaclava | 5 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 38 |
| 7 | Somosierra | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 38 |
| 8 | Cannae | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 36 |
| 9 | Eylau | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 36 |
| 10 | Blenheim | 2 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 36 |
| 11 | Adrianople | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 35 |
| 12 | Krojanty | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 34 |
| 13 | Rossbach | 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 34 |
| 14 | Klushino | 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 33 |
| 15 | Patay | 2 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 31 |
Close calls
Five charges came close and did not make the fifteen:
The Heavy Brigade, 1854. On the same morning as the Light Brigade at Balaclava, the outnumbered Heavy Brigade charged a large Russian cavalry force that had halted near the British camp and drove it from the field in a few minutes (eight by one account, ten by another). It was a real success, but it is told inside the Light Brigade entry rather than given a place of its own.45
Izbushensky, 1942. In August 1942, near the Don, some 600 Italian horsemen of the Savoia Cavalleria charged about 2,000 Soviet infantry with machine guns and mortars and helped drive them from their position. It is often called the last major cavalry charge in history, and it is covered in our section on the last cavalry charge rather than on the list.46
Omdurman, 1898. The 21st Lancers, with the young Winston Churchill in their ranks, charged what Churchill took for a line of riflemen scarcely a hundred strong and rode into a hidden gully holding some 2,500 warriors; 21 lancers were killed and, by Churchill's count, 119 horses were killed or wounded. It is famous, but it was a sideshow that cost the regiment heavily for little gain.47 › Battle of Omdurman, 1898
Rokitna, 1915. On 13 June 1915 about 70 uhlans of the Polish Legions under Captain (rotmistrz) Zbigniew Dunin-Wąsowicz charged Russian trenches in Bukovina and broke through three of the four lines; 15 were killed, Dunin-Wąsowicz among them. Legendary in Poland, it is little known elsewhere and did not reach its objective.48
Mars-la-Tour, 1870. On 16 August 1870 General von Bredow led six squadrons of cuirassiers and uhlans, some 800 troopers by William E. Welsh's count, onto the French guns west of Metz and deep into the rear of Canrobert's VI Corps, halting its advance. The famous “Death Ride” missed the list on certainty: its numbers and losses rest on few sources, and it lost a tie with Patay on consequence.49
How many horsemen rode in the charge at Vienna?
No one counted them, so every figure is an estimate. Two Polish museums, the Wilanów Palace Museum and the Museum of Polish History, put the cavalry at about 20,000, with the winged hussars at the front and Austrian and German horse beside them. That size is why Vienna is so often named the largest cavalry charge in history.50
Sobieski did not commit everything at once. According to the Wilanów museum, he first sent forward Prince Aleksander's hussar company and two other companies under Stanisław Potocki to test the ground; they lost heavily and Potocki was killed, but the probe showed that a charge could get through. The main blow followed late in the afternoon, and the Museum of Polish History says it took about half an hour to decide the day. Whether it was truly the largest charge ever cannot be proven, because the numbers for every rival are just as uncertain. The heavy lancers who led it are described in our guide to the winged hussars; the largest clashes in which whole masses of horsemen fought each other are a separate question, covered in the largest cavalry battles in history.51
Did Polish cavalry charge German tanks in 1939?
No. That story is a myth. At Krojanty in Pomerania, late on 1 September 1939, the 18th Pomeranian Uhlans charged a German infantry battalion that was not ready for battle and was scattering it when German armored cars hidden on the flank opened fire with machine guns. There were no tanks on the field.52
The regiment's commander, Colonel Kazimierz Mastalerz, was killed in the charge, and on 2 September the regiment was awarded the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari. The tale of lances against armor grew up afterward. German and Italian war correspondents reached the field only later, when German tanks had arrived, and German propaganda spread the story. Heinz Guderian repeated it in his memoirs, writing that the Pomeranian Cavalry Brigade had attacked his tanks with swords and lances. What Polish cavalry really did against German armor on that first day is told in our account of the Battle of Mokra.53
What was the last cavalry charge in history?
There is no single answer, because small mounted attacks continued after the great charges ended. Three actions of World War II are usually named: the US 26th Cavalry at Morong in the Philippines in January 1942, the Italian Savoia Cavalleria at Izbushensky in August 1942, often called the last major charge, and Polish uhlans at Borujsko in March 1945.54
On 16 January 1942, on the Bataan peninsula, First Lieutenant Edwin Ramsey led a detachment of the 26th Cavalry, Philippine Scouts, against a Japanese force many times its size; the US Army calls it the last mounted cavalry charge in American military history. On 24 August 1942, near the Don River, some 600 to 700 Italian horsemen of the Savoia Cavalleria charged Soviet infantry estimated at 2,000 to 2,500 men and helped drive them from their positions. Some accounts date the charge to 23 August, and HISTORY notes that smaller, less well recorded charges probably took place later in the war.55 › Battle of Bataan, 1942
On 1 March 1945, during the fighting for the Pomeranian Wall, about 220 uhlans of the 1st Warsaw Independent Cavalry Brigade, led by Zbigniew Starak, rode at German positions at Borujsko and took them; seven of the charging uhlans were killed. It is remembered as the last charge of Polish cavalry, though the historian Juliusz Tym argued that it did not meet the conditions of a true charge and called it a mounted attack.56
Why did cavalry charges come to an end?
Firepower ended them. Britannica dates the decline to the late nineteenth century, when repeating rifles and machine guns stripped cavalry of much of its old value. By World War I, modern artillery, rifles and machine guns made a mounted charge against an unbroken line so costly that it could rarely succeed.57
The National Army Museum in London points to Audregnies in Belgium on 24 August 1914, where British lancers and dragoons charged across open ground into German rifle, machine-gun and artillery fire and were cut down; after such experiences, it concludes, the days of the mass cavalry charge were over. Horsemen did not vanish at once. Through the war cavalry scouted, guarded flanks and often fought on foot, and in 1918 it rode forward again in the final Allied advance. After the war, Britannica notes, cavalry units gave up their horses for armored vehicles and became mechanized or armored cavalry. How the old heavy and light horsemen differed in role is explained in heavy cavalry vs light cavalry.58
