General term for any combatants mounted on horses. (Sometimes used as well for riders of other types of animals.)
Although it survived in name, by the time of the Korean War cavalry had almost disappeared from the U.S. Army. It was still officially one of the Army's combat arms and armor was still only a temporary detail branch.
Heavy, Battle or Light. Carabineers, Cuirassiers (with and without breastplate armor), Dragoons, Hussars, Chasseurs, Cossacks... Company The building blocks of an infantry battalion. Companies may be formed from skirmishers, riflemen, light infantrymen, grenadiers...
troops trained to fight on horseback; "500 horse led the attack"
a highly mobile army unit
a mobile army unit, especially one that travels by horseback
A branch of the military mounted on horseback. Cavalry units in the Civil War could move quickly from place to place or go on scouting expeditions on horseback, but usually fought on foot. Their main job was to gather information about enemy movements.
Soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback in combat are commonly known as cavalry (from French cavalerie). The designation was not usually extended to any military force that used other animals, such as camels or mules. Infantry who moved on horseback but dismounted to fight on foot were in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries known as dragoons, a class of mounted troops which later evolved into cavalry proper while retaining their historic title.