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Balkan stradioti.Superb mercenaries.Many fought against the turks.Note the cool eagle wings.
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Finnish hakkapellita[literally 'hack them down' men],elite swedish light cavalry under gustavas adolphus.
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Perhaps the least intimidating looking,yet most effective cavalry in history.The north african numidian skirmisher cavalry,were the finest light cavalry of the ancient mediterranean.Thye were used by hannibal in his victories against rome,but later switched sides to the romans and helped defeat hannibal at zama,his only defeat.Later they served in roman armies as auxillaries.Masters of raiding,ambush,skirmishing these were born berber cavalrymen rode their horses without saddles!
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Napoleon's polish lancers,among the deadliest cavalry of the age.These served in french service as exiles trying to free poland which had been broken up by russia,austria and prussia.
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French hussars,known for their dash and elan,colourful uniforms,reckless bravery and their notorious womanizing,drinking and dueling skills.The primary type of napoleonic light cavalry it was said 'the hussars were loved by every wife and hated by every husband'.They were the eyes and ears of the french army.They were nicknamed beau sabreurs[handsome sabres].
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A famous daredevil hussar general lasalle once quoted 'Any hussar who isn't dead by the age of 30 is a blackguard'.Lasalle's brigade was called 'hell's brigade' and among the most decorated ones in the french army.Lasalle was a brilliant commander, once bluffed a prussian general into surrendering a fortress with 10000 troops with 500 hussars!
In Italy, Lasalle was exchanged and took up a love affair with an Italian marquise in Vicenza. This led to an incident on 17 December 1796 in which he led a party of troopers to his lover's house — deep within Austrian lines. Lasalle was a good nobleman and fluent in many languages, including German, so he deceived the various patrols that gave him and his men trouble. After making love to his marquise, he left at dawn revealing his French uniform in the light. Lasalle and his men were found and surrounded by 100 Austrian hussars. Once he was discovered he escaped by bluffing and fighting his way out eventually leaping his horse over the parapet of a bridge to avoid capture. With only 18 men he routed 100 Austrian hussars but in the heat of the pursuit he found himself isolated.
He was then alone and surrounded by four of these Austrian hussars that refused to surrender. Lasalle fought his way out, injuring all four hussars, lost his horse, and swam across the Bacchiglione River. He arrived on the banks of the Bacchiglione regrouped with his men as they gave him a captured Austrian horse to ride back to camp uninjured. This incident brought Lasalle to Napoleon Bonaparte's attention the morning after when he rode a captured Austrian horse on parade. Napoleon questioned Lasalle and Lasalle told him it was a horse from an Austrian hussar patrol in Vicenza. Napoleon shouted “Are you crazy?” and was preparing a court martial until Lasalle gave him the information that he obtained during the skirmish. Napoleon saw in Lasalle a daring and courageous man that could be a useful in missions of infiltration behind enemy lines where one needs to make his own decisions with haste and good judgment. Napoleon pardoned Lasalle and even made him chef d'escadron of the 7th Regiment of Hussars on 6 January 1797 by only saying “Commandant Lasalle, remember that name.”
He justified his rapid progress and reputation when The Battle of Rivoli was won with 5,000 French casualties and 14,000 enemy Austrian casualties including eleven captured flags, six of which were captured by Lasalle.
He also founded the “Society of Alcoholics” an initiative that shocked the entire high society of Paris except for Napoleon. It is reported that in one month they drank all that existed of foreign wines in Salamanca.
Back in Egypt Lasalle had been intimately connected with Joséphine Berthier, wife of General Victor-Leopold Berthier, the then Minister of War and Chief of Staff. Joséphine and Berthier divorced in which Lasalle proposed to her. Napoleon gave Lasalle 200,000 francs as a reward. When they met at the Tuileries Palace, Napoleon asked “When is the wedding?” Lasalle replied saying “Sire, when I have enough money to buy the wedding presents and furniture.” Napoleon said “But I gave you 200,000 francs last week, what did you do with them?” Lasalle replied “I used half to pay my debts and have lost the rest gambling.”
Such a confession would have broken the career of any other soldier but coming from Lasalle made the Emperor smile. Napoleon merely ordered Marshal Duroc to give Lasalle another 200,000 francs. Napoleon thought highly of Lasalle and would pay off his debts and forgive his rowdy behavior unfitting of an officer. When a prefect asked why Napoleon didn't discipline Lasalle for his conduct, Napoleon responded saying that “It only takes a stroke of a pen to create a prefect, but it takes twenty years to make a Lasalle.”
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Lasalle was known for charging into battle with only a pipe ,he was killed in 1809 at wagram.His loss was deeply felt by napoleon.Lasalle's pipe and sabre are displayed at the french war museum at the les inavlides,paris.
