"Cossacks on the battlefield" Topic

I was wondering what formation was used by cossacks when on the battlefield (as opposed to when scouting, skirmishing or pursuing stragglers)? Did they form up in a two-deep line like most other Napoleonic cavalry or were they just the swirling mass of horsemen of popular imagination?

Mostly they were milling around in untidy mob stealing booze and horses and placing themselves in their favourite position, which was as far as possible from any armed Frenchmen

Seriously I think they would use a linear formation on the battlefield, especially the Guard and Don Cossacks – I will check my library to see if I can find anything else

Their way of fighting other cavalry is called the Lava. It is fir example explained in Baclk book on tactics. You can download on internet.

Much of their very poor reputation in fighting is for ever retransmitted misubderstanding.
They fight in a different way from others which does not mean they are useless.

They beat several times Polish cavalry, the red lancers, dragoons etc. not necessarilly with overwhelming numbers.

Another use on the battlefield would be a kind of infiltration saturation making the othe side close recce difficult and intercepting messangers.

Thanks guys. I was asking as much as anything because I am trying to decide how to base my cossacks. I do my heavy cavalry boot-to-boot in two ranks and my light cavalry still in two ranks but slightly more spread out. I'm not sure what to do with my cossacks. I was thinking of keeping them in two ranks but making them more spread out than regular light cavalry but I am not sure if this is appropriate.

The Guard cossacks should be considered as Ulans. They were on Orlov Trotter mounts rather than Don horses and had spirs. The men were drawn from the cossacks and the officers were Russians. See my book on the subject.
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The flexible tactics of the Cossacks is more difficult. They would be in looser order than regulars. As above talking about the lava tactic which was more like the horns of the bull where the enemy were envelop the enemy cavalry. Look at the methods of the cossacks. All cosacks were adept with the whip.

Also do not forget the Bashkirs and Khirgiz with bows as desribed by my other books.
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Also there were regular cavalry styled as cossacks as part of the Opolchenie. As well as other that were irregulars.
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Stephen

Stephen

Thank you for the replies and reading recommendations. For anyone interested in the subject, I found this previous TMP discussion (dating from 2008 when the big beasts of the Napoleonic jungle were still roaming the Napoleonic Discussion pages). TMP link

As a tardy answer while they did fight largely in swarms (apparently they had a fondness for moving in a circular fashion to confuse their enemies) when fighting in line Russian authors of the period describe them as fighting in a single line, which often had the effect of out-flanking enemy cavalry- the officer rode behind the line, to "encourage" anyone who might be trying to stay a little behind the line of battle