"Cavalry in the RCW" Topic

What allowed the use of formed cavalry in the RCW when it had seen its last days during the 1870s? If charges were acts of desperation during the FPW what made them less so half a century later?

Wide open spaces? Really badly trained infantry? White cavalry officers observed afterward that the Red infantry got better each year,but it was starting from a very low base.

Sometimes I look at the RCW and I see F N Maude's "Future of Cavalry" actually coming to pass--dispersed infantry with long-range weapons just scattering the bullets over more and more countryside so the compact and disciplined cavalry get through. But if the cavalry wasn't disciplined, or the infantry was--well, read Harris' Light Cavalry Action for a fictional view.

Just the same as the mass use of Russian cavalry in WW2, mounted infantry in dense terrain (or in the south, lots of undulations and vast spaces to hide in).

Cavalry wasn't abandoned on the Western Front because it was ineffective. It's that it was only effective give in certain situations and was really expensive.

In the RCW cost was no longer an issue, as all troops foraged anyway. So a cavalryman cost no more than an infantryman. There would have been more if they could have found more horses. Extra mobility at no cost -- what's not to like?

A few cavalry units were tactically superior (mostly Whites with experienced officers) but mostly cavalry was a strategic weapon, able to out-manouever opponents. Hence cavalry was largely used as a mass (apart from small amounts as scouts in infantry units).

While there were certainly occasional wild charges like out of an earlier era, weren't most of the cavalry in the RCW dismounting to fight.

So as Mark Plant states, extra mobility is great.