"Cavalry charges through bridges?" Topic

For game resolution pupose: how to, what results to expect for it?
Was warching again, Horse soldiers by the irreplacable J Ford…
Here and there ( for ex Thiry garde d'honneur in 1814) you read about sucessful ( héroique?) Charges clearing the ennemy… any idea how frequent? And how may failed ones?
Obviously it woukd depend on the lay of the ground, but we in our games hardly get into details.

The one that comes to mind is Pajol's charge at Montereau in 1814 where he crossed the bridges and into an allied corps.

Yes this kind… can't be that easy.
I would have overlap for the infznyry, still charge ( which includes non sq penalties for infantry) but a variable sort of terrain help for the infantry. Still would make it near evev for decent cavalry. Maybe too easy.

At Montereau Pajol's untrained cavalry were pretty much out of control. I doubt even Pajol could have stopped them. However, there are deliberate charges over bridges on the record as at Charleroi in 1815 and various combats in the Peninsula. In the rules I use, barricades stop cavalry on bridges and if infantry are formed up on the bridge they count as in square (no flanks) at the very least. If there is nothing in the way, the narrow frontage gives the cavalry a penalty in being 'unformed'. It seems to work relatively realistically.

But Pajol's charge, out of control or not after he ordered and led it, was a successful one and might have not been successful if it was not conducted by untrained cavalry.

JC, you might want to use the mechanism of the "Emergency Dice" described in the 1828 supplement to the Kriegsspiel rules from the Berlin War Game Association.

This is a mechanism for cases not described in the rules. The action is described and then 5 dice from a special set are rolled. The dice have 5 blank sides and one numbered side. The numbers are 1,3,4,5,6. If the score from the dice is 8 or more then the action succeeds, the enemy forces are repulsed with no losses or disruption. If the score is less than 8 then the action fails and all troops committed to the enterprise are lost.

Baring's 1872 translation of the v.Tschischwitz rules relies firstly on the umpire to determine the debouching from a defile. It is not particularly useful but does describe using the dice in some circumstances.

It seems the Austrians were already retreating when Delort's brigade attacked over the bridge. Pajol's biography mentions two battalions of the Austrian regiment Colloredo which were defending "the first buildings" – doesn't sound like a massed fire.

link

As usual with games, if in history it is a very rare stuff, no need in rules or maybe a rare card discarded if ecer drawn. But it means nearly never tried either.

Whether cavalry or infantry/ foot, breaking into, crossing, across and combating through a defile is always a relatively slim game of chance unless there are substantial considerations nearby- like a fully deployed skirmish/ regular line or battery.

I don't believe this is that rare if you extend out the parameters beyond just a bridge. Down/along town roads, paths and cliff lined roads (ie Spain/ Switzerland/ Alps etc.).

The competence of the force attacking, its' elan and skill paramount; in Pajols case perhaps we are saying their 'ignorance' of what may happen to them? I'll look up some data tables I made many years ago to perhaps find some.

It wont work under rules that say a whole battalion gets to fight (ie more dice) simply because they are deployed. A withering fire perhaps, fair enough, but actually fighting imbalances the transaction too much.

Yet look at the number of 'narrow defiles' storming attacks that ocurred in many campaigns, like '96 of course.
d

Feldkirch, 1799?

Massena's main column attempted a frontal assault against Austrian entrenchments. The assault was up one road – virtually a causeway, with a marsh to the left and mountainside to the right. While the infantry could perhaps shake out across the difficult terrain to left and right to some extent, the cavalry really couldn't. Nevertheless, a detachment of cavalry actually charged over the entrenchments and got into the Austrian position. (Briefly.)

Per Clausewitz:
link

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!
groups.io/g/bloodybigbattles
bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com

My guess to happen more than you know, to me a bridge is just a different defile and a sigle road isnt wide enough for maybe 4 horses side by side. So its a luck roll but not impossible.

The way I was treating it, equal troops, attacker would have something like 30% chances of at least pushing in. Dependind on the lay of the ground ( high stone sides protecting from musketry? Enfiladed a bit a la Burnside bridge etc. ) would put benefits to the defenders , as in villages to make it simple, arty support or others on both sides helping. Still put the attacker in disorder.

Having just finished reading John Gill's new book on Znaim, I am reminded of the successful charge over a bridge at the gallop of a French cuirassier regiment – ordered by Massena on 11 July 1809. Gill even dedicates a two-page appendix to the charge.

Excellent point-well done.

The cuirassier brigade commander at the bridge was General of Brigade Adrien-Francois-Marie Guiton (1761-1819). He commanded the 10th and 11th Cuirassiers.

In 1815 he commanded a cuirassier brigade composed of the 8th and 11th Cuirassiers with which he frontally charged the Union Brigade and helped defeat them. He was supported by Jacquinot's lancers who charged from the Union Brigade's left flank. It was those two brigades that ruined the Union Brigade.

So, Guiton took part in at least two notable charges. He was also in d'Hautpoul's cuirassier division at Eylau.

Interestingly, he was in Hamburg in 1813-1814 with Davout and was probably involved with the creation of the short-lived 15th Cuirassiers which Davout had ordered formed and organized from cadres from the 1st Cuirassiers then in the city.

Most of this information can be found in Georges Six's Dictionary.