History Main / CavalryOfficer

The Cavalry Officer is the leader of a group of mounted soldiers. Although by no means restricted to the genre, he appears especially as a stock character in Western fiction. Given the ridiculously huge nature of the American west, cavalry forces were the [[JustForPun workhorses]] of military forces trying to control the frontier. The Cavalry Officer is typically a professional soldier but may also be represented by anyone in control of mounted civilian or paramilitary forces (such as Texas Rangers, for example).

* ''Film/WeWereSoldiers'' presents us with two modern flavors of this: The helicopter pilots, led by Major Bruce "[[NomDeGuerre Snake Shit]]" Crandall go so far as to wear {{Custom Uniform}}s complete with the classic western Stetson hats. Meanwhile, the "Air Cav" ground troops are lead by Lt. Colonel Hal Moore, a paratrooper who believes that an officer's place in battle is at the front of his men, "where the metal meets the meat." Both of course, were RealLife military officers.

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* John Carter of [[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars the Barsoom Cycle]] of books and... ''Film/JohnCarter'' is an ex cavalry-man of the state of Virginia in the American Civil War. In the film, he is forced into being one again for the state of Arizona (despite three escape attempts in the space of five minutes). He is an OfficerAndAGentleman despite [[PermaStubble very much not looking the part]] (the only time we see him clean-shaven in the whole movie is the brief period before [[spoiler: his wife and child are killed and his house burned]]).

However, as cavalry forces have operated in one form or another all over the world throughout history, the trope of the Cavalry Officer extends beyond the use in the Western. The role of the Cavalry Officer implies a certain amount of macho swagger and hubris. They are authoritative and demanding, and contemptuous of people of lesser social station. Even if the officer is in command of an infantry unit, if he is riding a horse while his men are hoofing it, he still counts as a Cavalry Officer. On the positive side, a CoolHorse is a LoyalAnimalCompanion giving the rider plenty of PetTheDog moments, and a cavalry charge looks [[RuleOfCool so cool]] even if often it is HollywoodTactics . And a CavalryOfficer will have more varied adventures roaming about in no mans land then an infantryman standing in formation. If the Cavalry Officer is a good guy, the negative traits may be played down or diminish over the course of the story. Depending on the setting, the Cavalry Officer is usually of noble birth, or at least very wealthy, and is characteristically arrogant and aristocratic.

* Many of John Ford's films feature different types of Cavalry Officers:
** The films of the "Cavalry Trilogy" - ''Film/FortApache'', ''Film/SheWoreAYellowRibbon'', and ''Rio Grande'' - are all about cavalry outposts in the West and show quite a bit of the conventions and rituals of the cavalry. Various types of Cavalry Officer appear, including some who serve as non-coms or other ranks - veterans of the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar who had either served in the Confederate Army or with Northern commissions that only lasted for the duration of the war.

In some ways the Cavalry Officer survived the death of cavalry as an important force on the battlefield, and that his heritage continued in the age of industrialized warfare. For instance, once UsefulNotes/WorldWarI became dominated by trench warfare, quite a number of cavalry officers joined the nascent air service to become fighter pilots, the most famous one being former uhlan officer Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, the RedBaron. This probably helped contribute to air combat acquiring its "chivalric" image. Later on, many British cavalry regiments were re-equipped with tanks instead of horses, but cavalry traditions and modes of thinking persisted. British military historian Corelli Barnett blamed these factors, which for instance led to a tendency to neglect co-operation between armour, mechanized infantry, and artillery, for many British reverses in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Other cavalry units were equipped with armoured cars or helicopters.

* In ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'', Blondie and Tuco encounter a Confederate cavalry officer, who turns out to be a Union cavalry officer after brushing the gray dust off his uniform. He is not amused.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_hussar_5377.jpg]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]

See: MountedCombat

* The appearance of cavalry forces is virtually guaranteed in Western fiction.

* ''Series/{{Deadwood}}'' includes an episode with an arrogant Cavalry Officer on his way to avenge Custer. Almost everyone in town requests a favor of him, and he is not amused.

* "Ole Devil" Hardin in the ''Ole Devil Hardin'' series (set during the Texan war of Independence) and his nephew Dusty Fog in the ''Civil War'' series (set during the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar); both written by Creator/JTEdson.

* ''ComicBook/LesTuniquesBleues'' is about two cavalrymen both in the WildWest and during the CivilWar. The only one who's really typical is Captain Stark, who knows how to do one thing only ("CHAAAAAAAARRRGGGEEEEE!!!"), much to the dismay of his underlings (he once led a charge with a grand total of three men including himself). He also refuses to speak to people on foot, was found straddling a cannon on one occasion where his horse was missing, an has only ''once'' been seen fleeing battle, and that was because there was a wildfire sweeping across the battlefield.

* Éomer in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' is an example of a Cavalry Officer in a non-western setting.
* Several characters in ''Literature/WarAndPeace'', notably Nikolay Rostov, Denisov, and Dolokhov.
* The hero of Creator/TheodorFontane's novel ''Schach von Wuthenow'' (which was also filmed) is an officer of an elite Prussian horse guards regiment, the Gens d'armes, the aristocratic officers of which were notorious for their arrogance and boisterousness. As it is set on the eve of the catastrophic defeat of 1806, there is a sense of dark foreboding.
* Creator/ArthurConanDoyle's ''Brigadier Gerard'' stories, which to a large extent were based on the memoirs of the French Colonel Marbot.

* [[Literature/{{Flashman}} Harry Flashman]] buys a commission as a cavalry officer shortly after being expelled from Rugby and spends most of his career more or less in that service. He displays most of the lifestyle traits, as do many of his comrades.
* Cavalry officers show up from time to time in the ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'' series; they usually show contempt for the title character, an infantry officer who worked his way up from being a common soldier.
* John Carter of [[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars the Barsoom Cycle]] of books and... ''Film/JohnCarter'' is an ex cavalry-man of the state of Virginia in the American Civil War. In the film, he is forced into being one again for the state of Arizona (despite three escape attempts in the space of five minutes). He is an OfficerAndAGentleman despite [[PermaStubble very much not looking the part]] (the only time we see him clean-shaven in the whole movie is the brief period before [[spoiler: his wife and child are killed and his house burned]]).

* Max Hennessey's trilogy (''Soldiers of the Queen'', ''Blunted Lance'' and ''The Iron Stallions'') follows three generations of the Goff family, founders of the (fictional) [=19th=] Lancers, from the Charge of the Light Brigade to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
* Captain "Give-Em-Hell" Stokes of Django Wexler's Literature/TheShadowCampaigns series. Despite his well known enthusiasm, he's generally considered competent, coming to the aid of the heroes while hollering at the top of his lungs at several points in the books.

* ''Film/WeWereSoldiers'' presents us with two modern flavors of this: The helicopter pilots, lead by Major Bruce "[[NomDeGuerre Snake Shit]]" Crandall go so far as to wear {{Custom Uniform}}s complete with the classic western Stetson hats. Meanwhile, the "Air Cav" ground troops are lead by Lt. Colonel Hal Moore, a paratrooper who believes that an officer's place in battle is at the front of his mean, "where the metal meets the meat." Both of course, were RealLife military officers.

* ''ComicBook/LesTuniquesBleues'' is about two cavalrymen both in the WildWest and during the CivilWar. The only one who's really typical is Captain Stark, who knows how to do one thing only ("CHAAAAAAAARRRGGGEEEEE!!!"), much to the dismay of his underlings (he once led a charge with a grand total of three men including himself).

[[AC:Westerns]]

[[AC:Other Genres]]
* Éomer in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' is an example of a Cavalry Officer in a non-western setting.

[[AC:Mechanized Cavalry Officers]]

[[AC:Real Life]]

* Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht Prince Blücher in many ways behaved like a "typical" hussar officer; he lost huge amounts of money gambling and injured himself while participating in a horse-race at age 72, but he was also highly successful leader of operations involving all arms.

* "Ole Devil" Hardin in the ''Ole Devil Hardin'' series (set during the Texan war of Independence) and his nephew Dusty Fog in the ''Civil War'' series (set during the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar); both written by JTEdson.

* George Armstrong Custer's life and death became the subject of several films, including e. g. ''They Died With Their Boots On'' and ''Film/LittleBigMan''.

This is partly because it usually was more expensive to serve in the cavalry than in other arms of service because they wore more [[BlingOfWar glamourous dress]] and had to pay for their own horses - and as a cavalryman you generally could expect to lose at least one or two horses in the course of a campaign. Add to this a tendency of cavalry officers to look upon themselves as a continuation of of the knights of old in more modern times, and you see why in many films set in historic wars a Cavalry Officer tends to be more strict in the appliance of military rituals and codes of honour - when you have a duel scene, there is often a cavalry officer involved - and also more likely to indulge in a spendthrift "aristocratic" lifestyle including gambling, womanizing, racing and various eccentricities to a larger extent than officers of other services. In this context it is worth recalling that both the positive "chivalrous" and the negative "cavalier" are derived from a French root meaning "horseman".

In some ways the Cavalry Officer survived the death of cavalry as an important force on the battlefield, and that his heritage continued in the age of industrialized warfare. For instance, once UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne became dominated by trench warfare, quite a number of cavalry officers joined the nascent air service to become fighter pilots, the most famous one being former uhlan officer Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, the RedBaron. This probably helped contribute to air combat acquiring its "chivalric" image. Later on, many British cavalry regiments were re-equipped with tanks instead of horses, but cavalry traditions and modes of thinking persisted. British military historian Corelli Barnett blamed these factors, which for instance led to a tendency to neglect co-operation between armour, mechanized infantry, and artillery, for many British reverses in UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo. Other cavalry units were equipped with armoured cars or helicopters.

-->You're wrong there. They aren't forgotten because they haven't died. They're living right out there, Collingwood and the rest. And they'll keep on living as long as the regiment lives. The pay is $13 a month and their diet is beans and hay. It may be horsemeat before this campaign is over. They fight over cards or rotgut whiskey but share the last drop in their canteens. Their faces may change, the names. But they're there. They're the regiment, the regular army--now and fifty years from now.
-->Kirby Yorke's [[ToAbsentFriends tribute to comrades]] from ''Film/FortApache''

-->Kirby Yorke's [[ToAbsentFriends tribute to comrades]] from FortApache