cuirassiers
Breastplated mounted soldiers
Cuirassiers were cavalry soldiers equipped with cuirasses—the breastplates and backplates that formed their distinctive armor.
These heavy cavalry units served European armies from the sixteenth through early twentieth centuries, charging enemy lines with sword and pistol.
The term now appears mainly in historical contexts: Napoleon's cuirassiers broke through the Austrian center at Austerlitz.
Power-restoring devices or warhorses
- sabersCurved cavalry blades
- horsemenPeople who ride equines
- heavy cavalryArmored mounted soldiers
- mountedFixed in position
troopers · pistols · carbines · gallop · charge · squadron · barding · holsters
Crushing, decisive defeat
- AusterlitzDecisive Napoleonic victory site
- LeipzigMajor Saxon metropolis
- breakthroughSudden important advance
- reserveSupply kept back
Of the French emperor
- Thirty Years War1618-1648 European religious conflict
- Frederick the GreatEnlightened Prussian king
- Grande ArméeNapoleon's principal army
chargers
Power-restoring devices or warhorses
- sabersCurved cavalry blades
- horsemenPeople who ride equines
- heavy cavalryArmored mounted soldiers
mounted · troopers · pistols · carbines · gallop · charge · squadron · barding · holsters · cavalryman
Waterloo
Crushing, decisive defeat
- AusterlitzDecisive Napoleonic victory site
- LeipzigMajor Saxon metropolis
- breakthroughSudden important advance
Napoleonic
Of the French emperor
- Thirty Years War1618-1648 European religious conflict
- Frederick the GreatEnlightened Prussian king
- Grande ArméeNapoleon's principal army
backplate
Armor for the spine
cuirassierslight cavalry
Fast, mobile mounted troops
hussars · lancers · dragoons · scouts · irregulars
cuirassiersinfantry
Ground combat troops
foot soldiers · pikemen · musketeers · grenadiers · fusiliers
harness, armorer, breastplate, armaments, cuirass, armourer, cuirasses