Napoleonic Horse vs. Squares In re-reading the account of Vitoria in Michael Glover's Wellington's Peninsula Victories, I came across a quotation from a letter written by an officer of British cavalry in which he stated that his squadron, charging some retreating French infantry, found them perfectly steady in square and "not a shot being fired until the Bayonets had stopped the horses." In view of the occurrence at Garacia Hernandez after Salamanca, when it is said that a mortally wounded horse fell upon the bayonets and in its death agony kicked a gap in the square through which the rest of the cavalry got inside the square, this looks as if it was a known danger, and really steady infantry standing in square against cavalry never did fire until the bayonets stopped the horses. I have never, in a good deal of reading, seen the point made. Has anyone? And if so, where? Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 156 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1975 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com