[Felix Wang]

Along with Omdurman, there is another well documented collision between cavalry forces in the 19th century - the charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava. There were plenty of witnesses, including members of the Light Brigade, who were about to launch their own, more spectacular but less successful charge.

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/crimea/paget/heavy.html

Since the vastly superior Russian force was at a standstill and uphill, it is highly likely that the British force actually made contact with them - it is this fight in which the British sabers had trouble cutting through the Russian overcoats, so actual hand to hand combat must have occurred.

[M. Eversberg II]

Lafayette,

If I am a pikeman existing around this time -- what sort of equipment would I have? Lets say I'm Swiss, as they seem to be pretty good.

What about my opponent? He's French. (Did France field Pikes?)

M.

[Mikael Ranelius]

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Well, yes, I nearly forgot the Sikh Wars. This site:

http://www.britishbattles.com

has even more information about the exploits of the crazy British horsemen in those wars.

[M. Eversberg II]

How bout 15th century French pikemen?

And I will give that article a read-through; I must have overlooked it.

M.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

15th century pikemen in the French army...well, I'm not entirely sure about that. Some (modern) authors say that the Scots (both the official royal expedition and the mercenaries) who fought for the French during the Hundred Years' War included a contingent of Lowland pikes, while others contend that it brought only men-at-arms and archers. Later on, the Ordinances do not seem to say all that much regarding the use of pikes, since the French companies were essentially formed of men-at-arms and archers, too--though even these archers would later become heavy cavalry rather than mounted infantry as they were originally intended to be. The auxiliary troops were principally francs-archers, who were armed with bows or crossbows.

When the French crown was on good terms with its Low Countries subjects, we could expect them to employ pikemen from there. They seem to also have employed some pike-armed men from the areas that bordered on the Holy Roman Empire.

Of course, talking about France doesn't necessarily mean talking about the French Crown. The Duchy of Burgundy--whose Ordonnance companies included a number of pikemen on foot--was also technically a French subject, albeit a particularly rebellious one at that. You can find information about the equipment of these Burgundian pikes in many places on the Web, since the Burgundian Ordinances is a fairly well-researched subject. I believe the article on Burgundy in the Features section has something to say about it.

[Felix Wang]

The britishbattles site has this to say about Aliwal:

"The charge of the right wing of HM 16th Lancers is said to have been led by a Sergeant Newsome, who shouted out “Hullo boys, here goes for death or a commission.” He leapt his horse over the kneeling front rank of Sikh infantry and went to grab a Sikh colour. He was killed by 19 bayonet wounds. It is reported that the squadron managed to break into the square because Newsome’s horse was so fiery and ill-trained that it went straight through the infantry. Peacetime cavalry training had horses breaking around an infantry square which made it difficult to persuade them to do otherwise in a real battle. "

This is a bit different from the issue of units colliding with each other; an out-of -control horse can cause a great deal of trouble around it. Once a hole is created, the square tended to collapse.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

It is a case of cavalry coming into contact with unbroken infantry, however. Just like what the British KGL did in that small encounter at Garcia Hernandez, in the aftermath of the Battle of Salamanca

[Jaroslav Kravcak]

[Benjamin H. Abbott]

[Lafayette C Curtis]

[Jaroslav Kravcak]