Breaking the square
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Breaking the square" refers to a cavalry charge that breaks into a defensive formation of infantry known as an Infantry square. This usually results in the total annihilation of the infantry unit since it loses its cohesion and, thus, effectiveness. Although it was every cavalryman's dream to "ride a square into red ruin", such an event was the exception rather than the rule in the history of warfare.
When attacked by cavalry, infantry were forced to form a square. The idea was to deploy four rows of soldiers with the first two rows kneeling and holding their bayonet-tipped muskets in a hedge of steel. The inner rows were standing and fired at enemy cavalry trying to charge into the formation and split it apart by killing the infantry or by pushing them aside with their mounts.
The cavalry tried to counteract square troop formations by charging against them in a tightly packed mass. If the infantry fired too early, the bullets lost their accuracy and most of the troopers lived to charge home. On the other hand, if the infantry held its fire and let the cavalry close before firing a volley at them, the impetus of the charge could be broken by the horses and men stumbling to their death. Moreover, the instinct of a horse facing any solid mass of men, particularly one bristling with bayonets, would be to shy away and thus greatly reduce the chance of breaking a square even if the unit in question fired early.
Throughout the history of warfare, the rivalry of the cavalry charge and the protective infantry formation lead to several definitive attempts to prove one was superior to the other. If the cavalry could catch a battalion before it formed square properly, the horsemen usually carried the day as well as the standard of the decimated regiment back to their own lines. The initial cavalry charges at the battles of Quatre Bras are good examples for this. Other circumstances that could lead to success included sudden rainstorms wetting the infantry's gunpowder and effectively reducing their weapons to pikes, or a wounded horse collapsing into the square, opening a gap that could be exploited, as happened at the Battle of Garcia Hernandez shortly after the Salamanca. Cavalry charges usually encountered square formations that were ready to take them on. At the battle of Waterloo, for instance, the French cavalry charged more than 20 times, according to some sources, and yet failed to break a single square while leaving close to a thousand dead on the field.
