Post
by Dfogleman2 » Fri Dec 01, 2017 9:45 pm
A few comments. The Swedish horse regiments were supposed to be issued with cuirasses but quite often did not wear them. Whether armored or not, they were more than equal to the Saxon and Danish cuirassiers. Indeed, the Swedish dragoons easily took on the Saxon cuirassiers. The dragoons at Fraustadt were every bit the equal of the horse.
Prior to 1708, the Russian dragoon regiments had grenadiers. The Grenadiers were stripped out and were combined into regiments in 1708.
At least in the 17th Century Polish “Cossack” cavalry were their generic cavalry. Pancerni were armored Cossack cavalry that began to be called pancerni in order to avoid confusion with the true Cossacks. I agree that there were few hussaria. I would simply class all Polish, Lithuanian and Cossack cavalry as light horse.
There was a large number of Cossack infantry in Russian service in the 1706 Polish campaign. By and large, they did not do well.