The most oft-cited story is that the French Hussars, Napoleon’s cavalrymen and noted saber-wielders, were the first to do it. Napoleon was himself a great champion of Champagne, ...

The French leader sent Hussars, famed French cavalrymen, to go see if they could intimidate the Dutch into surrendering, but at this point the Dutch weren’t intending to do much else.

Comte de Lassale, the famous “Hussar General” of the French army said, “Any hussar who is not dead by the age of 30 is a blackguard,” and this description was spot on for Russian hussars.

The winged horsemen or the hussars were a uniquely Polish kind of cavalry sometimes called ‘one of the world’s most efficient units’ due to their spectacular victories. Thanks to their unparalleled ...