Reddit reviews Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

Empire of the Summer Moon goes into a little about Comanche shields shrugging off bore from Kentucky rifles. I think a lot of it had to do with the angle of the shields and the speed in which the Comanche struck. They never had to deal with a volley of 100 shots in one direction, often they were circling around their opponents who were in free fire mode and scared out of their wits. But they were effective.

Quanah Parker.

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.

Best Seller in Native American & Aboriginal Biographies


“Transcendent . . . Empire of the Summer Moon is nothing short of a revelation . . . will leave dust and blood on your jeans.”--New York Times Book Review


4.5 Stars with nearly 3,000 ratings

Thinking the question through; the question of who had the best cavalry is a moot point given the greater effect of battlefield tactics and military strategy on outcomes; and maybe conflates two separate questions: who had the best individual horse soldiers, and who utilized cavalry battle tactics against their peers (setting aside the issue of the progressive dominance of firearms) most effectively? It's a fun question. For my money, the Mongols take the second point- if only because they demonstrated dominance against all of their Chinese enemies on a range of terrains (they were great at sieges too) and decimated European/Polish mounted knights in the field who had superior forces, armor, and home turf advantage. In fact, the Europeans were decimated by what was effectively a Mongolian flanking force, sent to protect the much larger force en route to attack Hungary (for a great [read], (http://www.historynet.com/mongol-invasions-battle-of-liegnitz.htm) look at the battle of Liegnitz. They lost due to poor field discipline/organization and battlefield tactics, of which the Mongols were simply in another league.

The Mongols as a military force demonstrated tactical and strategic superiority as well as battlefield discipline, and in numbers that exceeded any other standing army (perhaps 1 million solders at peak), until the 1700's.

As far as individual horse soldiers and riders go, I might put my money on the Comanche Indians circa 1750-1880, who ran circles around both the Spanish in Mexico and other Indian tribes in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado to the extent that they were able to delay both Mexican northward colonization and Texas western settlement for 50 to 100 years with as few as 150,000 tribesman- perhaps 15 to 30,000 mounted warriors at any given time. Deadly with both bow and lance, they easily defeated every other Indian tribe they conflicted with, and were so capable on horseback that entire villages (men, women, children, and gear) were able to outride and evade mounted American cavalry- using Indian guides- for years. One witness described a battle tactic where individual riders would hook an ankle over the neck of their horse, then swing under, and release multiple arrows from a protected position underneath the horse's neck. I mean come on. That's movie stuff. They could also execute effective battlefield tactics (against other mounted horsemen) in parties of several hundred or more warriors. Individual war parties could and did cover 500-700 miles - from New Mexico to Kansas in a period of days or weeks, leading both the Spanish and American armies to consistently overestimate their numbers. They were highly territorial and were fully cognizant of the risk of encroachment of both the Spanish and the Americans. For information and an all around good read, check out Empire of the Summer Moon. The Texans for a time, and later the US Army, defeated them through attrition and superior weaponry once repeating firearms appeared on the battlefield scene. But man for man, horse for horse, and weapon for weapon, people who knew claimed that the Comanches were the best mounted cavalry then in existence. Individually, they probably spent more time on horseback, and on a war footing, than even individual mongol mounted soldiers many of whom were at least partially sedentary. But again, they could not defeat- and were not culturally prepared for- massed numbers and battlefield tactics involving tens of thousands of soldiers.

Empire of The Summer Moon about the Commanche civilization.