Distance marching rates, infantry v cavalry

[Nathan Ross]

there is always this thread - haven't the time to wade through it now...

http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat.html?fu...=entrypage

Ah, thanks Moi - I'd missed that one! And it does indeed have the information that Junkelmann used for his estimate, courtesy of Robert Vermaat:

Marcus Junkelmann quotes the US Col. William B. Hazen who said that when a mixed force of cavalry and infantry goes on a march, for the first 3 days it's the cavalry that easily outdistances the footsoldiers. However, from the 4th day both reach camp together and from the 7th day it's the infantry that even needs to slow down to make it possible for the cavalry to reach camp before nightfall.

But surely this would depend on the size of the 'force', and I wonder if anyone's tried to work this out? I would assume that a single mounted man, or even ten men on horseback, would be able to outdistance the equivalent number on foot even at a walk over seven days or so, but how large would the force need to be before logistical problems would tip the balance and the cavalry start moving slower than the infantry?

This thread has a discussion on legionary marching speed (anything from 12 to 21 miles a day seems average), and there's Vegetius's estimate of 18-24 Roman miles in five hours (which is 18-21.5 of our miles). Does anyone have a figure for how fast cavalry were expected to move? Or can we just assume that they were expected to keep pace with the infantry and no more than that?