Uhlan

Uhlans (in Polish: "Ułan"; in Russian: Уланы; "Ulan" in German) were Polish light cavalry armed with lances, sabres and pistols. The title was later used by lancer regiments in the Russian, Prussian, and Austrian armies.

Uhlans typically wore a double-breasted jacket (kurtka) with a coloured panel (plastron) at the front, a coloured sash, and a square-topped Polish lancer cap (rogatywka, also called czapka). This cap or cavalry helmet was derived from a traditional design of Polish cap, made more formal and stylised for military use. Their lances usually had small, swallow-tailed flags (known as the lance pennon) just below the spearhead.

In the Turkic Tatar language (written oglan or ulan), it means, amongst other things, a brave warrior or young man. It can also be referred to "Ulan zalata" ("Red-buttoned ones" in Kalmyk/Oirat language) – another generally accepted name for the Kalmyk/Oirat people, who played a significant military role on the steppes on both sides of the lower Volga river basin from the middle of the 17th century until their return back to their Eastern Dzhungar Khanate in 1771. The Kalmyk/Oirat/Dzhungar cavalry made wide spread use of lances both in European as well as Central Asian wars. During the Polish-Lithuanian Union, the name "Ułan" was the surname (family name) of a Lithuanian Tatar noble family whose male family members, like many Lithuanian nobles, had regularly served as light cavalrymen for the Polish kings since at least the 15th century. One of the family members, Colonel Aleksander Ułan, was the commander of a Polish light cavalry regiment in the service of Polish-Saxon kings, August II Mocny (Augustus II the Strong) and Augustus III. After Ułan's death his regiment was nicknamed "Ułanowe dzieci" (Ułan's children) and "Ułanowe wojsko" (Ulan's army) and then shortened to Ułans. Prior to 1764, all Polish-Lithuanian Tatar cavalry regiments in Saxon service were named Ułani (Uhlans or Ulanen).

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