A number of years ago, Mike Venturino of "Handloader" magazine commented that the Calvary had a main input in the choice of the 45 ACP round for Government issue handguns when the 1911 was being considered. At the time, the Calvary was still "king" of military units and they wanted a gun and round that would put down a horse.
That made sense to me.
Sorry that I cannot provide links to the information but I can agree with it.
Don't know just who created the requirement which the Army reverted back to 45 caliber. If you remember, the Army had gone to
38 Long Colt, decided it did not provide the lethality needed. After issuing old Colt SAA in 45 LC caliber, the Army also procured 45 LC New Service revolvers. The references state these were issued to Infantry, and probably, anyone else.
The Cavalry did have the main input into features for the pistol as the Cavalry was the primary combat user of the pistol. Cavalry carried swords, and practiced with the sword right up to WW2. Cavalry carried M1903 rifles, which is why the M1903 has a 24 inch barrel instead of a 29 inch barrel. But Cavalry was practiced pistol charges and given that shooting a rifle off a horse was impracticable, the pistol was a primary weapon in close combat.
No where have I found a requirement to shoot horses. That is a false inference that because Cavalry rode horses, therefore issue small arms must kill horses. I ask, why kill horses when you want to capture enemy horses but kill the rider? The rider is the threat, not the horse. Horses were valuable due to their high rate of attrition. Armies were always scrambling to find new horses to replace ones that died. Was the Patten saber designed to kill horses? Might as well claim the infantry wanted their pistols to kill tanks, once those got on the battle field. Did we not all see Tom Hanks shoot a Tiger Tank (in Saving Private Ryan) with a M1911?. Ergo, the infantry wanted a pistol which would destroy 40 ton tanks armed with 88 mm cannons.
In fact, I bet infantry did wish they had something, anything, portable that would stop a Tiger tank. I don't know what a bazooka would do to a Tiger tank. Wishes are like fishes.
Now where can I buy one of these?