Why Btonze Age?

[abaris]

Again, its a vestigial reminder of knights in armor, you know how romantic the French can be.  In fairness though, the cuirass was "proofed" against pistol bullets and since cavalry was ideally supposed to fight other cavalry and they would have been armed with pistol and saber one could argue that it would provide protection against that threat.  It would probably stop a musket ball at long range too, but there it is so much more likely that you'd hit the horse if you hit anything.

We had the same units in our cavalery, although black. Probably because it came cheaper to not add a shiny finish. But the point is, hardly anything in 18th and 19th century attire made much sense in terms of protection. It was rather to impress the opposing force.