Would the rickshaw have been useful to an Early Modern army?

So modern armies have a lot of supplies they need to carry with them, and for centuries, they relied on horses, mules, and oxen pulling carts for their transportation. However, these draft animals require a lot of feed; in the American Civil War, the Army of the Potomac was feeding its tens of thousands of horses 25 lbs of feed a day. In terms of weight, that's enough for 5-10 men.

The rickshaw was only invented in the late 19th century, from what I'm seeing, but it looks to me like if you were able to substitute a portion of your horse drawn supply train with rickshaws (say, rotate men from a section through 1 hour shifts pulling it, switching during the hourly five minute halts), you could significantly lighten the army's supply load. You'd need more individual vehicles, but you have tons of 'engines' that as is are just pulling their own weight.
 
Not really the place and timeframe you are thinking of but the Incas and aztecs could have great use of it
 
Not really the place and timeframe you are thinking of but the Incas and aztecs could have great use of it



Seems as if all the stairs would get in the way, the roads were built for feet. Simple wheeled barrows might be better, similar to the big wheeled Chinese 'wooden ox' with hand grips on both ends. The roads could have ramps at the steps, in the middle or on the side.
 
A rickshaw would be hugely useful for any early modern army. It is lighter and more durable than any comparable mode of transport, which means it allows for relatively fast and reliable supplies over short to medium distances. The problem is that it is also a very advanced piece of technology, so it's rather hard to see where early modern armies would get them. Even the most basic design depends on having access to high-grade metals and spring suspension, and the wheels take a lot of sophisticated engineering even when they're made of wood (bicycle wheels seem to have taken over quickly). I suspect it's like with bicycles - any design worth having would be beyond the capacity of earlier ages to build, and anything they could have built would not have been an improvement over what they had.
 
Could they have adopted a simpler wheelbarrow instead? They were invented pretty early on in China, and would offer comparable advantages in terms of being able to dispense with a waggon or mule train.
 
horse drawn wagon can carry much much more, conestoga is 12,000lb according to wiki. A mule 400lb+

Man portable is really only viable in the sort of roadless place you cannot move artillery.
 
Yeah, but the horses pulling aren't part of the army's fighting strength the way privates pulling carts would be, so you could theoretically have as many rickshaws as you have soldiers, while retaining the same fighting strength.
 

ben0628

Banned
I could see this happening in countries that can't afford large budgets for their military (maybe the confederates adopt this during the ACW) however if you got the money for horses and wagons, you should go with horses and wagons. Why pointlessly exhaust your infantry (especially if the roads are muddy or covered in snow)? Not only that but the deployment from march mode to combat mode for infantry would take longer since they would all have to put down their rickshaws before deploying in lines.
 
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