Medieval Life Documentary: The Hidden Secrets of Knight's Armor

Of course, the story of European and European-derived armor does not end here. French cavalry wore steel helmets and breastplates during the Napoleonic Wars and were called curaissiers after their curaisses, the French word for breastplates. In the 1860s, a factory in Connecticut produced steel breastplates that were privately purchased and used, with mixed results, by some Union officers in the American Civil War. The same armor development programs from World War 1 that experimented with silk armor also led to a reexamination of medieval armor, as well.