Just a quick thought for people to chew on for writing and worldbuilding.
A lot of people give The Last Samurai flack for being a heavily fictionalized version of the Battle of Shiroyama. They point out that Saigo Takamori’s forces also used modern weaponry and fortifications, and lost because they ran short of supplies for both and were massively outnumbered by Yamagata’s 30,000 strong army. All of this is true.
But.
After the last round of artillery, Yamagata’s men attacked – and then the samurai did charge, with swords. And men trained in close-quarters combat are terrifying to conscripts only trained with guns. Yamagata’s line broke. For a while.
Actual Imperial casualty numbers on Wikipedia are.. doubtful, given what I’ve studied of history. Still. The number of enemy deaths is not always as important as the enemy’s morale. Yamagata’s army took a serious hit. In the end they won… but The Last Samurai reflects the emotional cost.
Just a thought, for when we’re trying to set up stories that linger with the reader forever.
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
I honestly love that movie. If I had to name a favorite movie, that would probably be it. It just has “something” that appeals to me. Something about that “small measure of peace”, maybe; I’m well aware that I couldn’t function in a pre-industrial village, but the sheer quiet of it is a definite draw.
Anyway. More on topic, yes, I agree completely. Knowing intellectually that you have the upper hand is not necessarily the same as believing you have the upper hand, and belief matters at least as much as weapons in battle. A force of conscripts against a force of charging, screaming, dedicated warriors? Yeah. Add in the kind of primal terror that blades inspire, and while The Last Samurai‘s final battle may not be strictly realistic, it’s close enough to not snap my suspension of disbelief. (Not to mention that terror is perfectly justified, should any of those screaming samurai survive to get in range. Katana against muzzle-loader rifle at anything close to close range? Thank you, no. I’ll just be over here, running for the hills, hoping my dropped rifle trips the madman with the sharp pointy thing.)
…Okay, there’s the bit with Algren throwing his sword like it was a javelin. But that was Cool, and it was directed against someone the movie makes very, very sure the audience hates. I’ll live with it.
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Reminds me of another situation…
https://youtu.be/-AFdwoyNT24?si=xipo5WTyO6VLuFas
Anyway. Instict says, if it’s chasing you, it might be dangerous.
Even if you’re a bear, and that’s a house cat.
Until you have experience in such situations and can decide for yourself in seconds, chances are, the default reaction to something charging you that shouldn’t is get the hell outta it’s way.
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Ripping off an existing battle is usually the wisest.
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Jonathan Young? He’s always good to listen to!
And, yeah, morale is a huge factor in something like this. I would be running away myself.
What’s that gif with the badger running away going Nope! and jumping off a cliff to get away?
Yeah. That’s me.
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Found a video from the turn-of-the-century a while back of Confederate veterans performing the famous “Rebel yell” for posterity. Holy *shoot*. Even aged as they were, seeing and hearing *that* coming down at me in a battle, then tearing through the front line? I would be scared to death and not afraid to admit it!
Though on your note about morale and after watching the video, I am reminded of a different Civil War. After Vision draws the proverbial line in the concrete at the Leipzig Airport between Team Cap and Team Iron, Falcon asks Steve, “What do we do, Cap?”
:beat: Cap: “We fight.”
Team Cap starts walking forward. Natasha shakes her head, mutters, “This is going to end well” as Team Iron starts forward. They keep going and Spider-Men looks between both sides as they pick up speed before saying to Tony, “They’re not stopping.”
Tony: “Neither are we.”
So much for morale on Team Iron’s side. Team Cap doesn’t have anyone who says anything or looks aside to check that they’re taking the right course. They know why they’re there, why they’re fighting. Team Iron? Not nearly so sure, except that Ross and an illegal law are breathing down their necks, and the only other option they have available is for Ross to send in “boys and bullets” to contain Team Cap, shoot Steve “if provoked,” capture Wanda Maximoff, and “eliminate” Bucky Barnes.
Yeah, Team Cap knows why they’re fighting. Team Iron is fighting “to stave off something worse,” only to find they *have* made it worse. A united team could have told Ross to take a hike up a mountain in a blizzard. A divided team can’t…and since none of Team Cap signed the Accords, they are not responsible for the division.
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