I enjoy employing plenty of bullet fodder melee and kamikaze cav. I send the melee into a straight charge, line the musketeers up in range, and sneak up on their muskets with my cav. I then send my cav on an all out charge to do as much damage as possible while the melee is still working its way over there, all the while my ranged is picking a few off here and there. Once what is left of my melee and cav get there i usually head in as well and take out the few who are not in melee and aiming their guns at my guys.
Note- This is not very effective against an enemy with pretty much any cav, well i suppose it is situational. But it works well for everyone else. Plus, it's pretty darn cool when you're fighting someone and he gets shot in the head from your muskets a little ways away.