ARMOR-CAVALRY: Part 1; Regular Army and Army Reserve/Civil War

by Mary Lee Stubbs and Stanley Russell Connor

• At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the mounted forces in the Regular Army consisted of the five regiments mentioned, still bearing their different names- dragoons, riflemen, and cavalry- and still considered three distinct arms. Besides their different firearms and the number of privates per company, which varied from time to time, the regiments had uniforms that differed principally in the color of the trim, which in 1861 was orange for the dragoons, green for the riflemen, and yellow for the cavalry. The three arms also had distinctive insignia. The dragoons and cavalrymen wore crossed sabers and the riflemen "a trumpet perpendicular." In later years the trumpet perpendicular was incorporated in the coat of arms and distinctive insignia of the 3d Cavalry- now 3d Armored Cavalry- the descendant organization of the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen.^[1].

• Small as they were, the Regular mounted forces could have been of valuable service in the early days of the Civil War if they had been readily available, but they were not. When the war began the companies of the horse regiments were widely scattered over the country; most were in the west and southwest, too distant for ready concentration. In the Battle of Bull Run in July 1861 only seven companies of Regular cavalry were included in the Union Army of about 40,000 men.

• So wide a distribution of the nation's mounted forces would in itself have been sufficient cause for concern to the Army in the opening battles. Other factors, however, were equally disruptive and hard to overcome. Many officers joined the Confederacy- four of the five colonels commanding the mounted regiments resigned from the Army. More important, however, was the fact that the military leaders of the day neither valued nor understood the potential of the horse regiments. Although the cavalrymen on the western Plains had learned through experience that the continuous, long-range fire of the new breechloading rifles had destroyed the effectiveness of the saber charge against infantry, General Scott and others in Washington clung to that precept for the employment of cavalry. They did not visualize the effective employment of cavalry in broken, wooded areas. Believing that the war would be short, and noting the cost of arming, equipping, and training a mounted force, they agreed that the new improved firearms carried by the less expensive infantry rendered a more mobile force unnecessary. In January 1862 Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan urged the Secretary of War to authorize no more cavalry, to reduce the number of cavalry regiments then in the field, and to strengthen the regiments of this arm that were retained. Nevertheless, before the war ended, 272 regiments, plus 45 separate battalions, and 78 separate companies of cavalry saw service in the Union Army. Although no complete official roll of the organizations in the Confederate cavalry has been found, various estimates exist, and of these the most reliable shows 137 regiments, 143 separate battalions, and 101 separate companies of cavalry.

• Unlike the infantry regiments, which were first mustered in to serve three months, the volunteer cavalry commands were accepted first for one year and later for three. The expense involved in equipping the cavalry soldier was still considerably greater than that for the infantryman, and it also took longer to train the cavalryman and his mount. Many organizations were severely reduced long before the term of enlistment had expired, but, since no satisfactory replacement system was ever agreed upon by all of the states and the Federal Government, the earlier regiments were retained at skeletal strength while whole new organizations entered the conflict.

• While a number of mounted regiments and smaller organizations of Volunteers were mustered in for service in the Union Army, only one mounted regiment was added to the Regular establishment during the entire four years of the war. The new Regular regiment, at first designated the 3d Cavalry, differed from the other horse regiments in that from its beginning it had 12 companies instead of 10. In it, 2 companies constituted a squadron, and 2 squadrons a battalion, which was commanded by a major. A company could have any number of privates up to 72. In contrast, the volunteer regiments were modeled after the pattern of the old Regular cavalry.

• In August 1861 all six Regular horse regiments were redesignated cavalry and renumbered as the 1st through the 6th in order, according to their respective dates of organization. All were to be armed with the saber, revolver, and carbine. Although these regiments had been known by different names, all were light cavalry. Their members were mounted on light horses, they were trained to fight mounted or dismounted, and they depended on their firearms rather than shock action with sabers. Nevertheless, the dragoons and riflemen objected to giving up their distinctive names. One captain wrote that with the renaming of the old regiments the units lost the honor attached to the old names, and the change had a demoralizing effect on the troops. The dragoons and riflemen also resisted the changes in their distinctive uniform trim; now all were expected to wear the yellow trimmings of the cavalry. Fortunately, from the dragoon and riflemen point of view, under an economy measure that permitted the use of the old uniforms until they were worn out, much orange and green trim was in evidence for a long time.

• In July 1862 the number of companies in the five oldest cavalry regiments was increased from ten to twelve, thus giving them the same number of companies as the new regiment. At that time, too, the fixed squadron and battalion organization was abandoned. In actual field service, however, usually four companies, but often fewer, operated as a squadron or battalion.

• In 1863 the number of privates authorized in each cavalry company was increased to one hundred, but probably no company ever succeeded in having that many men present and equipped for duty. Recruiting for Regular Army units was extremely difficult in the face of state competition. Bounties offered by Federal officers were met and exceeded by the states. So attractive were their offers that many men enlisted in one unit, deserted, and enlisted in another just to collect the bounties.

• During the first two years of the war, the rule of service in the Union Army was to assign one or more regiments of cavalry to each division of infantry for such duties as the division commander might order. The regiments were then broken down into small detachments for use as orderlies and escorts for general officers, guards for division wagon trains, and pickets to protect the front of infantry lines. Although the cavalry did some effective work in the field, its discipline and morale suffered for want of a responsible chief and of a compact organization. Some cavalry brigades were organized and attached to the various corps in the summer of 1862, but it was not until 1863 that the cavalry made more than an indifferent showing. By then, as the war entered what Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman called its professional stage, the Union cavalry had gained the experience, organization, weapons, and remount service it needed, and from that time on its superiority grew steadily.

• Soon after assuming command of the Army of the Potomac in January 1863, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker authorized the formation of a Cavalry Corps. The various regiments and brigades scattered through the Army were combined into divisions and placed in a separate command, a major step toward consolidation, but the idea still prevailed in. the Army that the cavalry should be used for the infantry's protection and convenience.

• Another cavalry improvement in 1863 was the establishment of a Cavalry Bureau, the chief of which was charged with responsibility for organizing and equipping the cavalry forces and providing their mounts and remounts. He was also responsible for establishing depots for the reception of cavalry recruits and for the collection and initial training of cavalry horses. The Giesboro Depot in the District of Columbia became the principal remount depot for the supply of the armies in the east; St. Louis and Nashville were the depots in the Mississippi Valley.

• Cavalry in the Union Army became a really effective force in 1864. Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, who assumed command of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac in April of that year, believed that the functions of a large body of cavalry attached to an active army were not limited to guarding wagon trains or serving as advance guards or flankers for infantry columns, and upon assuming his new command he demanded the right to use the corps independently. He proved that a large force of cavalry, properly organized and led and acting as a unit, could be successful against either cavalry or infantry.

• Under Sheridan's leadership, the Union cavalry played a conspicuous part in numerous operations of 1864 and 1865. Some good examples are Sheridan's raid on Richmond, Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson's invasion of Alabama, and the flank attacks on Lee's army in the campaign that ended at Appomattox.

• Whereas the Union leaders were slow to recognize the true value of and the need for a mounted force, the Confederate leaders seemed from the beginning to appraise cavalry and its functions at their true value. For the first two years of the war the Confederate cavalry was a strong, well-organized force, proving its efficiency on many occasions. Even before the Army of Northern Virginia was organized, separate mounted companies of the South demonstrated their effectiveness by destroying bridges along the Confederate first line of defense and gathering information about Union actions. Instead of being wasted in detail, the Confederate cavalry regiments and battalions, which had the same organization as those of the Union, were grouped into large forces capable of independent action and permitted to perform it.

• The Confederate cavalry was the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of the cavalry raid, a distinct product of the American Civil War. By the end of 1862, Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart and his cavalrymen had successfully accomplished two raids by which they not only gained information about the Union Army's strengths and dispositions but also obtained much needed supplies. Of equal importance, Stuart's raids greatly alarmed Federal leaders in Washington, causing them to draw off troops for the defense of that city.

• The Confederate cavalry also included the partisan groups led by Brig. Gens. Turner Ashby, John H. Morgan, and Col. John Mosby. These very active commands were classified as cavalry because their men were excellent horsemen. Since the groups operated either wholly in Confederate territory or, as in the case of Morgan, in and out of friendly territory at their own dictates, they were usually able to keep themselves supplied with good mounts. They were also deserving of the name cavalry for the service they performed. The men were expert raiders who made sudden and successful attacks upon Union outposts and supply trains and disrupted lines of communications, brought in reliable information about strengths and movements, and sometimes fought delaying actions.

• Unfortunately for the Confederacy, the effectiveness of its cavalry began to decline about the same time that that of the Union cavalry was on the increase. The Confederate decline was due partly to the increased efficiency of the Union horse units and partly to the fact that the South's sources of supply of both men and horses were diminishing.

Notes

1. For convenience, the word cavalry, unless otherwise indicated, will be understood to mean all three mounted forces.