Cavalry in the American Civil War


The American Civil War saw extensive use of horse-mounted soldiers on both sides of the conflict. They were vital to both the Union Army and Confederate Army for conducting reconnaissance missions to locate the enemy and determine their strength and movement, and for screening friendly units from being discovered by the enemy's reconnaissance efforts. Other missions carried out by cavalry included raiding behind enemy lines, escorting senior officers, and carrying messages.
In the first half of the war, the Confederates enjoyed the advantage in cavalry, not least because most of the experienced cavalry officers from the Regular Army had chosen to side with the Confederacy. Notable Confederate cavalry leaders included J. E. B. Stuart, famed for literally riding rings around the Union's Army of the Potomac, and Nathan Bedford Forrest, who caused havoc with Union supply lines.
The Battle of Brandy Station in 1863 is considered the point by which Union cavalry proved itself equal to the Confederates, and onward through the second half of the war they continued to improve. This was exemplified by Benjamin Grierson's brilliant deception tactics in the Mississippi valley, and Philip Sheridan's aggressive movements while in command of the Army of the Shenandoah at the end of the war in Virginia.
Cavalry units proved highly expensive to maintain, and unscrupulous agents would often exploit shortages by supplying defective animals at exorbitant prices. The Union benefited from the creation of tighter regulations and a centralized acquisition and distribution system which ensured its forces remained mounted throughout the war. Conversely, the Confederacy's system of each soldier supplying their own horses resulted in the degradation of its cavalry units as horses became harder to obtain.

Types of mounted forces

There were a variety of mounted forces prevalent in the Civil War, although for the sake of brevity they are often referred to under the catchall term "cavalry". Some units named themselves after European cavalry such as hussars and lancers, but these names were considered obsolete and used out of tradition rather than as an accurate description. Approximately fourteen percent of the Union Army consisted of cavalry, while in the Confederate States Army about twenty percent of soldiers were mounted.
  • Cavalry were forces that fought principally on horseback, armed with pistols and sabers. Historically there had been two types of cavalry: heavy cavalry, whose primary role was on the battlefield conducting a cavalry charge, and light cavalry, which were more suited to screening, raiding, and reconnaissance. The United States did not have a strong cavalry tradition and Congress was unwilling to fund the creation of expensive heavy cavalry; only light cavalry were formed before and during the Civil War.
  • Dragoons were hybrid forces that were armed with carbines, pistols, and sabers. They could fight from horseback as traditional cavalrymen but were expected to fight on foot as well. The term comes from the French Army, representing a cross between light infantry and light cavalry. Dragoons had been raised in the United States prior to the Civil War, and as the conflict progressed this method of fighting became more central to how cavalry fought overall.
  • Mounted infantry were forces that moved on horseback but dismounted for fighting on foot, armed principally with rifles, pistols, and bayonets. Mounted riflemen had been raised previously by the United States to fight in the frequent conflicts with Native Americans. During the Civil War many foot infantry units were converted into mounted infantry. Although there was a belief that mounted infantry made for neither good cavalry nor infantry, with reliable weapons and competent leadership the concept would flourish, particularly in the Western Theater.
  • Irregular cavalry were generally mounted forces. A concept particularly employed by the Confederates, due in part to the Partisan Ranger Act, which was meant to aide the recruitment of irregulars into service with the Confederate Army. Many of the partisan cavalry units were considered excellent horsemen and operated both within and outside of Southern territory. There is little commonality as to their weapons in general, and any weapons available were used, but many favored the double-barreled shotgun.

    Roles

At the time of the American Civil War, the cavalry had six major roles to play:
Of these missions, reconnaissance was the most important role. Their inherent nature made cavalry ideally suited to be the "eyes and ears" of an army's commander and keep him informed of the enemy's position and movements. Cavalry had the agility and firepower to probe the enemy for weak points, set ambushes for isolated groups, and flee before the main force could overwhelm them. The widespread availability of field glasses only increased their information-gathering capabilities.
Reconnaissance and screening were crucial components in the Gettysburg campaign, where cavalry under Union General Alfred Pleasonton attempted to find the wide-ranging Army of Northern Virginia on its invasion of the North, and Confederate cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart effectively employed counter-reconnaissance to screen passes in the Blue Ridge Mountains and hide Robert E. Lee's movements from the Army of the Potomac. However, when Stuart was "cut loose" to conduct another raid around the Army of the Potomac, he deprived Lee of adequate reconnaissance at the beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the principal reasons for the Confederate defeat there.
The use and evolution of cavalry for offensive action in the Civil War is a subject of contention. The conventional view is that cavalry's traditional role on the battlefield - charging into enemy infantry with lances and sabers to break up their formations - had been appropriate in previous generations when the infantry's primary weapon was the smoothbore musket with an effective range of up to. However, during the Civil War, the rifled musket was the primary infantry firearm, and against a weapon with an effective range of up to these mounted shock tactics were rendered ineffective and disastrous on the battlefield. Instead, cavalry had to learn to fight dismounted, in effect becoming mounted infantry who used their horses only for mobility and fought on foot as regular infantry. Furthermore, the terrain was also blamed for being less conducive to large cavalry maneuvers, particularly in the Eastern Theater which was broken up with an abundance of woodlands and farmlands.
Historian Earl J. Hess disputes the impact the rifle had on cavalry tactics in the Civil War, noting that even in the era of smoothbore muskets infantry had always been able to defend itself against cavalry attacks; a cavalry charge against infantry in formation and ready to meet it had almost always ended in failure. Paddy Griffith observed that the United States never had a strong tradition of heavy cavalry which normally conducted such attacks, whereas a cost-conscious Congress preferred to fund dragoons and mounted infantry which had more supposed versatility. Lacking a doctrinal basis for their use, Union cavalry only conducted a handful of cavalry charges against Confederate infantry in the first three years of the war and all were doomed to fail for reasons other than the rifle. Stephen Z. Starr found no proof that cavalry in the Civil War made a conscious choice to change their tactics in response to the rifle. While there was a shift towards more dragoon-based tactics overall, he cites a number of other factors for this evolution, principal among them being the quality of the mounts available and the lack of appropriate training for both horse and rider.
Long-distance raids were the most desirable mission for cavalrymen, primarily because of the fame that successful raids would bring, but they were often of little practical strategic value in comparison to the men and horses lost. Jeb Stuart became famous for two audacious raids around the Army of the Potomac in 1862; his third such attempt, during the Gettysburg Campaign, led to disaster for the Army of Northern Virginia. Inspired by the 'success' of these raids the Union attempted to mimic them but to mixed results. George Stoneman's raid in the Battle of Chancellorsville was considered a failure for although it destroyed considerable Confederate property, much of this was quickly repaired, at the cost of at least 1,000 of his horses ruined by the exertion. Meanwhile Benjamin Grierson's raid in the Vicksburg Campaign was a strategic masterpiece that diverted critical Confederate forces away from Ulysses S. Grant's army.

Tactics

Cavalry typically traveled in a column of fours, allowing for easy travel down roads and around obstacles. About to either side were parallel files of horsemen to protect the flanks. A vanguard and rearguard was also deployed out ahead and behind the column, which themselves deployed vedettes further ahead and behind to provide advanced warning. With a troop of 96 horsemen in a column of fours taking up of road, a cavalry force on the march could stretch for many miles: Sheridan's massive force of ten thousand troopers and six artillery batteries en route to Yellow Tavern measured thirteen miles long.
A cavalry force on picket duty would set up an outpost with about half of its total strength stationed there as a "grand guard." The rest would set up pickets out to the sides and in front of the outpost at a distance of. Each picket would also deploy solitary vedettes in a semicircle a further out. Constant patrols were maintained between the outpost and the pickets, and additional patrols were set out ahead of the vendettes to distances of two or more miles. Picket duty was fatiguing for both soldiers and horses, and many cavalry leaders believed this type of work was better suited to infantry.
When setting up to conduct a charge, cavalry traditionally arrayed itself in a line of two ranks, although more recent doctrine called for just a single rank. It was also possible to make a charge from a column of fours. Dismounted troopers formed themselves into a line of one rank, with skirmishers arrayed out in front of it. Every fourth trooper was a horseholder responsible for taking care of the others' mounts. They were positioned as near as possible to allow for a quick remount, while simultaneously taking advantage of any shelter available to stay out of danger.
By the latter part of the war, offensive tactics had settled around a hybrid that mixed the qualities of both traditional cavalry and mounted infantry. A cavalry unit would use their superior mobility to approach the enemy but then dismount a majority of their force to attack on foot. The dismounted troopers would use weight of fire to assault the enemy's position, particularly if armed with new repeating rifles. Finally at the right moment, the mounted portion stationed on one or both flanks would conduct a saber charge. When combined with the usage of horse artillery, cavalry fighting this way essentially became an "all-arms" force, though they were more expensive to maintain, required more logistical support, and could not field quite as many soldiers as comparable infantry forces.