The United States Cavalry existed in various forms from 1775 to 1942. Its history dates back to the
American Revolutionary War, and every major subsequent war in which the
United States was involved.
George Washington personally witnessed the effect that a small mounted force of the
British Army's
17th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons had on his troops, panicking and scattering American soldiers at the
Battle of White Plains. Appreciating the ability of the
5th Regiment of Connecticut Light Horse Militia to gather intelligence during the
subsequent retreat of American forces into
New Jersey, he asked the
Continental Congress to approve the creation of a
light cavalry force in the
Continental Army. In late 1776, Congress authorized Washington to establish a mounted force of 3,000 men for service in the Continental army.
American Revolutionary War On 12 December 1776, Congress converted the 5th Regiment of Connecticut Light Horse Militia into the
Regiment of Light Dragoons. In March 1777, Washington established the Corps of Continental Light Dragoons consisting of four regiments of 280 men, each organized in six troops. Later that year, the
2nd Continental Light Dragoons executed the first recorded cavalry charge by American forces at the
Battle of the Flockey on August 13, 1777, routing Loyalist militia in Schoharie County, New York. Many problems faced the light dragoon regiments, including the inability of recruiting to bring the units to authorized strength, shortage of suitable cavalry weapons and horses, and lack of uniformity among troopers in dress and discipline. Congress appointed the Hungarian revolutionary and professional soldier
Michael Kovats and the Polish
Casimir Pulaski to train them as an offensive strike force during winter quarters of 1777–78 at Trenton, New Jersey. nobleman and soldier
Casimir Pulaski was one of the founders and "fathers of American cavalry". Pulaski's efforts led to friction with the American officers, resulting in his resignation, but Congress authorized Pulaski to form his own independent corps in 1778. Pulaski's Legion consisted of dragoons, riflemen, grenadiers, and infantry. Another independent corps of dragoons joined Pulaski's in the Continental Line during 1778 when a former captain in Bland's Horse,
"Light Horse Harry" Lee, formed
Lee's Corps of Partisan Light Dragoons, which specialized in raiding and harassing supply lines. Colonel
Charles Armand Tuffin, marquis de la Rouërie ("Col. Armand"), a French nobleman, raised a third corps of infantry in Boston, called the Free and Independent Chasseurs, which later added a troop of dragoons, becoming
Armand's Legion. Although a reorganization in 1778 authorized expansion of the four regiments to 415 men each, forage difficulties, expiration of enlistments, desertions, and other problems made this impossible, and no regiment ever carried more than 200 men on its rolls, and they averaged 120 to 180 men between 1778 and 1780. In 1779, Washington ordered the 2nd and
4th Continental Light Dragoons equipped temporarily as infantry, and deployed the
1st and
3rd Continental Light Dragoons and
Pulaski's Legion to the South to join local militia cavalry and to ensure the area remained American during an unexpected counter-offensive. Battle engagements in South Carolina largely seriously attrited the 1st and 3rd Regiments in the spring of 1780, who amalgamated into a single unit. Following the capture of
Charleston, South Carolina on 12 May 1780, the remnants tried to regroup and reconstitute in Virginia and North Carolina. In August 1780, Armand's Legion was with
General Gates at the disastrous
Battle of Camden. The most significant engagement of the war involving Continental light dragoons was the
Battle of Cowpens in January 1781. Southern theater commander General
Nathanael Greene reorganized part of Lee's Legion and elements of the amalgamated 1st and 3rd Light Dragoons in Charlotte and dispatched them on a series of raids against Loyalist forces in western Carolina. The dragoons joined the "flying corps" commanded by General
Daniel Morgan at the
Battle of Cowpens, securing a crucial victory for the American forces in the early stages of the war. Later, the 3rd Legionary Corps participated in Greene's maneuvers across North Carolina and fought well against Cornwallis's army at
Guilford Courthouse. In January 1781, the practice of the dragoons employing both mounted and dismounted troops resulted in their official reconfiguration as Legionary Corps, the mounted dragoons supported by dismounted dragoons armed as infantry, an organization that persisted until the war's end. In 1783, the Continental Army was discharged and the dragoons were released.
War of 1812 The first cavalry unit formed by the
Congress of the United States of America (along with three new regular infantry regiments) was a squadron of light dragoons commanded by Major
Michael Rudolph on 5 March 1792. Its four troops were assigned to each of the four sublegions of
Legion of the United States, by September 1792. In 1796, the number of troops was reduced to only two, which were almagamated in 1798 with six newly raised troops to the Regiment of
Regiment of Light Dragoons. This mounted force was short lived as well and saw its end in 1800. The oldest two "veterans" troops were retained until June 1802. Hence no regular mounted soldiers existed for the next six years. In 1798, during the
Quasi-War with France, Congress established a three-year "
Provisional Army" of 10,000 men, consisting of twelve regiments of infantry and six troops of light dragoons. By March 1799 Congress created an "Eventual Army" of 30,000 men, including three regiments of cavalry. Both "armies" existed only on paper, but equipment for 3,000 men and horses was procured and stored. The Congressional act of 12 April 1808 authorized a standing regiment of light dragoons consisting of eight troops. As war loomed, Congress authorized another regiment of light dragoons on 11 January 1812. These regiments were respectively known afterwards as the First and Second United States Dragoons. In 1813, Secretary of War
John Armstrong Jr. granted Colonel
Richard Mentor Johnson permission to raise two battalions of volunteer cavalry. Johnson recruited 1,200 men, divided into 14 companies. Congress combined the First and Second United States Dragoons into one Regiment of Light Dragoons on 30 March 1814. This was a cost-cutting measure; it was cheaper and easier to maintain one unit at full strength than two organizations that could not maintain a full complement of riders. The signing of the
Treaty of Ghent at the end of the year ended the war. The regiment was disbanded on 3 March 1815, with the explanation that cavalry forces were too expensive to maintain as part of a standing army. The retained officers and men were folded into the Corps of Artillery by 15 June 1815, all others were discharged.
Westward expansion The "plains cavalry" played an important role in extending American hegemony into western North America by forcefully subduing and displacing Native Americans from their lands during the western Indian Wars, thereby making way for colonists of primarily European descent. In 1832, Congress formed the
Battalion of Mounted Rangers to protect settlers along the east bank of the Mississippi River and to keep the Santa Fe trail open. The battalion comprised volunteers organized into six companies of 100 men. To correct what was perceived as a lack of discipline, organization and reliability, Congress formed the
United States Regiment of Dragoons as a regular force in 1833, consisting of 10 companies (designated A through K) with a total of 750 men. The Regiment fought against the Seminole nation in 1835, when
Chief Osceola led warriors from his tribe in the
Second Seminole War in protest to the
Treaty of Payne's Landing. For a year, the established units had difficulty containing the Indians. Congress responded by establishing the
2nd United States Regiment of Dragoons in 1836.
War with Mexico 's squadron of the 2d Dragoons slashes through the Mexican Army lines. The First Dragoons served in the Mexican War, and
Charles A. May's squadron of the
Second Dragoons helped decide the
Battle of Resaca de la Palma.
Civil War File:Unioniste Lefaucheux.jpg|thumb|A US Civil war soldier Cavalry [North] with sabre and Lefaucheux pistol; he wears shoulder scales as part of his dress uniform. Shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War, the Army's dragoon regiments were designated as "Cavalry", losing their previous distinctions. The change was an unpopular one and the former dragoons retained their orange braided blue jackets until they wore out and had to be replaced with cavalry yellow. The 1st United States Cavalry fought in virtually every campaign in the north during the American Civil War.
Indian wars The U.S. Cavalry played a prominent role in the
American Indian Wars, particularly in the
American Old West. Particularly notable were the
7th Cavalry, associated with General
George Armstrong Custer and the
Battle of the Little Bighorn, and the
9th and
10th Cavalry, the
Buffalo Soldiers. Infantry units, called by the Indians "walkaheaps", were also involved and in some cases were the main force deployed. Infantry, when mounted, were called "mounted infantry"; they lacked training and skill in horsemanship and cavalry tactics. File:US Army Cavalry Sergeant 1866 (Bis).jpg|Company "A" 1st US Cavalry Sgt wearing
Hardee hat, 1866 File:USCavalryFieldUniforms1876.gif|U.S. Army poster illustrating field uniforms circa 1876 File:RemingtonUSCavalryChristmasBeefRoast.jpg|Roasting the Christmas Beef,
Frederic Remington, ''Harper's Weekly'', 24 December 1892
Spanish–American War Several Cavalry regiments served in Cuba, the 1st, 2d, 3rd Cavalry Regiments along with the African-American 9th and 10th Cavalry and also the 1st US Volunteer Cavalry, the
Rough Riders. Of all the cavalry regiments, only the 3rd went to Cuba with their normal complement of horses. For the rest, only the officers' horses went as there was not enough room on the ship to bring all the horses to Cuba, and those that were not used by the officers were used to pull equipment. Likewise, all of the cavalry units except the mounted 3rd Cavalry were organized into two brigades that made up the Cavalry Division led by former Confederate cavalryman, General
Joseph Wheeler. Wheeler's Cavalry Division was part of the other 2 infantry divisions and independent brigade that made up the V Corps headed by General Shafter. Several other cavalry regiments from the West Coast were sent to Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Units of Wheeler's Cavalry Division fought at both the
Battle of Las Guasimas on 24 June 1898 and the
Battle of San Juan Heights on 1 July 1898.
World War I The
15th Cavalry Division was created in February 1917 at
Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Originally trained for deployment to Europe, its units were later converted into field artillery units. The division was deactivated on 12 May 1918.
Post-World War I Proponents of horse cavalry argued that the lack of success of cavalry on World War I's static defensive lines had been an exception, and that cavalry still had a role to play in warfare, even as the U.S. Army's mechanization continued. The American Expeditionary Forces convened a Cavalry Board to consider the future of horse cavalry; this panel concluded that the employment of large cavalry units was probably obsolete, but that horse cavalry units of regiment size and below could be attached to infantry and armor units for reconnaissance and similar missions on an as needed basis. The Army accepted this recommendation, and continued to field horse cavalry units in the 1920s and 1930s. As part of the
National Defense Act of 1920, the Army created the Office of the Chief of Cavalry; the chief would be a temporary major general, and would be empowered to supervise cavalry activities, including personnel management, equipment development and fielding, and creation and implementation of tactics, doctrine, and training.
Willard Ames Holbrook was appointed as the first Chief of Cavalry, and he served until 1924.
Regular Army and Philippine Scouts The personnel and assets of the 15th Cavalry Division were later used to form 1st & 2nd Cavalry Divisions. On 20 August 1921, as a result of lessons learned from World War I, the Army's
Adjutant General,
Major General Peter C. Harris, constituted the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions to meet future mobilization requirements. However, the 2nd Cavalry Division was not subsequently activated, and remained in 'on-paper' organizational limbo for twenty years. In 1922 the
26th Cavalry Regiment (United States),
Philippine Scouts, was formed in the Philippines. In 1927, the Adjutant General constituted the I Cavalry Corps (the headquarters of which was never fully activated), and the
3rd Cavalry Division, new Regular Army formations.
National Guard In 1921, the 21st through 24th Cavalry Divisions were formed in the National Guard, with the
First,
Second, and
Third Army Areas supporting the
21st,
22nd, and
24th, respectively. The 23rd was the nation's at-large cavalry division, supported by all army areas (Alabama, Massachusetts, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin Army National Guards). In a short time the divisions had the prescribed cavalry regiments and machine gun squadrons but not the majority of their support organizations. The
56th Cavalry Brigade was a separate cavalry brigade.
Organized Reserve To create the Organized Reserve cavalry divisions, the War Department added the
61st,
62nd;
63rd;
64th,
65th and
66th Cavalry Divisions to the rolls of the Army on 15 October 1921.
Segregated cavalry units In the midst of the
1940 presidential campaign prominent black leaders complained bitterly to President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the limited number of black units. Under political pressure the Army activated the
2nd Cavalry Division at
Fort Riley, Kansas, on 1 April 1941, with one white and one black brigade. The black brigade, the
4th Cavalry Brigade was activated during February 1941 with the
9th Cavalry Regiment and
10th Cavalry Regiment, the "
Buffalo Soldiers," as its cavalry regiments. In addition, a further black cavalry regiment, the
27th Cavalry Regiment (Colored), 2nd Cavalry Division, was also activated in April 1941.
Mechanization During the interwar period, the Army commenced experimenting with mechanization and had partially mechanized some cavalry regiments. In 1940, the National Guard cavalry divisions were disbanded; some of their cavalry regiments partially retain horses as "horse-mechanized" regiments, while others were converted into other types of units, such as antiaircraft artillery or field artillery, or used to complete inactive parts of existing units. During the war, many of the Army's cavalry units were mechanized with tanks and reconnaissance vehicles, while others fought dismounted as infantry. Some units were converted into other types of units entirely, some of which made use of the cavalry's experience with horses. The "Mars Men" of the
China Burma India Theater give such an example.
World War II Because of a shortage of men, on 15 July 1942, the 2nd Cavalry Division was inactivated to permit organization of the
9th Armored Division. White cavalrymen were assigned to the 9th Armored Division, and the all-black
4th Cavalry Brigade became a non-divisional formation. As part of a large-scale Army reorganization in March 1942, the
Chief of Staff of the Army, General
George Marshall, abolished the position of branch chief in the ground arms, including for the Cavalry. The branch chiefs' functions were centralized within the new
Army Ground Forces headquarters as part of an effort to consolidate and streamline the integration of training and doctrine among the Army's different branches. Before World War II the 106th Cavalry was a National Guard unit based in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to World War I and the Spanish–American War it had been known as the 1st Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. The 106th underwent a number of different reorganizations until 1 September 1940, when it was redesignated the 1st Squadron,
106th Cavalry (Horse-Mechanized). On 25 February 1943 the 2nd Cavalry Division was (re)activated. The 27th Cavalry Regiment was attached to the 5th Cavalry Brigade (Colored) on 25 February 1943. It was deactivated 27 March 1944 and personnel later reorganized into the 6400th Ordnance Battalion (Ammo) (Provisional) 12 June 1944. The 10th Mountain Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop of the 10th Mountain Division, while not designated as U.S. Cavalry, conducted the last horse-mounted charge of any Army organization while engaged in
Austria in 1945. An impromptu pistol charge by the Third Platoon was carried out when the Troop encountered a machine gun nest in an Italian village/town sometime between 14 and 23 April 1945.
Mechanized cavalry The principal reconnaissance element of an infantry division was a mechanized cavalry troop, whilst an armored division was provided with a full cavalry squadron. Several cavalry groups, each of two squadrons, were formed to serve as the reconnaissance elements for U.S. corps headquarters in the European Theater of Operations during 1944–45. in February 1945. Its 75 mm gun was vastly superior to the
M5A1 Stuart tank. Besides HQ and service elements, each cavalry troop comprised three cavalry platoons, each of which was equipped with six
Bantam jeeps and three
M8 Greyhound armored cars. Three of the jeeps were mounted with a
60mm mortar manned by two soldiers; the other three had a bracket-mounted
.30 caliber machine gun, manned by a soldier sitting in the front passenger seat – although sometimes the M1919 was replaced by a
.50 caliber machine gun. To maximize speed and maneuverability on the battlefield, the Bantams were not given extra armor protection. The
M8 Greyhound was a six-wheeled, lightweight armored car, mounting a
37 mm gun in a movable turret that could swing a full 360 degrees. It also featured a .30 caliber machine gun that could move independently of the turret. The M8 was equipped with powerful FM radios to enable battlefield communications. A cavalry squadron comprised a HQ Troop, three cavalry troops (four for those in armored divisions), a light tank company and an assault gun troop. The light tank company had 17 tanks; two in the company headquarters and three platoons of five tanks. Initially, the tanks were
M3 Stuarts, later M5 Stuarts; both of which were equipped with
37mm guns. The Stuart was capable of speeds of up to on the road. While fast and maneuverable, its armor plating and cannon were soon found to be no match for the German tanks. In February 1945 they were replaced with the
M24 Chaffee light tank, which was equipped with a
75 mm gun. By 1970, all armored cavalry units in Vietnam were operating the Sheridan except for the tank companies of the 11th ACR, which continued to use Patton tanks.
U. S. Armored Cavalry (Ground Cavalry Units) in the Vietnam War Source: • 1st Squadron,
1st Cavalry; attached to the 23rd Infantry Division (
Americal), but remained assigned to the 1st Armored Division • Troop E, 1st Cavalry; assigned to 11th Infantry Brigade, Americal Division • 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry; attached to the 4th Infantry Division (Ivy Division), but remained assigned to the 2nd Armored Division • 1st Squadron,
4th Cavalry; assigned to the 1st Infantry Division (
Big Red One) • 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry; assigned to the 25th Infantry Division (Tropic Lightning) • 3rd Squadron,
5th Cavalry; assigned to the 9th Infantry Division (
Old Reliables); 1971 attached to 1st Brigade 5th (Mech) Infantry Division (
Red Diamond), in I Corps near
DMZ • 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry; assigned to the 4th Infantry Division •
11th Armored Cavalry Regiment; II Field Force. The
11th ACR (Blackhorse) was the only full Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam, consisting of 3 squadrons (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) and commanded by
WWII General Patton's son Colonel George S. Patton Jr. • Troop A, 4th Squadron,
12th Cavalry; assigned to 1st Brigade 5th (Mech) Infantry Division • Troop B, 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry; assigned to
82nd Airborne Division (All American) • 2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry; assigned to
101st Airborne Division (Screaming Eagle). December 1968 to June 1969 both 2/17 Cav and 101st Abn Div converted to
Airmobile units. • Troop D, 17th Cavalry; assigned to 199th Infantry Brigade (Light Brigade). Deactivated Oct 1970/reactivated Apr 1972 as an
Air Cavalry Troop. During the Vietnam War U.S. Cavalry squadrons were normally assigned or attached to army divisions. Army brigades were only authorized one cavalry Troop, as was the case with "A" Troop, 4/12 Cavalry. When only the 1st Brigade of the 5th (Mechanized) Infantry Division deployed to the
Republic of South Vietnam (RVN), only one cavalry troop was assigned to the brigade, Troop A. == Contemporary cavalry and dragoons ==