Cavalry In The American Civil War

The American Civil War is an important event in American history that profoundly influenced the course of the American nation’s development.And from the point of view of military history,the Civil War is often seen as the first modern war as well,because of the extensive use of new technologies such as the wire-bore gun,the telegraph,the railway,ironclads,and early machine guns and early submarines.Compared to these new things,the old cavalry was somewhat outdated,and some people therefore believe that cavalry in the Civil War was no longer important,while others,though not so much,acknowledge that advances in weaponry changed the way cavalry fought in the Civil War.How,then,should cavalry in the Civil War be evaluated?The history of the US cavalry began in the War of Independence,but in its infancy it was not given much attention and often suffered from shortages of men and equipment,and the service stumbled until the day it won the war.Although the cavalry made its contribution to the war effort,there was no fundamental change in the government’s attitude towards it,and in the decades following the War of Independence it was sometimes temporarily raised as the war approached,and sometimes disbanded as the situation eased.It was not until the 1820 s,when the need for a standing,highly mobile force to maintain order in the vast new territories gained through the Westward Movement became urgent,that the government finally raised its first regular cavalry unit in 1833: the United States Dragoons.The fledgling US cavalry began to protect the settlers and suppress Indian resistance,and seeing the value of cavalry,the government went on to raise a second regiment of dragoon cavalry.With the expansion of the American settlers came the inevitable conflict with Mexico to the south and in 1846 the Mexican-American War broke out,the US army was expanded and a third regiment of Dragoons was formed.The Mexican-American War ended in an overwhelming victory for the United States,with 2.3 million square kilometres of land being added to the United States.The new territory naturally required new troops to garrison it and the size of the US cavalry was increased to five regiments rather than reduced after the war.On the other hand,the new territories were not all good for the United States,as a series of conflicts between the abolitionists and the slave-holding factions in the United States over which system should be implemented in the new territories led to the outbreak of civil war.The Civil War was an unprecedented test for the US Cavalry,which prior to the Civil War had been primarily an orderly force,and although it had fought in the Mexican-American War,the scale and intensity of the Mexican-American War was dwarfed by the Civil War,and the US Cavalry had to learn how to deal with large-scale warfare from scratch.Organisationally,cavalry units grew in size from cavalry regiments,to cavalry brigades and cavalry divisions,to cavalry armies;in terms of weaponry,the logistical system was overwhelmed by the sudden influx of new recruits into the barracks and had to be purchased abroad.As the economic system was mobilised,shortages were resolved and the cavalry was equipped in large numbers with advanced weapons such as rear-loading guns and revolvers,and later even repeating guns,although the traditional sabre was not abandoned either.In addition,although wire-bore guns were commonplace by the time of the Civil War,their practical impact was not as great as generally believed,as soldiers were still trained in the old system;in terms of horses,the Confederates initially enjoyed an advantage in horse quality,but this faded with the Union blockade and the loss of important horse sources;and in terms of tactics,although the Civil War cavalry was seen as "infantry on horseback",the cavalry actually continued to successfully use traditional charging tactics to rout enemy forces on many occasions.Also as the American cavalry lacked the cavalry tradition of the European armies,it did not stick to the traditional cavalry charge,but developed new tactics appropriate to the location,such as the combined tactic of using both dismounted and mounted horses.In addition to tactics,the use of cavalry in the Civil War was both traditional and innovative,with cavalry performing the traditional tasks of scouting and escorting as well as being concentrated in new types of raid to sweep up the enemy’s rear.Cavalry raids began with the Chickhaminy Raid,which matured during the Vicksburg Campaign,and the Wilson Raid,which was the culmination of cavalry raids in the Civil War.Three cavalry raids had a significant impact on the Civil War battle.At the end of the Civil War,most of the army was disbanded,but as the frontier zone still required a forceful presence,the post-Civil War US Army retained a high proportion of cavalry units and maintained them for a long time.And as Indian resistance dwindled until it disappeared and federal government order became more entrenched in the new territories,the US cavalry gradually lost its usefulness and the experience of the Civil War was gradually forgotten.the Pancho Villa expedition of1916 became the last major operation of the US cavalry,and by the Second World War the US cavalry had launched its last charge in the Philippines,after which it was replaced by motorised and mechanised forces took over.In Russia,however,the raiding strategy pioneered by the US Cavalry was inherited and developed,with Russian cavalry learning and employing the raiding strategy in the war,becoming the successor to the US Cavalry.