"Civil War Cavalry: Missed Opportunities" Topic

"It is not without reason that on the only occasion when cavalry appear in Stephen Crane's classic novel The Red Badge of Courage, they are behind the fighting line, creating a traffic jam. Many Civil War soldiers must have felt that this was really all the cavalry was good for, apart from raiding railroads or hanging up invalids to get their gold. While there was a certain failure to make the most of either field artillery or the bayonet in the battles of the 1860s, the record of the cavalry was at least a hundred times worse.

The participation of cavalry in the major battles of the Civil War was generally negligible. For example, at Antietam–"America's Bloodiest Day"–the Union cavalry suffered precisely 28 casualties from all causes. At Fredericksburg they lost just eight men-less than one in every 1,500 of the total Union casualties. In the first three years of the war, the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac made only five mounted charges against infantry during a major battle-far fewer than Marshal Ney's cavalry had made in three hours at Waterloo.

The first of these Union charges was made on June 27, 1862, at Gaines's Mill in the Peninsula campaign, where the 5th U.S. Cavalry, 250 strong, counterattacked the Confederates at their moment of greatest success. The cavalry later claimed that their charge kept a Union reverse from degenerating into a disaster. The Union infantry, on the other hand, said the cavalry charge converted an orderly retreat into a disorganized rout. One thing is certain: The cavalry failed to make any headway against the enemy and suffered 150 casualties. The charge was all over in a matter of moments…"
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Armand

Pretty good article. As Griffith said, higher command was the primary problem.

He did miss a large charge by mounted cavalry led by Custer and Merritt against standing infantry at the third battle of Winchester. This was Sheridan versus Early in 1864.

It happened again at Cedar Creek, also Sheridan and Early.

Both of those were large battles, but not the largest.

Admittedly a smaller action, but Custer's Michigan brigade successfully made a mounted charge against Lee's rearguard at Falling Waters after Gettysburg. Lee downplayed his losses, but historian Gottfried put the loss at about 1000 in his new book on the cavalry maps of the Gettysburg campaign.

Tom

Certainly the Americans (North and South) never made much use of battlefield cavalry (although they were respectful enough of the potential that most infantry knew how to form squares and sometimes did) but when it came to scouting and screening and skirmishing the cavalry was very good. The Europeans were generally contemptuous of the American militaries but even they admitted that the cavalry was second to none when it came to scouting and screening.

Again, a preeminent historian totally ignores the Western Theater, concentrating only on the actions of the Army of the Potomac versus the Army of Northern Virginia.

There were many cavalry versus cavalry actions in the Western Theater where cavalry, both Blue and Gray, played an important part in the operations of the armies. In fact, General George Thomas delayed his massive attack at Nashville until he had built up his cavalry arm, which then was heavily involved in the attack and the subsequent pursuit which almost completely destroyed the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

And cavalry raids were also very key to the success or failure of a campaign. Just look at Van Dorn's raid against Holly Springs (Dec 1862) which stymied Grant's first overland campaign against Vicksburg and Grierson's April 1863 operation from Tennessee through eastern and central Mississippi that snatched Pemberton's focus away from Grant's army along the Mississippi River and allowed Grant almost unencumbered marching down the Louisiana bank of the river to his crossing at Bruinsburg and subsequent march up to Vicksburg.

I expected more of Paddy Griffith.

Jim

At the Battle of Fredericksburg, JEB Stuart was preparing to launch a frontal cavalry charge on the Union left flank against Doubleday's division which was well supported by artillery, including artillery posted on the Stafford Heights across the Rappahannock.

As the men begin to move into position, an aid to Fitzhugh Lee exclaimed "Sir, this will be another Balaclava", to which Lee replied "I know, but we must follow orders".

Fortunately, Stonewall Jackson witnessed the troopers preparing to move out and quickly sent orders to halt the attack.

Kim

I was under the impression that the mounted attack at Falling Waters was only successful in the sense that it forced the Confederates to stand and fight. Most Confederate casualties came later when Custer's dismounted troops joined by other U.S. troops joined the attack. I am not clear how many of the Confederate captured were from Heth's command and how many were army stragglers caught on the wrong side of the river when Heth withdrew.

Griffith's analyses always proceeded from "if it were the British Army, everything would be done differently and better".

Sure, like in the Crimea.
He has some points to make, but is generally insufferable.

I remember talking to a cavalry reenactor about the taunt "who ever saw a dead cavalryman?" His response was you saw few dead cavalry because they died a couple at a time day in and day out spread over a vast territory. Whereas the infantry tended to have their dead all piled up at once.

Most cavalry actions in the Western Theater were limited to raids and screening actions. The Union armies in the West were woefully short on cavalry, often being outnumbered by their Confederate counterparts 3:1. The War Department tended to focus on recruiting infantry, since volunteer cavalry was relatively expensive, and took much longer to train.

After Stones River, Rosecrans desperately sought to address this weakness, which resulted – among other things – in the formation of highly effective mounted infantry formations, such as Wilder's Lightning Brigade.

Glad you enjoyed it my friend!.

Amicalement
Armand