"Cavalry Casualties - An explanation ..." Topic

… to Accompany Appendix B

"With Small but Important Riots now available, I plan to include here material that had to be cut from the finished product. Working with the staff at the University of Nebraska Press and the Potomac Books imprint has been a pleasure in every respect and I am very happy with the finished product. That said, concessions, such as word counts, are a fact of life and the manuscript I initially submitted had to be cut by 10,000 words to meet my contract. Not wishing to cut my narrative, I cut several appendices, or parts thereof, and some explanatory notes, knowing I could include them here on my website. One of the appendices, concerning the court-martial of Lt. Col. David Clendenin appeared a year ago, here and here. Others will appear in future posts. Today, I am posting the explanation that initially accompanied the casualty figures in Appendix B.

Attempting to determine casualties, at any level of the Cavalry Corps, company, regiment, brigade, division, or corps, is, to some extent, an exercise in futility. But numbers of men engaged, combined with information such as core battlefield acreage helps to determine the size and scope of a battle or battlefield. Casualty numbers help to quantify the grim toll of a skirmish or battle. Efforts to answer such questions, while often unsatisfying, have contributed in some measure to the remarkable success of local preservation groups, as well as larger national organizations, to interpret, preserve and protect battlefield land in the Loudoun Valley.

Scattered throughout the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, researchers will find several tables of losses for the Cavalry Corps in the Loudoun Valley. But just how accurate are these numbers?…"

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Armand

"Whoever saw a dead cavalryman?" :) A famous quote. But there is some truth in it. Casualties among Civil War cavalry units always seem very low compared to the infantry. I've read many an account where the participants talk of the intense combat, but then when you look at the casualties they are usually just a few percent on each side.

Of course, cavalry's role in the ACW, did not normally include stubbornly holding fixed positions, nor assaulting same. Screening, probing, reconnoitering, delaying, raiding, etc., do not normally lead to high casualty rates.

Thanks

Armand