In spite of hardships and privations, the Confederate cavalry had
excellent morale throughout the war. The mud, the cold, the hunger,
the wet bivouacs, the brutally long marches, did not appear to
detract from the glamour of its service. Morale grew and remained
high for the best of reasons: unbroken and often spectacular
success, brilliant leadership, and exploits that struck the
imagination. It was far otherwise for the Federal horsemen. It was
apparent to the men themselves that they were being wasted and
their efforts frittered away in employment that gave them no chance
to perform creditably. There is only a scant record of cavalry
engagements above the level of mere skirmishes in which the Federal
horsemen were not worsted before the summer of 1863. The spring
reorganization of 1863 was the start of a new era for the Federal
cavalry. It began to prove itself in a succession of engagements:
Kelly's Ford, Brandy Station, Buford's fight on the first day at
Gettysburg, and Gregg's and Custer's on the third day. There were
failures still, failures of leadership for the most part, but no
longer did the Confederates automatically have the better of the
Federals. There was a new spirit in the air, and both the
Confederate and the Federal cavalry knew it. The purpose of this
selection is to document the character and exploits of the Federal
cavalry during the Civil War-the cavalry that George Armstrong
Custer knew and in which he served. These mounted encounters will
now be reported with emphasis from the Federal point of view, and
the intra-service rivalries will be those of Federal officers and
administrations rather than Confederate ones. Also distinguished
among Federal cavalry commanders in these pages are Philip St.
George Cooke, George Stoneman, Alfred Pleasonton, Phil Sheridan,
John Buford, J. Irvin Gregg, David M. Gregg, H. Judson Kilpatrick,
Elon Farnsworth, and many others. This is also the story of
Custer's famous Michigan Brigade (1st, 5th, 6th, and 7th Michigan
Volunteer Cavalry and Battery M, 2nd US Artillery), the only
Federal cavalry brigade to hail from a single state. The Michigan
Brigade fought in every major campaign of the Civil War after it
had been established.
General
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