Cavalry In The Civil War

Throughout the Civil War, cavalry played an important part. Calvary is a series of strategies using horses and mules, for instance, they used it to scout and screen. It was also used for messengers and orderlies which was a poor use for calvary (civilwarcalvary.com).
Their uniforms were dark blue if one were in volunteer cavalry, which meant they also had to wear light blue trousers. The calvary riders had to wear uniforms with yellow stripes on their pants along with a yellow trim on their jackets. The Confederate army wore a grey jacket with grey trousers (history.net). Their supplies consisted of a saddle bag which included a canteen, bag for rations , shelter tent, blanket and a poncho (civilwar.com).
Horses played a major role in cavalry. The two types of horses the troops and the generals used were Tennesse Walker and the American Saddlebred. The horses typically cost around one hundred fifty dollars a head (reillysbattery.org).
The divisions included light cavalry and dragoons. Dragoons combined the aspects of light cavalry and mounted infantry. They carried muskets and carbines and they didn’t use their horses for fighting,they just used them to go from place to place (civilwarcalvary.com). Light cavalry is exactly like regular cavalry because it is used to scout and screen.
The Confederate army had no
The Seven Days Battle resulted in a major loss for McCullen because conducted an ineffective charge at the Battle of Gaines Mill (civilwarcalvary.com). At the Battle of Chancellorsville Hooker sent Stoneman’s corps on a raid. The raid was designed to cut lines of communication between Lee’s army and the confederate capital Richmond. The raid wasn’t a success, but it was the first major trial for the federal cavalry troops. Hooker blamed Stoneman for the Army of Potomac at Chancellorsville and Stoneman wasn’t in command anymore