Artillery of the Civil War (Civil War Sesquicentennial Series Book 1)

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An overview of the evolution of the war's terminology. From Atlantic coastal sites at Forts Fisher and Macon to Union cavalry operations in the western mountains, North Carolina offers a collection of Civil War sites as varied as its landscapes. North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial. Our programs include an ambitious three-part series of panels: Videos from the conference available here.

State Historic Sites with site-specific programs are: Vance Birthplace Non-traditional Civil War sites will also offer programs: A teacher workshop for renewal credit is planned about the programs which will be designed to meet eighth grade curriculum standards. Exhibitions and Special Events The North Carolina Museum of History will build upon previous exhibits and highlight aspects of the war over the course of the anniversary period. The Historical Publications Office will publish new books and posters, a series of reprints, and will continue the volumes in the ongoing North Carolina troop roster series.

Moore, will be published online. Also being discussed are placement of one or more monuments, establishment of a speakers bureau, and heritage tourism-based marketing efforts. He noted that the department long has had a commitment to projects associated with the Civil War and, during the anniversary, those efforts will intensify. An advisory panel of leading Civil War historians will consult with staff and guide development and execution of programming.

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Long-distance raids were the most desirable mission for cavalrymen, primarily because of the fame that successful raids would bring, but they were often of little practical strategic value. Jeb Stuart became famous for two audacious raids on the Union Army of the Potomac in ; in his third such attempt, during the Gettysburg Campaign, he squandered much of the cavalry forces of the Army of Northern Virginia and deprived Robert E. Lee of adequate reconnaissance at the beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the principal reasons for the Confederate defeat there. Union attempts at strategic raids had mixed success.

George Stoneman 's raid in the Battle of Chancellorsville was a failure; Benjamin Grierson 's raid in the Vicksburg Campaign was a strategic masterpiece that diverted critical Confederate forces away from Ulysses S. Grant 's army; James H. In general, strategic raids were used more effectively in the Western Theater of the war. Defensive actions by the cavalry were critical in the retreat from Gettysburg.

Pursuit and harassment of enemy forces were often neglected particularly by the Union after Gettysburg and Antietam , but can be seen in their finest form in the pursuit of Robert E. Lee during the Appomattox Campaign. Until the nomenclature changed in the early s, cavalry regiments were organized into companies later, "troops" authorized at up to men, ten companies made up a regiment increased to twelve post-war. Two or more companies might be organized into ad hoc battalions later, "squadrons" , two "wings" of six companies each was used through the Indian Wars.

Civil War regiments were rarely near authorized strength so that they were commonly brigaded with two to four other regiments. Two to four brigades were combined into divisions. By the end of the war, cavalry regiments were formed in the Union Army and in the Confederate Army.

Early in the war, most cavalry regiments were dispersed to be under the command of infantry formations, such as divisions or corps. As commanders realized the importance of long-range reconnaissance and raiding, the organizations changed to consolidate more of the regiments into larger units controlled separately.

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The Army of Northern Virginia, earlier to consolidate under J. Stuart, organized its force as a cavalry division. In both armies, the cavalry was accompanied by batteries or battalions of horse artillery , as well as its own train of ammunition and supply wagons. Both cavalries originally required recruits or local communities to provide horses, a policy that lasted briefly in the North, while the South maintained it throughout the war even though Richmond leaders recognized its serious drawbacks. While Confederate troopers bore the monetary cost of keeping themselves mounted, Union cavalrymen rode quartermaster issued animals obtained though public contracts although officers had to reimburse the cost of their mounts to the government.

While open to fraud early in the war, once tightened regulations and stringent inspections were enforced, the contract system yielded an estimated , horses for Union armies during the war exclusive of an additional 75, confiscated in Confederate territory. Union army guidelines for cavalry horse selection mandated animals be at least 15 hands high, weighing minimally pounds and aged between 4 and 10 years old, and be well-broken to bridle and saddle.

Animals were to be dark colors and free from defects such as shallow breathing, deformed hooves, spavin or ringbone. Geldings were preferred for cavalry horses with the purchase of mares strictly prohibited outside absolute military emergency and stallions' volatility and aggressiveness made them generally unsuitable for service.

In the Confederacy, limited horse numbers did not permit such selectivity in trying to keep their armies horsed. On both sides volunteer officers often proved notably lax in promoting strict animal welfare, a shortcoming exacerbated by the absence of a trained and organized veterinary corps which allowed serious maladies like strangles, grease heel, farcy, and glanders to spread among army stock.

Congress finally created the rank of veterinary sergeant in March , but the meager pay and rank held no inducement for qualified candidates to join the army. Repeated calls to establish a professional military veterinary service failed, and widespread waste, suffering, and destruction among army horses resulted; not until was an official U.

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Horses gave the cavalry forces significant mobility. Such excesses were extremely damaging to the readiness of the units and extensive recovery periods were required. Stuart, during the Gettysburg Campaign the following year, resorted to procuring replacement horses from local farmers and townspeople during his grueling trek northward around the Union army. In York County, Pennsylvania , following the Battle of Hanover , his men appropriated well over 1, horses from the region.

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Many of these untrained new mounts proved a hindrance during the subsequent fighting at East Cavalry Field during the battle of Gettysburg. Some mounted forces used traditional infantry rifles. However, cavalrymen, particularly in the North, were frequently armed with three other weapons:. A Southerner was, on average, considered a superior horseman to his Northern counterpart, especially early in the war. Roads in the rural South were generally poor, and horses were used more for individual transportation than they were for the carriages and streetcars of the urbanized North, where many of the early Federal cavalry regiments were formed.

Additionally, the strong militia tradition in the antebellum South and the requirements for local 'slave catcher' patrols led to the development of mounted units prior to Confederate soldiers owned their horses and were compensated on a monthly basis. If a soldier's horse was sick, injured, or killed, the soldier was responsible for returning home and replacing the horse at his own expense. The general rule was that the soldier had 60 days to return with a new horse or he was forced to become an infantryman, which was considered to be an ignominious fate.

The first prominent Confederate cavalry leader was J. Stuart, who achieved success in the First Battle of Bull Run against infantry. He was a flamboyant dresser and an audacious commander, wildly popular with the Southern public for his escapades in twice encircling the Army of the Potomac. These long-range reconnaissance missions accomplished little of military value but boosted Southern morale. After Stuart's death in , he was replaced by Wade Hampton, who was a more mature, and arguably more effective, commander.

Another Eastern commander of note was Turner Ashby , the "Black Knight of the Confederacy", who commanded Stonewall Jackson 's cavalry forces in the Valley Campaign ; he was killed in battle in In the Western Theater, the most fearless, and ruthless, cavalry commander was Nathan Bedford Forrest, who achieved spectacular results with small forces but was an ineffective subordinate to the army commanders he was supposed to support, resulting in poorly coordinated battles. In the Eastern Theater, the Partisan Ranger John Singleton Mosby succeeded in tying down upwards of 40, Federal troops defending rail lines and logistical hubs with only irregulars.

Marmaduke and "Jo" Shelby became prominent. The Union started the war with five Regular mounted regiments: Dragoons, the 1st Mounted Rifles, and the 1st and 2nd Cavalry. These were renumbered the 1st through 5th U. Cavalry regiments, respectively, and a 6th was recruited. The Union was initially reluctant to enlist additional regiments, because of the expense, the understanding that training an effective cavalryman could take as long as two years, and the conventional wisdom that the rough and forested terrain of the United States, being so different from that of Western Europe , would make the deployment of Napoleonic-style cavalry forces ineffective.



As the war progressed, the value of cavalry was eventually realized primarily for non-offensive missions , and numerous state volunteer cavalry regiments were added to the army. While initially reluctant to form a large cavalry force, the Union eventually fielded some mounted regiments and unattached companies, of differing enlistment periods, throughout the war and suffered 10, killed and 26, wounded during the struggle.