That for the first time, they had trained and been commanded as a coherent corps. Yet the Union soldiers’ strong stand resulted from the fact Begun by a Union surprise attack, the Confederates finally fended off the enemy. In order to screen Lee’s march north toward Gettysburg. Stuart’s forces were preparing to advance The largest cavalry battle of the war, involving 17,000 horsemen, occurred on June 9, 1863, at Brandy Station, Va. Union quartermasters smartly purchased many Morgans, a uniquely American breed knownįor endurance, versatility, heart and courage. However, mounts must be trained for combat, to not react to guns and cannon, so likely they proved ineffective at first.ĭespite an initial supply problem and lack of leadership and mission focus, by mid-1863 the Union cavalry was coming into its own. In the summer of 1863, his forces confiscated horses from Pennsylvania farmers. This resulted constant shortages of both trained horses and men to ride them. The Southern cavalry was a rich man’s undertaking: members had to provide their own horses. When Lee was exposed to cannon fire, an artilleryman remembered that “Old Mas’ Bob rode out of the smoke on Traveller, amid the loud shouts of A. During the 1864 campaigns in Virginia, General Lee rode along along the breastworks encouraging the men, turned retreating troops and chased down stragglers. The visual symbolism and bravery of mounted officers created anĪura of élan and command on the battlefield. Steeds were more than status symbols, though: when fighting was fierce or retreats had turned into routs, generals might personally rally their troops. Raiders Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Hunt Morgan disrupted drives across Tennessee by the Union generals Don Carlos Buell and William S. Stuart and Jubal Early were the two most famous Confederate cavalry officers, though others gained solid reputations. Indeed, the cavalry was a sure path to glory in the Confederate Army. He graduated second in his class at West Point and excelled in horsemanship. Son of the Revolutionary War general “Light Horse Harry” Lee, Robert married MaryĬustis, a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. When hostilities began, the Confederate military was led by this dashing upper class, foremost among them Robert E. Through it, Southern planters idealized themselves as models of medieval honor, manhood, classical learning – and equestrian skills. Sir Walter Scott’s novel “Ivanhoe,” set in the age of crusading knights, was a blockbuster hit in the American South. Nineteenth-century romanticism enhanced the “chivalry” image. Horses were more utilitarian, bred to work, not to race or ride to oversee the plantation.
In contrast, the “First Families of the North” ― Winthrops, Saltonstalls and Welleses ― were most associated with Suffolk, Essex and Cambridge, a Puritan region of yeoman farmers and artisans.
Gentry, horses were signs of elite power, a symbolism that translated onto the American battlefield and, after the war, the statuary pedestals of countless Southern town squares. This rural, manorial region supported King Charles I during the English Civil War, and owned slaves until the early Middle Ages. Who largely emigrated from southwest England. Was also the lap of America’s horse culture – or, rather, cultures, north and south.Īs the historian David Hackett Fischer points out, the First Families of Virginia, the fountain of Southern culture, were descendants of aristocracy and gentry ― Armisteads, Lees, Randolphs, Washingtons ― The Civil War is not normally called a horse’s war, but it most certainly was: cavalry and artillery horses, draft and pack horses and mules, approximately one million on the Union side alone. Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.
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