***The development of cavalry
in the American Civil War***
By the nineteenth century, war in Europe had evolved into an affair of close-order infantry armed with muskets, field artillery, and several types of cavalry. At this time, there were essentially three types of mounted troops - heavy cavalry, light cavalry, and Dragoons. They were called upon to accomplish a variety of tasks, ranging from reconnaissance to charging infantry. The basic role of cavalry in European armies was scouting, screening, pursuit, and so on, serving as adjuncts and supports to the infantry and artillery.
The heavy cavalry main role however, was to be a strike force that could play a significant role in battle had the function of being shock troops. Composed of big men on powerful horses, usually wearing metal helmets and body armor, their prime tactical function was the massed charge against enemy infantry, a tactic that worked well in the open plains of Europe against the weaponry of the day. However, the advent of rapid advances in weapons technologies began to make the standard cavalry techniques obsolete and deadly. The new rifled artillery barrels and projectiles gave them longer and more accurate effective ranges, making mounted formations easy targets. More effective firearms had slowly reduced heavy cavalrys role, and saw its role reduced to screening infantry movements, scouting the enemy, and occasionally raiding deep into enemy territory to disrupt lines of supply and communication. This was indeed, the situation at the outbreak of the American Civil War.
The repeating rifle was first used in large quantities during the American Civil Warm as well as Rifled artillery, making reducing the traditional role of cavalry
The American Civil War, however, revitalized the role of cavalry. It did not recreate the heavy cavalry, who could not have operated in the wooded terrain of North America, but instead, by improving the firepower of the cavalry and making the trooper an effective dragoon, paved the way for the cavalry to again assume the role of a strike force. As the war progressed more and more cavalry used their horses mainly for transportation and fought more and more on foot. Therefore, cavalry often fought dismounted, even against other cavalry, using their horses more for mobility in much the same way that motorized infantry would use trucks. What this in fact involved was the creation of cavalry armies, masses of cavalry operating in either close coordination with the infantry.
cavalry often fought dismounted, even against other cavalry, to take the maximum advantage of their firepower
By the time of the Civil War, warfare had become a complex undertaking, the ways of killing more sophisticated. The war itself brought to the fore two major tactical innovations/concepts: trench warfare, especially in Lee's last campaigns from the Wilderness to Petersburg, and mobile infantry. If the two, the concept of mobile infantry was perhaps the far-reaching tactical development of the Civil War. The base element is simply adding greater mobility to infantry. The cavalry army tended to exercise more autonomy and act more like an infantry command, being given basic orders and objectives leaving the commanders themselves to devise the best way to carry them out. The horses supplied the element of mobility only, and pure shock tactics became a thing of the past. The act of employing cavalry troops as mounted or mobile infantry became the essence of the innovative concept.
The distinguished British military theorist-historian Maj. G. F. R. Henderson praised the Civil War's cavalry, stating that No troops could have been better adapted to the country over which they fought than the American mounted rifleman On their own ground they would probably have defeated any European cavalry of the period," wrote the Englishman. He continued, "Our brethren in arms across the Atlantic teach us what may be done by a mounted force that is not much inferior to good infantry and at the same time has all the mobility of cavalry." In essence, the American Civil War became a model for all mounted arms worldwide, producing an enormous shift in cavalry tactics. Nathan B. Forrest and James H. Wilson are among the many Civil War personalities most responsible for creating this prototype and developing new tactics to fit the new role of cavalry on the battlefield.
Nathan B. Forrest
Nathan B. Forrest, known as the Wizard of the Saddle
Nathan B. Forrest was a frontiersman from the backcountry, and received little formal education, with a grand total of six months schooling, and yet he far excelled most all of the West Pointers in command. He came into the cavalry from civilian life, and it is therefore natural that his methods of organizing and using his troops did not follow the lines set down in the textbooks. The tactics he evolved had the twin virtues of simplicity and effectiveness. Forrest's fighting was almost always done in broken, hilly, heavily-wooded country, where cavalry charges in an extended line, a succession of lines, or in mass, would have been impossible, even if the state of training of his men and horses had permitted such a maneuver.
Known as the wizard of the saddle, Forrest had developed certain riding tactics that made his cavalry an excellent striking force. Also, it was basic doctrine that, to function successfully, cavalry needed the support of infantry, whereas Forrests battles were almost without exception fought miles from any supporting infantry. He had to be his own infantry, just as he had to be his own artillery and cavalry. The logical and necessary conclusion these paths led to was the use of his troops not as cavalry but as mounted infantry. He had a simple theory on war, saying "War means fightin' and fightin' means killin'." He believed war was fighting and fighting means killing, and his brilliant military tactics demonstrated this. In his application of this theory he soon became the most feared of all the Confederate cavalry commanders.
His one directive to his men was to get there firstest with the mostest, even if it meant pushing his horses at a killing pace, which he did more than once. These tactics he practiced led immensely to the value of mounted operations in war. The important elements of his tactics included surprise, usually resulting from unbelievable mobility (in the words of Sherman, "his cavalry can cover 100 miles while ours cover 10"), a fierce initial contact, the use of artillery almost in the skirmish line, and a flank or rear diversion followed by frontal assault. He employed it extremely well, and often gave the impression to the enemy of numbers larger than he actually had, and that his forces were attacking in all directions. His tactics called for individual initiative, mobility, maintaining the offensive, acting without delay, playing not for safety but to win, and fighting whenever the opportunity arose. It was his incredible mobility; eagerness for action, aggressiveness, understanding of maneuver tactics, and sense of strategy that won him a number of engagements from one combat to the next.
Forrest used his mobility by mounting part of his forces and using them in pursuit, Keeping up the skeer as it were
and not allowing the Union forces the opportunity to rally and reform.
He is noted mainly as a highly successful raider behind union lines but also distinguished himself in several traditional type battles. One of these great victory came when his 3,500-man force clashed with 8,100 men commanded by General Samuel D. Sturgis at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads. Here we see the principles of mass and maneuver in action. Forrest had used his superior knowledge of the enemy, mobility of force, aggressive tactics and favorable terrain to win one of the most decisive victories of the American Civil War. Here, his mobility of force and superior tactics won a remarkable victory, inflicting 2,500 casualties against a loss of 492, and sweeping the Union forces completely from a large expanse of southwest Tennessee and northern Mississippi.
Forrest was called by General Sherman as being the most remarkable man the Civil War ever produced General Robert E. Lee stated: "He accomplished more with fewer troops than any other officer on either side." It was his belief that Forrest would have made a great army commander and would have accomplished great things. One historian, said: he ranks the first of cavalry generals of all times, and the tactics there displayed were in every respect the same which now receive the sanction of modern science -- sudden deployment and bold attack, outflanking the enemy's wings, dividing the enemy's forces rallying, attacking the rear, supporting the menaced point, and, to crown all, a pursuit of six hundred stadia (seventy five miles) in twenty four hours. Never was there a greater achievement in ancient or modern warfare. Says another: Forrest is regarded as an innovative tactician. His prowess as a commander was confirmed at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads, where he inflicted one of the worst defeats of the U.S. Army in its history. A number of military historians have referred to this as the Perfect Battle.
Forrest's double-envelope at Brice's Cross Roads
The influence of Forrest was far-reaching. Long after his death, Forrests tactics were studied by military leaders worldwide, and were utilized in the Second World War by tanks and motorized infantry. His victory at Brice's Cross Roads became the subject of a class taught at the French War College by Marshal Ferdinand Foch before World War I, and the German general Erwin Rommel, who emulated his tactics on a wider scale, with tanks and trucks, studied his mobile campaigns. No less a general than Rommel studied Forrests tactics and implemented them with modern weaponry when his Afrika Korps marched all over Libya and Egypt in World War II.
If examined closely, his operations will be found based on the soundest principles of the art of war. His tactics, intuitively, and without knowledge of what other men had done before him, were those of the great masters of that art-that is, to rush down swiftly, thunderously upon his enemy with his whole collective strength. Few generals, if any, made better application of these principles. He stated that he won victories by getting there first with the most men, planning and making my own fight, never letting the other fellow made the fight for me...Strike the first blow...Get them skeered and keep the skeer on them...charge and give them hell. There is a brilliance about Forrest's operations, his disregard of odds, the use of surprise, single and double envelopments, the way in which he kept a firm grip on the development of his battles, his ability to use all arms in combination, the ruthless energy with which he pressed home an advantage, that mark him out as one of the greatest generals of the Civil War
in the American Civil War***
By the nineteenth century, war in Europe had evolved into an affair of close-order infantry armed with muskets, field artillery, and several types of cavalry. At this time, there were essentially three types of mounted troops - heavy cavalry, light cavalry, and Dragoons. They were called upon to accomplish a variety of tasks, ranging from reconnaissance to charging infantry. The basic role of cavalry in European armies was scouting, screening, pursuit, and so on, serving as adjuncts and supports to the infantry and artillery.
The heavy cavalry main role however, was to be a strike force that could play a significant role in battle had the function of being shock troops. Composed of big men on powerful horses, usually wearing metal helmets and body armor, their prime tactical function was the massed charge against enemy infantry, a tactic that worked well in the open plains of Europe against the weaponry of the day. However, the advent of rapid advances in weapons technologies began to make the standard cavalry techniques obsolete and deadly. The new rifled artillery barrels and projectiles gave them longer and more accurate effective ranges, making mounted formations easy targets. More effective firearms had slowly reduced heavy cavalrys role, and saw its role reduced to screening infantry movements, scouting the enemy, and occasionally raiding deep into enemy territory to disrupt lines of supply and communication. This was indeed, the situation at the outbreak of the American Civil War.
The repeating rifle was first used in large quantities during the American Civil Warm as well as Rifled artillery, making reducing the traditional role of cavalry
The American Civil War, however, revitalized the role of cavalry. It did not recreate the heavy cavalry, who could not have operated in the wooded terrain of North America, but instead, by improving the firepower of the cavalry and making the trooper an effective dragoon, paved the way for the cavalry to again assume the role of a strike force. As the war progressed more and more cavalry used their horses mainly for transportation and fought more and more on foot. Therefore, cavalry often fought dismounted, even against other cavalry, using their horses more for mobility in much the same way that motorized infantry would use trucks. What this in fact involved was the creation of cavalry armies, masses of cavalry operating in either close coordination with the infantry.
cavalry often fought dismounted, even against other cavalry, to take the maximum advantage of their firepower
By the time of the Civil War, warfare had become a complex undertaking, the ways of killing more sophisticated. The war itself brought to the fore two major tactical innovations/concepts: trench warfare, especially in Lee's last campaigns from the Wilderness to Petersburg, and mobile infantry. If the two, the concept of mobile infantry was perhaps the far-reaching tactical development of the Civil War. The base element is simply adding greater mobility to infantry. The cavalry army tended to exercise more autonomy and act more like an infantry command, being given basic orders and objectives leaving the commanders themselves to devise the best way to carry them out. The horses supplied the element of mobility only, and pure shock tactics became a thing of the past. The act of employing cavalry troops as mounted or mobile infantry became the essence of the innovative concept.
The distinguished British military theorist-historian Maj. G. F. R. Henderson praised the Civil War's cavalry, stating that No troops could have been better adapted to the country over which they fought than the American mounted rifleman On their own ground they would probably have defeated any European cavalry of the period," wrote the Englishman. He continued, "Our brethren in arms across the Atlantic teach us what may be done by a mounted force that is not much inferior to good infantry and at the same time has all the mobility of cavalry." In essence, the American Civil War became a model for all mounted arms worldwide, producing an enormous shift in cavalry tactics. Nathan B. Forrest and James H. Wilson are among the many Civil War personalities most responsible for creating this prototype and developing new tactics to fit the new role of cavalry on the battlefield.
Nathan B. Forrest
Nathan B. Forrest, known as the Wizard of the Saddle
Nathan B. Forrest was a frontiersman from the backcountry, and received little formal education, with a grand total of six months schooling, and yet he far excelled most all of the West Pointers in command. He came into the cavalry from civilian life, and it is therefore natural that his methods of organizing and using his troops did not follow the lines set down in the textbooks. The tactics he evolved had the twin virtues of simplicity and effectiveness. Forrest's fighting was almost always done in broken, hilly, heavily-wooded country, where cavalry charges in an extended line, a succession of lines, or in mass, would have been impossible, even if the state of training of his men and horses had permitted such a maneuver.
Known as the wizard of the saddle, Forrest had developed certain riding tactics that made his cavalry an excellent striking force. Also, it was basic doctrine that, to function successfully, cavalry needed the support of infantry, whereas Forrests battles were almost without exception fought miles from any supporting infantry. He had to be his own infantry, just as he had to be his own artillery and cavalry. The logical and necessary conclusion these paths led to was the use of his troops not as cavalry but as mounted infantry. He had a simple theory on war, saying "War means fightin' and fightin' means killin'." He believed war was fighting and fighting means killing, and his brilliant military tactics demonstrated this. In his application of this theory he soon became the most feared of all the Confederate cavalry commanders.
His one directive to his men was to get there firstest with the mostest, even if it meant pushing his horses at a killing pace, which he did more than once. These tactics he practiced led immensely to the value of mounted operations in war. The important elements of his tactics included surprise, usually resulting from unbelievable mobility (in the words of Sherman, "his cavalry can cover 100 miles while ours cover 10"), a fierce initial contact, the use of artillery almost in the skirmish line, and a flank or rear diversion followed by frontal assault. He employed it extremely well, and often gave the impression to the enemy of numbers larger than he actually had, and that his forces were attacking in all directions. His tactics called for individual initiative, mobility, maintaining the offensive, acting without delay, playing not for safety but to win, and fighting whenever the opportunity arose. It was his incredible mobility; eagerness for action, aggressiveness, understanding of maneuver tactics, and sense of strategy that won him a number of engagements from one combat to the next.
Forrest used his mobility by mounting part of his forces and using them in pursuit, Keeping up the skeer as it were
and not allowing the Union forces the opportunity to rally and reform.
He is noted mainly as a highly successful raider behind union lines but also distinguished himself in several traditional type battles. One of these great victory came when his 3,500-man force clashed with 8,100 men commanded by General Samuel D. Sturgis at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads. Here we see the principles of mass and maneuver in action. Forrest had used his superior knowledge of the enemy, mobility of force, aggressive tactics and favorable terrain to win one of the most decisive victories of the American Civil War. Here, his mobility of force and superior tactics won a remarkable victory, inflicting 2,500 casualties against a loss of 492, and sweeping the Union forces completely from a large expanse of southwest Tennessee and northern Mississippi.
Forrest was called by General Sherman as being the most remarkable man the Civil War ever produced General Robert E. Lee stated: "He accomplished more with fewer troops than any other officer on either side." It was his belief that Forrest would have made a great army commander and would have accomplished great things. One historian, said: he ranks the first of cavalry generals of all times, and the tactics there displayed were in every respect the same which now receive the sanction of modern science -- sudden deployment and bold attack, outflanking the enemy's wings, dividing the enemy's forces rallying, attacking the rear, supporting the menaced point, and, to crown all, a pursuit of six hundred stadia (seventy five miles) in twenty four hours. Never was there a greater achievement in ancient or modern warfare. Says another: Forrest is regarded as an innovative tactician. His prowess as a commander was confirmed at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads, where he inflicted one of the worst defeats of the U.S. Army in its history. A number of military historians have referred to this as the Perfect Battle.
Forrest's double-envelope at Brice's Cross Roads
The influence of Forrest was far-reaching. Long after his death, Forrests tactics were studied by military leaders worldwide, and were utilized in the Second World War by tanks and motorized infantry. His victory at Brice's Cross Roads became the subject of a class taught at the French War College by Marshal Ferdinand Foch before World War I, and the German general Erwin Rommel, who emulated his tactics on a wider scale, with tanks and trucks, studied his mobile campaigns. No less a general than Rommel studied Forrests tactics and implemented them with modern weaponry when his Afrika Korps marched all over Libya and Egypt in World War II.
If examined closely, his operations will be found based on the soundest principles of the art of war. His tactics, intuitively, and without knowledge of what other men had done before him, were those of the great masters of that art-that is, to rush down swiftly, thunderously upon his enemy with his whole collective strength. Few generals, if any, made better application of these principles. He stated that he won victories by getting there first with the most men, planning and making my own fight, never letting the other fellow made the fight for me...Strike the first blow...Get them skeered and keep the skeer on them...charge and give them hell. There is a brilliance about Forrest's operations, his disregard of odds, the use of surprise, single and double envelopments, the way in which he kept a firm grip on the development of his battles, his ability to use all arms in combination, the ruthless energy with which he pressed home an advantage, that mark him out as one of the greatest generals of the Civil War
. Forrest is one of my favorites of all time 
.
. Thanks!
