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The 2nd U.S Cavalry

A Regiment as old as the nation and a record to be proud of. From the Everglades to the Montana Plains

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Patrol Under Fire by Don Spaulding

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Close Pursuit by Don Spaulding

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Going for Help by Don Spaulding

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Return from Patrol by Don Spaulding

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Hostile Fire by Don Spaulding

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The Rescue by Don Spaulding

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Home Sweet Home by Don Spaulding

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One more time

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Union Cavalry Saber Charge

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Company Front, Charging the Enemy

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Wesley Merritt was the quintessential dragoon. He was quiet, competent, and a hard-fighting career Regular. Nobody would ever describe him as flamboyant or as hell-bent-for-leather. Instead, he was solid and dependable. Like his mentor John Buford, Merritt believed that cavalrymen needed to be equally proficient at fighting as well as at the less glamorous roles of the cavalry. His soldiers admired and respected him, but they did not love him. Merritt was something of a martinet, and did not have a charismatic personality. He was, however, a great soldier, and he ended his career after 40 years of service as the second-highest-ranking officer in the Army.

By contrast, George Armstrong Custer was the ultimate hussar. Flamboyant, handsome, with his long, curly blond hair streaming behind him, nothing thrilled Custer quite so much as leading a mounted charge, his saber glinting in the afternoon sunshine while waiting to be brought to bear against some unfortunate foeman. The men in the ranks loved George Custer. They called him the “Boy Soldier with the Golden Locks,” and they would follow him anywhere he led them. There is no better description of Custer than to call him a hell-bent-for-leather trooper…Custer had no particular talent for the traditional roles of cavalry, and if given a choice, he preferred the saber to dismounting and fighting with a carbine. He always led from the front.

These two young men-Merritt and Custer-were a year apart at West Point and ought to have been friends. Both were career cavalrymen, and both left indelible marks on the mounted service during the Civil War. And yet, they became bitter rivals and even enemies. In short, their personal relationship was a microcosm of the tension between the hussars and the dragoons. There were only so many opportunities for advancement, and only so many opportunities for glory, and both gained their fair share of each. Somewhere along the way their relationship deteriorated to the point of open warfare, particularly when Merritt ascended over Custer as commander of the Army of the Potomac’s First Cavalry Division. 

The Boy Generals: George Custer, Wesley Merritt, and the Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac by Adolfo Ovies

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Lieutenant Marcellus Jones and the 8th Illinois Cavalry

The men of Buford’s Division who fired the first shots at Gettysburg

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Cavalry Charge on the High Plains

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General Alfred Pleasonton and his Staff

Circa. 1863

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“Brandy Station, Va. Officers and men of Co. K, 1st U.S. Cavalry (1st Division, Cavalry Corps).”

(LoC)

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Protecting the Water Carriers