The Soldier’s Life

Some Thoughts on Cavalry in the 1860’s vs. Cavalry Reenacting Today

Originally submitted by Lynn Gray in 2007

Reviewed 2024

So you want to be a cavalryman.

Have you ever considered what it was like to ride with the real cavalry? The movies and TV shows make it look like a grand adventure, galloping alongside John Wayne in “The Horse Soldiers” or under the command of General John Buford (Sam Elliot) in “Gettysburg.”

After reading historical books and eyewitness accounts and spending a few years in the saddle personally, I would like to define a more realistic version than Disney’s.

The typical day in the cavalry was anything but typical. You might awake and cook three days rations (or more), do stable call, boots and saddles, and then stand down for a day or two while the General decided what he really wanted to do.

You might be rousted out of a warm, soft bunk made from "Virginia feathers" (cedar boughs) to saddle in the dark and be gone for a week!

Then there was drill, picket duty, wagon train guard, drill, prisoner escort, forage duty, drill, and the occasional saber charge. Did I mention drill?

Naturally, the horse came first, along with water, feed, stable call, water, grooming, water, boots and saddles, water, grooming, feed, stable call, water, veterinary concerns, shoeing, and water......

Of course, North or South - you lose your hoss, and you be in the infantry. The South - until you found or stole another horse. The North - until you completed a long walking trip back to the remount unit (safely behind the lines where a certain fellow named Mosby got many of the South’s mounts during the later years of the war). And you thought your commute to work was tough!

Rounding a corner in a column of fours might find you facing a five-foot deep water crossing, an artillery unit, an infantry unit, a ten-mile-long supply train, or a battle line of the other side’s cavalry with drawn sabers - or maybe just 75% of them dismounted with carbines at the ready.

It could be a running battle with a few shots fired in haste or a thirteen-hour affair. You could leave for an afternoon and return four days after riding around the enemy’s entire army.

Today, reenacting for a three or four-day weekend gives us but a taste of what our forefathers did day in and day out for four long years, along with the wet, cold, dry, hot, mud, snow, sleet, hunger, lame horses, dead horses, wounded comrades, and dead comrades.

Did anyone complain about the last tactical event? Are you sore after a one-hour ride to the other side of an event? Not enough sleep last night have you a little grumpy for today's thirty minutes of drill? Do I have to water my horse again? What’s for dinner tonight, Mrs. B? A dawn what?

This hobby is the most fun I’ve had with my clothes on in twenty years! I love it and consider it a privileged responsibility to portray men of such character, bravery, and fortitude as accurately and honorably as possible. The 2nd US / 9th Virginia Cavalry invites you to join us in furthering this tradition.