I read about the charge at Gaines Mill of the 5th US Cavalry in Bruce Catton’s Illustrated Centennial History of the Civil War. That book had battle maps that were a combination of map and simplified sketches of troops and terrain. One of the last lines in the Gaines Mill story tells of a heroic charge by the 5th US to protect V Corps’ withdrawal. Although I was a first-class teen-age Civil War buff, I had never searched out a story of that charge.

Just happened to be reading the NY Times background on Crimea and Sebastopol, read again about the British cavalry at Balaclava, and thought of Gaines Mill…had I mis-remembered?

I can’t think of another mounted charge against infantry during the Civil War (aside from Farnsworth’s hopeless effort at Gettysburg).

Very nicely done, and thanks for the plug.

Don

Craig, I had the same reaction. I did a spit take when I read that.

Kevin, thanks. I’m feeling better. I’m not 100% yet, but it is definitely better.

Larry, I haven’t, but I also haven’t really looked. You might consider asking Don Caughey, who has a blog that is in my blogroll. Don has done a tremendous amount of work on the 6th US Cavalry, and he can probably tell you.

Eric

Another good bio, thank you. I haven’t found much showing that the regular cavalry units did a lot during the 1862 Maryland Campaign. Have you found any good primary/secondary sources detailing what they did during September 1862?

Larry