The Philadelphia Light Horse

When Fort Sumter fell in April 1861, tens of thousands of young men flocked to join the armies of the South and the North. Many had no military experience whatsoever. Some had served in various militia regiments and had at least some rudimentary military training and skills. One such militia unit was called the Philadelphia Light Horse, which was composed of affluent young men from a suburb of Philadelphia called Germantown.

About twenty of the city’s social elite formed a militia company. James H. Stevenson, a former U. S. dragoon, joined them. This is Stevenson’s description, written in 1879, and included in his history of the First New York (Lincoln) Cavalry, “Boots and Saddles”: A History of the First Volunteer Cavalry of the War, Known as the First New York (Lincoln) Cavalry, and also as the Sabre Regiment:

On the 1st of May we took possession of an unused race-course, at Chestnut Hill, near Germantown, with the unoccupied inn and stables attached, where we had ample accommidations for both men and horses, and the grounds wer admirably adapted for a Cavalry School of Practice.

After drill it was usual for the troopers to act as escorts to the young ladies on horseback; and the beautiful sylvan lanes, leading to and from the romantic banks of the Wissahickon, presented gay and lively scenes during those charming afternoons. And at night the old woods rang with pleasant echoes, as we strolled leisurely along the banks, bathed in the cooling waters, or rowed upon the silent and softly flowing stream. But these things were not to last.

Indeed, they did not. Most of these young men received commissions in the Union army, and many of them achieved prominence in its mounted arm. Stevenson was a company commander in the First New York (Lincoln) Cavalry. A number became officers in the Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry: William P. C. Treichel, Frederic C. Newhall, William W. Frazier, Emlen N. Carpenter, and Osgood Welsh. Walter S. Newhall joined the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, serving with great distinction until his untimely drowning death in December 1863.

Times certainly changed. Certainly, playing at war lost its allure. Reading the descriptions of those heady, idyllic days of the spring of 1861 contrasted with the horrors of Civil War combat makes on wish for those innocent days again, much as we modern Americans long for the lost innocence of the prosperous 1950’s.