Let's not forget the 7th Cav. Here are some nuggets of info from a seminar i gave last year:
BACKGROUND INFO:
- Army Act of 1866 – Post war army was to perform three missions
-- Reconstruction of the South (1/3 )
-- Protection of the frontier
-- Defense of the seacoast
- 1866 – Authorized strength of roughly 54,000 (three times pre-war strength0
-- Expanded cavalry regiments from six to ten
-- Company strength of 64 privates
-- Expanded infantry regiments from nineteen to forty-five
- 1867 – Peak strength of 56,815
- Army Act of 1869 – Authorized strength reduced to 37,313
- By 1874 Army numbered just over 27,000
-- Most cuts came from stopping enlistments and “Benzine Boards”
CAVET: Actual strength always fell at least ten percent below authorized strength (Authorized 25,000=Actual 19,000)
- 430 companies (basic tactical unit) to man 200 posts
- Common practice to detail companies out to various postings
- Reductions throughout the period affected the number of men, not the number of units
-- Each reduction the company shrank in numbers and efficiency
- By 1881, actual enlisted strength of 120 cavalry troops averaged 58 (46 privates)
- From 1865 to 1876, troops were strung out across 2.5 million square miles
-- East to West = St Louis – San Francisco
-- North to South= Bismarck - San Antonio
7TH CAVALRY ORGANIZATION
- 1866 - Constituted in the Regular Army as the 7th Cavalry Regiment. (20 July)
- 1866 - Organized at Fort Riley, Kansas, Colonel Andrew J. Smith, commanding. (21 September)
- 1866 - 1871 Fort Riley, Kansas; Indian Wars. Troops "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "K", "L" & "M".
- 1871 - 1873 Custer at Elizibethtown, Kentucky. Squadrons distributed over Southern States to enforce Federal distillery tax and suppress the Klu Klux Klan activities.
-- Hdqtrs & Troop "A" - Elizibethtown,Kentucky
-- Troop "B" - Unionville/Spartanburg, South Carolina
-- Troop"C" - Winnsboro South Carolina/ Rutherfordton, North Carolina
-- Troop "D" - Chester, South Carolina
-- Troops "E" &"M" - Spartanburg, South Carolina
-- Troop "F" - Meridian,Mississippi/Taylor Barracks, Kentucky
-- Troop "G" - Sumpter, South Carolina/McPherson Barracks, Georgia
-- Troop "H" - Ash Barracks, Tenneesse/Huntsville, Alabama
-- Troop "I" - Bagdad/Shelbyville, Kentucky
-- Troop "K" - Yorkville, South Carolina
-- Troop "L" - Winnsboro/Columbus, South Carolina
1873 - Fort Rice, Dakota Territory; Temporary Staging Area. Troops "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "K", "L" & "M".
1873 - 1876 Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory; Indian Wars. Troops "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "K", "L" & "M".
CAMPAIGNS:
1867 – 1868
- Over 40 engagements with Sioux, Cheyennes, Kiowas, Comanches, Apaches, Arapahoes, and Dog Soldiers
-- 27 Nov 1868 Washita
-- 103 warriors (unknown number of women and children)
-- 875 Indian mounts destroyed
-- 1,000 buffalo skins
-- Hundreds of pounds of black powder
-- Stockpile of weapons
-- 7th Cav: Two officers and 19 men KIA; Three officers and 11 men were wounded
- 1869
-- Engagements on the Saline and Solomon
-- Escorting duties (sortie into north Texas)
- 1871
-- Transferred to Department of the South as adjunct to the Department of Justice, acting as posse comitatus for US Marshals
- 1873
-- Transferred back to Northern Department (Ft Rice)
-- Expedition for protection of engineering surveyors of the Northern Pacific Railway
-- Engagements on the Yellowstone
- 1874 – Black Hills Expedition
-- North Dakota, Wyoming, and South Dakota
-- “To secure a strong foothold in the heart of Sioux country “
-- Establish a fort near the Black Hills to control hostile Indians who were raiding frontier settlements to the south, in Nebraska
“Scientific party”
- 1874 – 6 troops ordered to Department of the Gulf (Louisiana and Alabama)
-- Constabulary duty
- 1875 – Removing the “deadwood” from the Black Hills
- Spring 1876 – Troops in the south recalled, and the entire regiment concentrated at Fort A. Lincoln
- 22 Jun 1876 – Depart Fort A. Lincoln