Plains Cavalry

Doing research for the third book in my spirit trilogy, Spirit of the Sky, I had to do research on the plains cavalry. This was the mounted army used to curtail Indian uprisings and make sure there was safe passage for the people populating the west.

After the Civil War, southern cavalry officers were demoted to privates. There was a feeling that if they were allowed to remain officers they could become in control of the military.  So many left the service rather than be demoted. After the war many of the soldiers went back to civilian life, leaving the cavalry shorthanded.

The years following the war most recruits were either illiterate or spoke a foreign language, causing problems when it came to training. Officers, who were graduates of West Point or promoted during the Civil War, and had sufficient training and experience in fighting, found themselves teaching ragtag groups how to ride horses and fire a rifle.

The plains cavalry weren't the sophisticated and well-oiled machine the movies make them out to be. A good part of the enlisted men were criminals who chose enlisting to going to jail.

Not all forts were as large and accommodating as we see in movies either. Most were small complexes of buildings for housing, cooking and eating, and a supply or trade shop along with a stable and farrier. When the soldiers weren't working on their fighting, they were the upkeep and builders of the forts.

During most of the Indian Wars period, the basic enlisted man's salary was $13 a month. Low pay, combined with boredom, and the fact many were their due to paying a debt to society for crimes they committed, there was a high desertion rate.

Food at the frontier forts wasn't of good quality. The enlisted man's menu consisted of hash, stew, hardtack, salt, vinegar and molasses. Scurvy was a common disease among the men due to the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables.

I discovered with my research the cavalry life was not glamorous and you had to have either wanted to stay away from your family really bad or had no other place to go to want to stay in the mundane life that could kill you just as easy from fraternizing with the local women as it could from a bullet or arrow. 

Sources:  

US Cavalry on the Plains 1850-90 Philip Katcher and Ron Volstad

The United States Cavalry: An Illustrated History 1776-1944 Gregory J.W. Urwin

Reprinted blog.

Wednesday Western -The Cavalry and Infantry of the Plains

After the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson signed an “Act to increase and fix the Military Peace Establishment of the United States” to strengthen western security. The constituents living in the west were being preyed upon by Indians and  civil war soldiers unable to settle into regular life and they asked for more military force.

The U.S. Army had five regiment of artillery and they added infantry from nineteen to forty-five regiments. The six regiments of U.S. Cavalry were expanded to ten. Negro enlisted men made up two of the new mounted regiments and four of the infantry. They were led by white officers. The Army permitted 1000 Indian scouts to work as cavalrymen on the frontier.

The legislation allotted a similar system to the cavalry as was used during the Civil War.

Regimental staff consisted of:

one colonel

one lieutenant colonel

three majors

one adjutant

one quartermaster

one regimental commissar

 one veterinary surgeon

one sergeant major

one quartermaster sergeant

 one commissary sergeant

one saddler sergeant

one chief trumpeter

one regimental hospital steward

There could also be one veterinary surgeon who functioned without a commission.

A Company consisted of:

One captain

One first lieutenant

One second lieutenant

One first sergeant

One quartermaster sergeant

Five sergeants

Eight corporals

Two trumpeters

Two farriers and blacksmiths

One saddler

One bagoner

And seventy-eight privates.

In 1867 President Johnson allowed all companies to have 100 privates.

The reason I looked up this information was to get a feel for the officers and numbers of the Army and Cavalry who chased after the Non-Treaty Nez Perce when they fled to freedom in 1877.

My current release Spirit of the Sky is set during the grueling chase and the aftermath and consequences forced upon the Nez Perce. Spirit of the Sky is a romance, but the backdrop for the romance is the injustice the U.S. government and Army forced upon the Non-Treaty Nez Perce.

Blurb for Spirit of the Sky

To save her from oppression, he must save her whole tribe. To give her his heart, he must desert his career…

When the US Army forces the Nimiipuu from their land, Sa-qan, the eagle spirit entrusted with watching over her tribe, steps in to save her mortal niece. Challenging the restrictions of the spirit world, Sa-qan assumes human form and finds an unexpected ally in a handsome cavalry officer.

Certain she is a captive, Lt. Wade Watts, a Civil War veteran, tries to help the blonde woman he finds sheltering a Nez Perce child. While her intelligent eyes reveal she understands his language, she refuses his help. But when Wade is wounded, it is the beautiful Sa-qan who tends him. Wade wishes to stop the killing—Sa-qan will do anything to save her people.

Can their differences save her tribe? Or will their love spell the end of the Nimiipuu?

Wednesday Western- Plains Cavalry

Doing research for the third book in my spirit trilogy, Spirit of the Sky, I had to do research on the plains cavalry. This was the mounted army used to curtail Indian uprisings and make sure there was safe passage for the people populating the west.

After the Civil War, Southern cavalry officers were demoted to privates. There was a feeling that if they were allowed to remain officers they could become in control of the military.  So many left the service rather than be demoted. After the war many of the soldiers went back to civilian life, leaving the cavalry shorthanded.

The years following the war most recruits were either illiterate or spoke a foreign language, causing problems when it came to training. Officers, who were graduates of West Point or promoted during the Civil War and had sufficient training and experience in fighting, found themselves teaching ragtag groups how to ride horses and fire a rifle.

The plains cavalry weren't the sophisticated and well oiled machine the movies make them out to be. A good part of the enlisted men were criminals who chose enlisting to going to jail.

Not all forts were as large and accommodating as we see in movies either. Most were small complexes of buildings for housing, cooking and eating, and a supply or trade shop along with a stable and farrier. When the soldiers weren't working on their fighting they were the upkeep and builders of the forts.

During most of the Indian Wars period, the basic enlisted man's salary was $13 a month.  Low pay, combined with boredom, and the fact many were there due to paying a debt to society for crimes they committed there was a high desertion rate.

Food at the frontier forts wasn't of good quality. The enlisted man's menu consisted of  hash, stew, hardtack, salt, vinegar and molasses. Scurvy was a common disease among the men due to the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables.

I discovered with my research the cavalry life was not glamorous and you had to have either wanted to stay away from your family really bad or had no other place to go to want to stay in the mundane life that could kill you just as easy from fraternizing with the local women as it could from a bullet or arrow.