Memorial Day

Since we’re celebrating Memorial Day today, it seems appropriate to post about those who lost their lives in the regular cavalry regiments during the Civil War. Who knows, someday I might even find all of their names someday.

The 1st US Cavalry lost 9 officers and 73 enlisted men killed and died of wounds, for a total of 82. Another 93, 2 officers and 91 enlisted men, died of disease, accidents or in prison. Total deaths were 175, the most of any of the six regiments. I found this surprising, since they missed all of the fighting in 1861 and had no exceedingly high casualty engagements such as Gaines’ Mill or Fairfield.

The 2nd US Cavalry lost 5 officers and 73 enlisted men killed and died of wounds, for a total of 78. Another 95 personnel, 3 officers and 92 enlisted men, died of disease, accidents or in prison. Total deaths were 173, second among the six.

The 3rd US Cavalry lost 2 officers and 30 enlisted men killed and died of wounds, for a total of 32. Another 108 personnel were lost due to disease, accidents and prison deaths. Total deaths were 140, the lowest of the six regiments. This is easily explained, given that they had the fewest engagements of the six regiments during the war.

The 4th US Cavalry lost 3 officers and 59 enlisted men killed and died of wounds, for a total of 62. One additional officer and 108 enlisted men died due to disease, accident or prison, for a total of 109. Total deaths were 171, third among the regiments. I’d expected this total to be higher since they had elements in major battles in both theaters before the regiment was consolidated in the western theater following Antietam.

The 5th US Cavalry lost 7 officers and 60 enlisted men killed or died of wounds, for a total of 67. Another 2 officers and 90 enlisted men died due to disease, accidents or in prison. Total deaths were 159, again lower than I’d expected due to the losses at Gaines’ Mill alone.

The 6th US Cavalry lost 2 officers and 50 enlisted men killed or died of wounds, for a total of 52. They lost an additional 107, one officer and 106 enlisted men, to disease, accidents or prison deaths. Again, these numbers were lower than I’d expected, given losses at Fairfield and Funkstown.

Totals for all regiments were 28 officers and 345 enlisted men killed or died of wounds, for a total of 373. 12 officers and 592 enlisted men died of disease, accident or prison, for a total of 977. Again, these numbers seem somewhat low, but only include deaths, not total casualties.

Sources for this information include Haskin and Rodenbough's 1896 The Army of the United States and Fox's Regimental Losses of the Civil War.