Customer Reviews

Horse Soldier, 1776-1943, Us Cavalryman His Uniforms, Arms, Accoutrements, and Equipments. Vol 2: The Frontiers, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the (United States Cavalryman Series, His)

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I was a friend of Randy from meeting him in 1970 til his death. He was one of the most persistent men I ever knew. Born in Oklahoma of mixed descent, Anglo and Native American, he attended the Naval Academy and served for many years. He became an accomplished artist and illustrator. He spent many years preparing his monumental work. Just when it was finished and ready to submit, he went to town on an errand, upon returning, he discovered his entire collection gone--the studio had burned to the ground. And he had to begin all over again.
It is a testimony that he finished it and sent it in. Even though Volume Four was published post-humously. Not every man gets to fulfil his life's ambition as Randy did. Every illustration in this multi-volume work has been drawn by him from original materiel. Where relevent the complete text of regulations is quoted.
For example, in the period which I research, that from the 1880s to today, the volume three, reprints the complete Army uniform regulations in the nineteen-teens, not just the portion on mounted men. Thus, the work is useful also for those generally interested in the military through the period covered.
One must elucidate on the title a bit. As stated, it is not just on the mounted horse cavalry so celebrated in John Wayne movies, but covers all the mounted troops, dragoons, mounted rifles, and cavalry in the period of the frontier expansion, before the Civil War, then both North and South, and the post war frontier patrolling days. Not only is the equipment, both individual and horse, of the cavalryman covered, so is that of the artillery man where it differed. The coverage is relevent to all mounted men--quartermaster troops, engineers, signalers, and hospital corpsmen, and their clothing and equipment.

as a collector of militaria this book is one of the indispensable tools that i need to identify historicaly significant US cavalry uniforms and accoutriments.

Another in the four-volume master work on U.S. cavalry uniforms and equipment, this work is the best available on the subject with great line drawings by the author.

For the serious collector, this is an outstanding reference. It is not for the casual history buff. As regular reading material, it is very dry. It has to be taken as a guide: text supporting illustrations. The detailed drawings of uniform items, accoutrements, and equipment along with the dated regulations and orders makes this book an indispensable aid for identifying and dating U.S. cavalry items of the period that this book covers.