Lincoln's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of the Potomac [Hardcover]

Edward G. Longacre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2000

First modern study to focus solely on the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac

Includes all major battles and commanders

In this first of a two-volume survey of the Union and Confederate cavalries, primary sources abound. Historian Edward G. Longacre has consulted 50 manuscript collections pertaining to general officers of cavalry as well as the unpublished letters and diaries of 200 officers and enlisted men, representing almost every mounted unit in the Army of the Potomac. Well known for interrogating "conventional wisdom," he also contributes some provocative analyses regarding the mounted army's organization, leadership, and tactics. This is an exhaustive study that no Civil War enthusiast will want to miss.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Well known in Civil War circles, author Longacre (The Cavalry at Gettysburg, etc.) has written a major work on the Union cavalry of the North's primary field army in Virginia. Having mined more than 300 manuscript collections as well as numerous primary sources and secondary studies, Longacre has crafted a carefully written, well-researched tome. From the beginning of the war to Appomattox Court House, he examines the Regular Army's prewar mounted troops, then follows the genesis of the volunteer cavalry, a process that was painfully slow, especially given 1861 predictions that put the war's duration at three months. A perceptive chapter on arms, mounts, equipment and drill provides a fresh look at the problems inherent in raising and equipping volunteers on horseback. Included are capsule biographies and critical assessments of the cavalry's leadersAmen like George Stoneman, John Buford, Alfred Pleasonton, George A. Custer and Phil Sheridan. Throughout, the author details the skirmishes, battles and raids conducted by Union cavalry without quite resorting to blow-by-blows. The focus is rather on the cavalry's role in the broader context of the war in the east and its many campaigns. Within this framework, Longacre succeeds brilliantly in showing us a crucial, much-tested force. Photos and maps. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this first installment of a projected two-volume survey of the Union and Confederate cavalries, historian Longacre (Army of Amateurs) goes beyond previous works (Charles D. Rhodes's History of the Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, o.p., and Stephen Z. Starr's The Union Cavalry in the Civil War, 1985) in his unabashedly sympathetic treatment of those Yankee cavaliers who fought from Yorkstown and Williamsburg to Gettysburg, Petersburg, the Shenandoah Valley, and Appomattox, declaring that Lincoln's horsemen were always capable of outriding and outfighting their adversaries. The author faults commanders-in-chief McClellan, Pope, Burnside, and Meade for underutilizing their cavalry and praises Hooker and Sheridan, respectively, for organizational reforms and leadership. This exhaustively researched tome offers fascinating insights into the Union cavalry's structure, field tactics, logistical support, equine care and diseases, kit, and weaponry, especially noting with regard to the latter the introduction of the rapid-firing Spencer carbine. Recommended for most libraries.DJohn Carver Edwards, Univ. of Georgia Libs., Athens
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Stackpole Books; 1st edition (July 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811710491
• ISBN-13: 978-0811710497
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,360,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Volume!, July 19, 2006

By 

Alexander Bielakowski (Leavenworth, KS) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lincoln's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of the Potomac (Hardcover)

Edward G. Longacre is one of the best known and most prolific military historians currently researching and publishing on the American Civil War. He has authored more than a dozen articles and no less than a dozen books on the conflict, including biographies of Generals John Buford, Joshua Chamberlain, Henry J. Hunt, and George E. Pickett. His latest effort, Lincoln's Cavalrymen, is the first comprehensive study devoted exclusively to the mounted (both cavalry and horse artillery) forces of the Army of the Potomac.

Only two other books have even attempted the scope of examination provided by Lincoln's Cavalrymen - Charles D. Rhodes' History of the Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac (Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Company, 1900) and Stephen Z. Starr's three-volume Union Cavalry in the Civil War (Louisiana State University Press, 1979-84). Unlike these volumes, Longacre provides a more complete picture, by describing the organizational, administrative, and operational history of the cavalry forces of the Army of the Potomac. Rather than merely focusing on their field operations, Lincoln's Cavalrymen also examines the whole spectrum of life in the Union cavalry, including the recruiting, equipping, mounting, training, and organizing of these forces.

Longacre believes that Union cavalry has been unfairly characterized as a force which was inept and which struggled to gain competence. At the same time, Confederate cavalry has been portrayed as qualitatively superior, but ultimately weakened by attrition as the war progressed. Therefore, the Union cavalry superiority at the end of the war has been explained as Confederate weakness rather than Union strength. On the contrary, Longacre argues that, while Union cavalry did initially suffer from a shortage of experienced officers and was handicapped by the belief that volunteer cavalry could not be properly trained in a short period of time, by 1863, Union cavalry was qualitatively equal to Confederate cavalry. By 1864, the Union had achieved superiority not only in numbers and firepower (due to the use of repeating carbines), but had also achieved qualitative superiority.

Longacre has consulted a wealth of primary sources over the 25-year period during which he has researched this volume. In addition to the traditional published sources, he examined 400 (by his own count) collections of letters, diaries, and memoirs written by Union officers and enlisted men from various mounted units in the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln's Cavalrymen includes 65 single-spaced pages of endnotes, as well as a 51-page bibliography of primary and secondary sources. This volume is highly recommended and would be useful for scholars of the cavalry and/or the American Civil War.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three Years to Make a Cavalryman, April 30, 2008

By 

G. Todd (Pasadena, Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lincoln's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of the Potomac (Hardcover)

Longacre rightly refutes, with evidence the myth of "it takes three years to make a cavalryman." A statement made against forming volunteer cavalry regiments then, and carried on to this day simply because Brandy Station happened 3 years into the war.

While it may have taken 3 years on the plains to make a "good cavalryman," active service in war is make-or-break, and Longacre shows that the Federal cavalry was 'making' it in 1862, long before Brandy Station. The Federal cavalry, in fact, gave as good as it got as evidenced in the Antietam and Peninsula campaigns. What took three years was organization and leadership to finally gain some competence - longer still to deal with misuse and waste.

Longacre gives the Federal Cavalry it's due and rightly credits them for the fighting force they were every bit capable of being, long before Brandy Station - if only someone had see it then.