American Civil War
In April 1861, the American Civil War broke out and 13 officers left the Regiment to join the cause of the Confederacy, including future generals Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, William W. Loring, Dabney H. Maury, William H. Jackson, George B. Crittenden, and John G. Walker. Not a single enlisted man left the regiment.
On 3 August 1861, all mounted regiments of the U.S. Army were classified as "cavalry", and the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen was re-numbered the 3d U.S. Cavalry Regiment, headquartered at Fort Thomas, third in precedence in the Regular Army. At the outbreak of the war, a Confederate force of about 3000 Texans began a campaign at Fort Bliss, Texas to seize the territories of New Mexico and Colorado. The 3d U.S. Cavalry Regiment was one of the few Regular Army units in the region available to oppose them. On 25 July detachments of Companies B and F were involved in a hard fight at Mesilla and joined Company I when it surrendered with Fort Fillmore on 26 July.
The regiment remained in New Mexico fighting hostile Indians as well as Confederate Troops until 1862. In September 1862, the regiment re-deployed to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. In December it relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, where it spent 1863 performing duties for XV Corps, Army of the Tennessee. Between October and December 1863, the 3d Cavalry participated in operations on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad and fought in skirmishes at various locations such as Barton Station, Cane Creek, and Dickinson‘s Station, Alabama. The 3d Cavalry was tasked by General Sherman to perform various reconnaissance missions as part of his advance guard, including marching to the relief of Knoxville, Tennessee. Elements of the Regiment also were engaged at Murphy, North Carolina and Loudon, Tennessee. In 1864 the regiment relocated to Little Rock, Arkansas, where it remained for the remainder of the war fighting guerrilla forces, and after the war ended, on occupation duty until April 1866, when it was ordered back to New Mexico.
The 3d U.S. Cavalry Regiment‘s losses during the Civil War were two officers and thirty enlisted men who were either killed in action or died of wounds and three officers and 105 enlisted men who died of disease or other non-combat causes.
Read more about this topic: 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment (United States)
Famous quotes containing the words civil war, american, civil and/or war:
“A war between Europeans is a civil war.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“Do not be discouraged, if in a thousand instances you find your kindness rejected and wronged, your good evil-spoken of, and the hand you extend for the relief of others, cast insultingly away; the benevolence which cannot outlive these trials of its purity and strength, is not like the self-sacrifice of him, who went about doing good.”
—C., U.S. women’s magazine contributor. American Ladies Magazine, pp. 331-4 (July 1828)
“The Count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor well; but civil count, civil as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)