Origins and Early Service
The 4th United States Cavalry Regiment was established as part of the expansion of mounted U.S. Army units in the mid-1850s. It was officially organized on March 26, 1855, at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, as the U.S. 1st Cavalry Regiment.
One year after its establishment, the 1st Cavalry Regiment's first military action was a peacekeeping mission in "Bleeding Kansas," where pro-slavery and free state factions clashed violently. It also fought against hostile Plains Indians. Its first commanders were Col. Edwin V. Sumner and Lt. Col. Joseph E. Johnston, both future Civil War generals. The regiment's first major combat action came on July 30, 1857, at the Battle of Solomon Fork in Kansas against a large force of Southern Cheyenne warriors.
The regiment was Col. Robert E. Lee's last command in the Federal Army before the American Civil War. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the 1st Cavalry Regiment was dissolved and reorganized. Many of its commissioned officers rose to prominence during the war, including Lee as well as George B. McClellan and J.E.B. Stuart.
Read more about this topic: 4th Cavalry Regiment (United States)
Famous quotes containing the words origins, early and/or service:
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (18951990)
“next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawns early my
country tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jing by gee by gosh by gum”
—E.E. (Edward Estlin)
“You had to face your ends when young
Twas wine or women, or some curse
But never made a poorer song
That you might have a heavier purse,
Nor gave loud service to a cause
That you might have a troop of friends.”
—William Butler Yeats (18651939)