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.
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