Something for the weekend. The Cavalier’s Glee, a song which captures well the daring spirit of the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia under General Jeb Stuart. The song was written by Captain William W. Blackford, an engineer on the staff of General Stuart. It is sung by Bobby Horton, a man who every American is indebted to for his constant efforts to bring Civil War songs to modern audiences.
The Cavalier’s Glee
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
For those interested in Civil War cavalry and General Custer, I recommend Gregory J. W. Urwin’s book, Custer Victorious.
The taunt among Union infantry as cavalry passed was, “I never saw a dead cavalryman.”
That changed at Gettysburg. Custer’ Michigan Cav beat Stuart’s cavalry behind the Union center or things could have been different for Pickett.
The Army still has Cavalry regiments, evolved out of WWII tank destroyer units. The battalions are called squadrons. The companies are called troops. The officers and NCO’s have black stetsons that may be worn with dress uniform and they have “stable calls.” In addition to the CIB, offers are awarded (unofficial) spurs (made from ammo casings) after cav combat.
The cav platoon has four up-armored (IED survivable) HumVee two with .50 cal. MG; one an auto grenade launcher; and one TOW missile, which requires an act of Congress to fire.
Infantry officers may serve in Cav units. My airborne ranger son won his spurs as a PL in Afghanistan.
Custer was a general at 23 in 1863, one of three young Union cavalry captains jumped from that rank to brigadier general in a desperate attempt to put some life in the weak Union cavalry of the Army of the Potomac. The experiment was a rousing success. His troopers idolized him and appreciated his brash, hard hitting attitude. By the middle of 1864, the Union had achieved cavalry dominance against the Army of Northern Virginia. Stuart’s death at the battle of Yellow Tavern signaled that the dominance that he and his cavaliers had so long maintained over their Union counterparts was at an end.
T.Shaw my brother led a cav platoon in the early eighties in Germany. If you have to go to war, there are far worse ways to do it than with the armored cav!
Greet them ever with grateful hearts.
Don
A rousing song to remind us that the role of the Cavalry is to mark enemy positions with burning cavalry vehicles and lend a touch of class to what would otherwise be an unsightly brawl.
P.S. I spent much of my time in Cavalry units.
Or as my brother put it circa 1982: our function is to be pursued by the Soviet Army and to run behind the main force units, screaming as we do: “It’s your baby now!!!”. 🙂