Confederate Cavalry: While Horse and Hero Fell­­--They That Fought so Well - Part 1 of a Series

 

Bonnie, my third daughter, was scared whenever  I read the Charge of the Light Brigade or  The Highwayman.

“Every morning brought a noble chance, and every chance brought out a noble knight.”—Alfred, Lord Tennyson in Morte d’Arthur, 1842, quoted by Winston Churchill in his June 4, 1940, “Finest Hour” speech.    

There lingers to this day a romantic vision of Confederate cavalry that brings forth the images of Sir Walter Scott’s gallant knights of old. Many Southern cavalrymen, and to a certain extent the whole Confederate Army, were strongly influenced by the romantic novels of Scott, which were very popular reading in the South. They were also undoubtedly influenced by the nobility and military gallantry of many of the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poems, such as Morte d’Arthur (1842) and Charge of the Light Brigade (1854).

 Confederate Cavalry quickly gained a reputation for valor, gallantry, horsemanship, bold tactics, and esprit de corps that persisted throughout the “Civil War.” This is easily validated in the many histories of that conflict. The bold successes of Confederate cavalry exploits had an electrifying effect on Southern morale early in the war and were causes for hope late in the war.
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