The Photographic History of The Civil War: in ten volumes, Thousands of Scenes Photographed 1861-65, with Text by many Special Authorities, Volume 4: The Cavalry
Francis Trevelyan Miller, Ed.

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[34] Merritt and Farnsworth menaced the Confederate left and, according to General Law,¹ neutralized the action of Hood's infantry Division of Longstreet's corps by bold use of mounted and dismounted men, contributing in no small degree to the Federal success.

In the West, during the same period, the cavalry conditions were not unlike those in the East, except that the field of operations extended over five States instead of two and that numerous bands of independent cavalry or mounted riflemen under enterprising leaders like Forrest, Morgan, Wharton, Chalmers, and Wheeler of the Confederate army, for two years had their own way. The Union generals, Lyon, Sigel, Pope, Rosecrans, and others, loudly called for more cavalry, or in lieu thereof, for horses to mount infantry. Otherwise, they agreed, “it was difficult to oppose the frequent raids of the enemy on communications and supply trains.”

Ultimately, Generals Grant and Rosecrans initiated a system of cavalry concentration under Granger and Stanley, and greater efficiency became manifest. About the time of the battle of Stone's River, or Murfreesboro, the Federal horse began to show confidence in itself, and in numerous encounters with the Confederates--mounted and dismounted-acquitted itself with credit, fairly dividing the honors of the campaign. The names of Grierson, Streight, Wilder, and Minty became famous not only as raiders but as important factors in great battles, as at Chickamauga, where the “obstinate stand of two brigades of [Rosecrans'] cavalry against the Confederate infantry gave time for the formation of the Union lines.”

The most conspicuous cavalry operations of the war were those of 1864-65: Sheridan's Richmond raid, in which the South lost the brilliant and resourceful Stuart, and the harassing flank attacks on Lee's army in advance of Grant's infantry, which, ending in the campaign at Appomattox, simultaneously with Wilson's successful Selma raid, marked