Antal 0810 - AUSA

62 ARMY � August 2010

The 1847 campaign dress uniforms ofthe dragoon infantry officer and infantrycolumn are shown in this illustration.

U.S. Army

The American soldier’slegacy of courage began

with the “shot heard round the world” in April 1775 at thebattles of Lexington and Concord, Mass. After this initial clashof arms, the Second Continental Congress adopted themilitia regiments besieging the British garrison in Bostonas Continental regiments. Units of Infantry and Artillerybecame part of the Continental Army, but the Congressdidn’t see the need for Cavalry, so no cavalry units werecalled for. GEN George Washington took command of theArmy on July 3, 1775, and, after the British evacuatedBoston in March 1776, the war changed to one of maneu-ver. Washington quickly saw the need for mounted forces,and the first real cavalry forces of the Continental Armyjoined Washington in the summer of 1776. Virginia sentthree troops of cavalry, one of which was commanded by a21-year-old captain named Henry Lee. CPT Lee was des-tined to become a cavalry legend during the RevolutionaryWar and earned the nom de guerre Light-Horse Harry Lee.

The U.S. Cavalry is BornThe Congress, preferring the name dragoons to cavalry,

soon authorized more dragoon units. On September 13,1777, the Congress appointed Polish volunteer and profes-sional cavalryman Count Casimir Pulaski to command the

Corps of American Light Dragoons. Although there werenever many dragoon units in the nascent American Army,they were invaluable. GEN Washington used dragoons forscouting and intelligence missions, to harass enemy forageparties and, on occasion, to fight mounted. At the Battle ofBrandywine near Philadelphia, Pa., on September 11, 1777,American cavalry saved the Army by warning GEN Wash-ington of British Gen. William Howe’s flank attack, allow-ing Washington to withdraw in good order before Howecould block the American retreat. Later, at the Battle ofCowpens in South Carolina, American BG Daniel Morganused dragoons commanded by LTC William Washington(GEN Washington’s second cousin) to screen the deploy-ment of BG Morgan’s force from the observation of the ad-vancing British. LTC Washington’s cavalry then withdrewand, as the battle developed, charged, serving as the leftthrust of BG Morgan’s classic double envelopment that de-feated British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton’s legion. The Battleof Cowpens was a perfect example of American tactical ge-nius—and a severe blow to the British. The defeat at Cow-pens and the subsequent battle at Guilford Courthouseforced British Gen. Charles Cornwallis to withdraw toYorktown, Va., and eventually surrender to GEN Washing-ton. At the end of the Revolutionary War, the Congress dis-banded the dragoon regiments.

By COL John F. AntalU.S. Army retired

August 2010 � ARMY 63

Cavalry in the Civil WarDragoons were reformed to fight bravely in the War of

1812 and the Mexican War. It was in the Civil War, how-ever, that the recognition of the dire need for a mobilefighting force came of age when the American Army estab-lished the Cavalry as a unique branchof equal importance to the Infantryand Artillery. In 1861, when the CivilWar started, the Union Army had fiveregular mounted regiments: the 1stand 2nd U.S. Dragoons, the 1stMounted Rifles, and the 1st and 2ndCavalry. These units were redesig-nated as U.S. Cavalry Regiments 1through 5, and a sixth regiment wasrecruited. It took time and great ex-pense to train these cavalry regiments,and initially the Union cavalry per-formed poorly against Confederatecavalry forces.The balance of quality was chang-

ing by 1863 as the Union cavalry grad-ually learned the bitter lessons of warand continually improved its fightingtechniques. On June 9, 1863, Unioncavalry fought Confederate cavalryunder GEN J.E.B. Stuart to a standstillat the Battle of Brandy Station, Va., inthe largest cavalry-on-cavalry fight of the Civil War. TheUnion cavalry was then put to the ultimate test at Gettys-burg, Pa., on July 2, 1863.The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, under the

command of GEN Robert E. Lee, was on the march to endthe war by invading the North. AsGEN Lee’s army marched north, theUnion Army of the Potomac, underMG George Meade, raced north tryingto catch Lee and stop him from turn-ing east and attacking toward Wash-ington, D.C. Union GEN John Buford’s1st Cavalry Division found the lead el-ements of Lee’s army, a Confederateinfantry division commanded by GENHenry Heth, marching toward Gettys-burg from the west. GEN Buford, aveteran Indian fighter and a hard-as-nails cavalryman, immediately de-ployed his cavalry to delay the Con-federates. GEN Buford knew that he

had to hold the vital high ground until the lead elements ofGEN Meade’s army, GEN John Reynolds’ I Corps, could ar-rive. Buford’s cavalry dismounted and fought on foot withcarbines, pistols and cannon. The fight started at 5:30 A.M.Buford was outnumbered and outgunned, but the Union

troopers fought a defense in depth andfell back to successive lines of defenseto McPherson Ridge. Buford’s cavalry-men stopped the Confederate columnon Chambersburg Pike at WilloughbyRun and prevented the Confederatesfrom gaining the high ground nearCemetery Ridge. Buford’s losses wereheavy. Just when it looked like histroops would no longer be able tokeep the Confederates at bay, Reyn -olds arrived. By 10:30 A.M., I Corpsjoined the fight. For the rest of the day,Union cavalry and infantrymen foughtside by side as the tide of battle pulledin favor of the Union.GEN Buford’s decision to stand and

fight at Gettysburg had decisive con-sequences. Had Buford not made hisdetermined stand and if the Confeder-ates had pushed him back before GENReynolds had arrived, the Confeder-ates would have gained the high

ground at Cemetery Ridge. If GEN Lee, an expert tactician,had defeated the Union Army at Gettysburg, he wouldhave had little to stop him from taking Washington, D.C.,and possibly ending the war in a Confederate victory. As itwas, Buford’s cavalry bought precious time and helped cre-

ate the conditions for the Union vic-tory at Gettysburg. “The zeal, bravery,and good behavior of the officers andmen … was commendable in the ex-treme,” Buford wrote after the battle.“A heavy task was before us; we wereequal to it and shall all remember withpride that at Gettysburg we did ourcountry much service.”American cavalry had earned its

spurs in the Civil War and was vital tothe eventual Union victory in 1865.The Cavalry then moved west, foughtin the long and difficult Indian Warsand performed superb service in theSpanish-American War, even if COLTeddy Roosevelt’s 1st Volunteer Cav-alry Regiment and the 9th and 10thCavalry (Buffalo Soldiers) fought with-out their horses in Cuba and madetheir famous charges up Kettle Hilland San Juan Hill on foot.In World War I, advancing technol-

ogy in the form of machine guns, rapid-


GEN J.E.B. Stuart

GEN John Buford

COL John F. Antal, U.S. Army retired,served 30 years in the U.S. Army as aleader, senior staff officer and comman-der. A graduate of the U.S. MilitaryAcademy at West Point, he was an Air-borne Ranger and has published 10books on military subjects.

U.S. Army

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firing artillery and aircraft placed the future of the horse cav-alry in doubt. To break the “deadlock of the trenches,” theBritish introduced the tank to the Western Front in 1917. Thetank was a new, confounded contraption and had manyproblems. Many professional soldiers said it was nothingmore than an oddity. A confident and determined Americanlieutenant colonel named George Pat-ton thought otherwise.

The Tank and Modern WarPatton was a cavalryman, but he

immediately saw the potential of thetank and was one of the first officersto join the new U.S. Tank Corps. InAugust 1918, he took command of the1st Provisional Tank Brigade, equippedwith 144 Renault FT-17 tanks. By Sep-tember, Patton had trained two tankbattalions for the upcoming offensiveat St. Mihiel, France. During the bat-tle, Patton led from the front; he be-lieved that tank leaders had to be for-ward, where they could see what washappening in the heat of battle andmake decisions on the spot. Hepushed his tanks forward across therain-soaked ground while he oftenran forward on foot, armed with onlyhis .45-caliber Colt M1911 automaticpistol. At the small village of Jonville,he ordered his tanks forward “cav-alry-style” and caught the Germansoff guard. His tankers knocked out a dozen machine guns,captured four cannons and sent the Germans running.Though Patton sustained a leg wound while leading an at-

tack on German machine guns during the battle, thelessons learned from his brief command of American tankunits would bear fruit in the next war.Spearheaded by tanks, the rapid German victories in

1939–1941 shocked the world and disrupted long-held viewsabout the tank. The tank was now a strategic weapon of war-

fare, and America’s Army in 1940 was struggling mightily tocatch up. The United States began the war with five infantrydivisions and one cavalry division in the active force. Even-

tually, the U.S. Army would fieldnearly 100 divisions, including 16 ar-mored divisions and two cavalry divi-sions. Army and Marine Corps tankshelped turn the tide from defeat to vic-tory in the Pacific, and Army tank for-mations became the American forma-tions most feared by the Germans andItalians in Europe.One of the most dramatic tank at-

LTC George Patton

U.S. armored soldiers in World WarII, when the tank rapidly became astrategic weapon: The Army fielded16 armored divisions during the war.U

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tacks was fought in December 1944 in the snowy ArdennesForest by then-LTC Creighton Abrams. Abrams commandedthe 37th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division. The besieged101st Airborne Division (the Screaming Eagles) was sur-rounded by the Germans at Bastogne, Belgium, and Pattonpromised that his Third U.S. Army would break through tothe Screaming Eagles before the Germans could annihilatethe beleaguered defenders. LTC Abrams led Patton’s van-guard as Third Army made its historic 90-degree turn andmoved nearly 100 miles to attack the German left flank with-out stopping. On December 26, 1944, Abrams kept his hard-fighting tankers and armored infantry charging forward un-til the 37th broke through the German defenses and intoBastogne. The lead Sherman tank in the attack was namedCobra King and commanded by 1LT Charles Boggess Jr., thecommanding officer of Company C, 37th Tank Battalion.From that moment on, Hitler’s hopes for an offensive thatwould knock out the Allies in the west were shattered. Pat-ton said, “I’m supposed to be the best tank commander inthe Army, but I have one peer: Abe Abrams. He’s the worldchampion.”

During World War II, tank, cavalry and armoredreconnaissance soldiers served with distinction andgreat courage. More than 50,000 Sherman tankswere built during World War II, and many othertanks, armored cars and reconnaissance vehiclesserved in Army and Marine Corps units. On thebattlefields of Europe and the islands of the Pacific,Army and Marine Corps tanks brought mobility,firepower and shock action as part of a combined-arms team to defeat the Axis.When World War II ended in August 1945, some

said that the tank’s days were numbered. TheArmy and Marine Corps disbanded most of theirtank units, only to have a deadly and desperateneed for them again when the Korean War brokeout in 1950. In Korea, the old tale that mountainousterrain was not suitable “tank country” soon lostrelevance when North Korea led its attacks into theRepublic of Korea (ROK) with hundreds of fast-moving, Soviet-built T-34 tanks. The American andROK armies had no tanks of their own in Korea

and quickly retreated south, giving up Seoul and Taegu;the forces finally stopped to block the North Korean on-slaught at the Pusan Perimeter. It was along the NakdongRiver, the natural barrier that helped form the PusanPerimeter, that one of the most heroic tank actions of thewar occurred.On September 1, 1950, MSG Ernie Kouma, Company A,

72nd Tank Battalion, was ordered to hold a portion of theNakdong River line. The North Koreans were crossing theNakdong River in force and overran the American de-fenses, destroying two tanks, but MSG Kouma kept fight-ing. When everyone else withdrew because the North Ko-rean attack was too fierce, he and his tank crew stayed andheld the line. He fought all night and most of the next daywith his single M4 Sherman tank. As his ammunition ranlow and the enemy surrounded his tank, MSG Koumajumped from the armored turret, coming under hostile fire,and reached the .50-caliber machine gun mounted on therear deck of his M4 Sherman tank. He fired point-blank intothe North Koreans until his .50-caliber was out of ammuni-tion. He killed North Koreans, but more kept coming. With


A 72nd Armor tank during the Korean War: MSGErnie Kouma of the 72nd Tank Battalion, with hisM4 Sherman tank and crew, held a portion of theNakdong River line and blunted the Korean attack.

T he heritage of the mounted warrior in theU.S. Army and Marine Corps is somethingin which our nation can take great pride. Asthe U.S. Army Armor School at Fort Knox,

Ky., moves to the Maneuver Center of Excellence at FortBenning, Ga., it is critical that this heritage be maintained.The National Armor and Cavalry Heritage Foundationwas formed in 2009 to do this: Its mission is to preserveand foster the spirit, traditions and solidarity of the U.S.Cavalry and Armor and to assist the Chief of Armor in es-

tablishing a dynamic and innovative multidimensionalArmor and Cavalry Museum facility at Fort Benning.Centered around a multifaceted structure, it will not onlypreserve and present history but also actively support ed-ucation, recruiting, retention and public affairs. The mu-seum will also provide valuable resources to support re-search and development for the future mounted forcewhile preserving the lineage, history and heritage of theU.S. Army’s armor and cavalry force. For more informa-tion, please visit www.armorcavalrymuseum.org.

Armor and Cavalry Heritage

U.S. Army


his machine gun out of ammunition, he threw grenadesand then drew his .45-caliber pistol, killing the remainingNorth Koreans who tried to climb up onto his tank. MSGKouma held up an entire North Korean regiment for a day,and he and his crew killed about 250 of the enemy, bluntingthe enemy attack and holding the line. If the North Koreanshad broken through that day—if Ernie Kouma had thoughtonly of himself and run away—the Pusan Perimeter mighthave collapsed, and the history of the world would havebeen different today. He didn’t, and that made all the differ-ence. For his actions on that day, MSG Kouma wasawarded the Medal of Honor.When the Korean War ended in 1953, most military strate-

gists and historians considered it a stalemate, but, in fact, itwas a victory for America and the free world. The next testof American arms bubbled up in the former French colony

of Indochina. Although America’s in-volvement was gradual, by 1964, theU.S. Army had fully committed tocountering a communist takeover inSouth Vietnam. The first tanks to arrivein Vietnam were Marine Corps tanks,but the Army quickly followed withtank and cavalry units. The old propo-sition that tanks and armored vehicleswere unsuitable for the terrain in SouthVietnam was soon debunked as thevalue of combined arms operationsand the power of mobility, firepowerand shock action was proven again in battles along many main supplyroutes, in cities (such as in the MarineCorps’ use of tanks in the 1968 battlefor Hue) and in the May 1970 attackinto Cambodia. During the latter, unitslike the 11th Armored Cavalry Regi-ment (ACR), led by COL Donn Starry,proved their worth in the battle ofSnoul, Cambodia, in May 1970.COL Starry’s troopers fought at

Snoul from M113 armored cavalry as-sault vehicles (ACAVs) and M551Sheridan armored reconnaissance ve-hicles while Cobra helicopter gunshipsfrom the 11th ACR aviation squadronspummeled the enemy. With main guncanister rounds, .50-caliber machineguns, 7.62 mm coax machine guns and

M16 rifles, they fought through the rubber-tree stumps toSnoul to uncover a large North Vietnamese Army (NVA)supply dump. The 141st NVA Regiment defended a rubberplantation as COL Starry’s mechanized forces rapidly over-ran the communist defenses. In the confusion of the fight,COL Starry and his sergeant major rushed out of theirACAV, Starry with an M16 and the sergeant major with a.45-caliber pistol, and engaged retreating NVA within arm’sreach. A group of NVA ran into a bunker, but COL Starrycaptured an NVA lieutenant before the enemy soldier couldescape. As COL Starry prepared to throw a grenade into thebunker to knock out the ones who had gotten away, anNVA soldier inside lobbed out a grenade. The grenade ex-ploded, and Starry was peppered with shrapnel in the backand stomach. The grenade also burst his eardrums andwounded three other Americans. A U.S. trooper tossed in a

An M1 Abrams tank from 2nd Battal-ion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, passesthrough a traffic control point in Iraq.

U.S. Army/SGT Rachel M. Ahner

grenade, wounded the NVA soldier inside and then draggedhim out.COL Starry continued to command, at first refusing evac-

uation, but his stomach wound and loss of blood causedhim to fade. He was evacuated but returned to his troopersthree weeks later to hand over command of the 11th ACR.COL Starry received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star withV (for valor) for the action at Snoul. He also received threeother decorations for courage under fire in previous en-gagements in Vietnam: the Distinguished Flying Cross forhis actions when his command helicopter was shot down;the Soldier’s Medal for helping the crew of a burning ar-mored vehicle to safety; and the Silver Star, when he madean unauthorized incursion with a cavalry troop and a tankcompany into Cambodia to save the lives of a helicoptercrew downed by enemy fire behind enemy lines.

The Wars in the Middle EastWhen the Vietnam War ended in 1975, America’s Army

began to rebuild and prepare for the challenges of the ColdWar and an increasingly belligerent Soviet Union. Rebuild-ing the Army became a full-time job, and armor and cav-alry soldiers were at the front and center of this effort. Menlike COL Starry and many others created an Army thatconsisted of 18 active and 10 National Guard divisions.The National Training Center was developed as a criticalpart of the strategy to train and improve armor and mecha-nized forces. Upgraded Sheridan armored reconnaissancevehicles were employed to good effect in combat in 1989during Operation Just Cause in Panama. By 1991 whenOperation Desert Storm erupted, the Army was preparedfor an armored fight in the desert. Armor and cavalryforces were decisive throughout Operation Desert Storm,and in every battle our tankers and troopers outclassed,outfought and defeated the numerically larger Iraqi armyof Saddam Hussein.One sterling example of fighting spirit during Operation

Desert Storm occurred when the U.S. Army’s 1st Brigade,2nd Armored Division (Tiger Brigade), advanced in Febru-ary 1991 to the Mutla Ridge that lay astride the principalIraqi escape route from Kuwait City. The Iraqis had minedand fortified this ridgeline, and the Tiger Brigade attackeddown the ridge to block the enemy’s escape. The 3rd Battal-ion, 67th Armor, had to breach an Iraqi minefield and thenseize an Iraqi-occupied building that was originally aKuwaiti police post. The Tiger Brigade’s tanks raked the en-trenched enemy with fire as the riflemen of the attachedmechanized infantry battalion dismounted to clear thebunkers in close-quarters combat. During the battle, 3rdBattalion’s tactical command post was hit by Iraqi fire. SFCHarold Witzke, the battalion master gunner, led by exam-ple. SFC Witzke courageously engaged several Iraqi sniperswith a light machine gun, suppressed the enemy and di-rected other members of the operations center to return ef-fective fire. He was killed in this action and posthumouslyawarded the Silver Star for valor. Over the night and intothe next morning, troopers of this task force cleared the en-

emy complex, rapidly established medical clearing stations,and treated hundreds of wounded Kuwaiti civilians andIraqi soldiers, who surrendered in huge numbers.Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 is the latest commit-

ment of Armor and Cavalry to battle for America. Racing toBaghdad in a surprise blitzkrieg-like move, tank and mech-anized formations of the Army and Marine Corps led theway to a lightning victory that toppled the Saddam govern-ment. Although many years of difficult counterinsurgencyoperations followed, the value of mobile, protected fire-power offered by tankers and troopers is self-evident.In April 2004, for example, a patrol from 1st Cavalry Divi-

sion was ambushed, and 19 troopers were isolated and sur-rounded by the enemy in Sadr City. First LieutenantChristopher Dean, from Company C, 2nd Battalion, 37th Ar-mor Regiment, 1st Armored Division, rolled out immedi-ately with a quick reaction force of four M1A1 Abramstanks. His Silver Star citation reads: “Traveling at top speed,the tanks headed to the grid coordinates given by the be-sieged patrol. As soon as they arrived,” a barrage of gunfirehit 1LT Dean’s tanks, and one man was killed. 1LT Deanthen led a seven-tank attack back into the engagement areato find the ambushed patrol. During the fighting, the .50-cal-iber machine gun at his tank commander’s cupola was de-stroyed by enemy rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) fire, leav-ing him firing from atop the vehicle with only his M4 rifle.Using his rifle, he killed a number of the enemy firing at himfrom rooftops and in alleyways. He was hit by shrapnelfrom another RPG blast but continued the attack. Reachingthe ambushed patrol, 1LT Dean’s force dismounted to helpmove the patrol out. As 1LT Dean dismounted his tank, hekilled more attackers in an intense defense of the casualtyevacuation site. Under heavy enemy fire, they pulled outthe dead and wounded and put them inside the tanks. Thebattle lasted four hours. Dean’s exceptional bravery andleadership—while under intense fire and despite beingwounded—saved the surrounded patrol. Weeks later, Deanreported in a Stars and Stripes interview that the soldiers un-der him deserved the credit for the successful mission.“There’s nothing in the world like the American soldier,”Dean said. “Even in the face of a kill zone, they knew othersoldiers out there were depending on us, and not a singleman second-guessed his duty.” For his actions on April 4,2004, 1LT Dean was awarded the Silver Star.The history of the American mounted warrior is filled

with a heritage of courage. There are too many courageousacts to cover here, but these stories are illustrative of theirparticular periods. From the inclusion of dragoons in theContinental Army to the invention of tanks in World War Ito the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan today, it is clear thatmobility, firepower and shock action will always be neces-sary, and the modern cavalry and tank soldiers fighting to-day’s wars are a testimony to that requirement. Themounts may change, but as long as mobility, firepower andshock action are required in close combat operations,mounted soldiers will be a critical part of any successfulland combat force. �


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Antal 0810 - AUSA