U.S. 4th Cavalry Regiment
Encyclopedia
The 4th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army
cavalry
regiment
, whose lineage is traced back to the mid-19th century. It was one of the most effective units of the Army against Indians on the Texas
frontier
. Today the regiment exists as separate squadrons within the U.S. Army. The 1st Squadron of the 4th Cavalry's official nickname is "Quarterhorse", which alludes to its 1/4 Cav designation. The 2nd Squadron of the 4th Cavalry's official name is "Raiders." Today the "1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry", "2nd Squadron, 4th Cavalry", "4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry", and the "6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry" are parts of the 1st Infantry Division, while the "3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry" serves as part of the 25th Infantry Division. On September 23, 2009, the "4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry" officially stood up at Fort Riley
, Kansas
as part of the 1st "Devil" Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. On March 28, 2008, the "5th Squadron, 4th Cavalry" officially stood up at Fort Riley
, Kansas
as part of the 2nd "Dagger" Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. The 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry serves as part of the 1st Infantry Division, 3rd "Duke" Brigade, at Fort Knox
, Kentucky
.
, 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
.
had been wanting to redesignate all mounted regiments as cavalry and to renumber them in order of seniority. As the 1st Cavalry Regiment was the fourth oldest mounted regiment in terms of active service, it was redesignated as the 4th United States Cavalry Regiment on August 3, 1861.
Most of the regiment was assigned to the Western Theater
and fought against Confederates
in Tennessee
, Missouri, Arkansas
, and the Indian Territory
. In 1861–62, two companies served with distinction in Virginia
in the Army of the Potomac
before being reunited with the rest of the regiment in Tennessee. Those companies fought in the major battles of First Bull Run
, the Peninsula Campaign
, Fredericksburg
and Antietam
.
The bulk of the regiment fought gallantly and continuously in the western theater from Shiloh
to Macon
, participating in the fights at Chickamauga
, Stones River
, and Battle of Nashville
.
-type units were raised to protect against Indian raids. On June 22, 1861, former 1st Cavalry officer George McClellan, now a major general
, requested Company A and Company E to serve as his personal escort. These two companies saw action in the Bull Run, Peninsula, Antietam and Fredericksburg campaigns, not rejoining the regiment until 1864. The rest of the 1st Cavalry was committed to action in Mississippi and Missouri.
Since 1854 it had been advocated to redesignate all mounted regiments as cavalry and to renumber them in order of seniority. This was done on August 3, 1861. As the 1st Cavalry was the fourth oldest mounted regiment, it was redesignated as the 4th Cavalry Regiment.
During the early years of the Civil War, Union
commanders scattered their cavalry regiments, conducting company, squadron (two company) and battalion
(four company) operations. The 4th Cavalry was no exception, with its companies scattered from the Mississippi River
to the Atlantic Coast
carrying out the traditional cavalry missions of reconnaissance, screening and raiding.
In the first phases of the war in the West, companies of 4th Cavalry saw action in various Missouri, Mississippi and Kentucky campaigns, as well as the seizure of Forts Henry
and Donelson
and the Battle of Shiloh. On December 31, 1862, a two-company squadron of the 4th Cavalry attacked and routed a Confederate cavalry brigade
near Murfreesboro, Tennessee
. In 1863–64, companies of the 4th saw further action in Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi. On June 30, 1863, another squadron charged a six-gun battery
of Confederate artillery
near Shelbyville, Tennessee
, capturing the entire battery and three hundred prisoners.
By the spring of 1864, the success of the large Confederate cavalry corps of J.E.B. Stuart
had convinced the Union leadership to form their own Cavalry Corps
in the East under General Philip Sheridan
. The 4th Cavalry was ordered to reunite as a regiment and, on December 14, 1864, it joined in the attack on Nashville, Tennessee
, as part of the Western Cavalry Corps commanded by General James Wilson
. In the hard-fought battle, the 4th help turn the Confederate flank, sending them in retreat. As the Confederate forces attempted a delaying action at West Harpeth, Tennessee, an element of the 4th Cavalry led by Lt.
Joseph Hedges charged and captured a Confederate artillery battery. For his bravery, Hedges received the Medal of Honor
, the first one to be bestowed on a member of the 4th Cavalry.
In March 1865, General Wilson was ordered to take his cavalry on a drive through Alabama
to capture the Confederate supply depot at Selma
. Wilson had devoted considerable effort in preparing his cavalry for the mission, and it was a superbly trained and disciplined force that left Tennessee, led by the 4th Cavalry. As the column moved south into Alabama, it encountered the famed Confederate cavalry leader Nathan Bedford Forrest
. With superior numbers and firepower, Wilson's force defeated the Confederates, allowing the Union troopers to arrive in Selma the next day. On April 2, 1865, the attack on Selma commenced, led by the 4th Cavalry in a mounted charge. A railroad cut and fence line soon halted the mounted attack. Dismounting, the regiment pressed the attack and stormed the town. Selma's rich store of munitions and supplies were destroyed, along with the foundries and arsenals.
Wilson next turned east to link up with General Sherman. His force took Montgomery, Alabama
, and Columbus, Georgia
, before arriving in Macon, Georgia
, where word came of the surrender of Lee's and Johnston's armies. The regiment remained in Macon as occupation troops. After participating in the Battle of Columbus—the last battle of the war—the regiment assisted in capturing fugitive Confederate President Jefferson Davis
.
, and between San Antonio
and San Angelo
. {See Fifth Military District
for reports of the 4th Cavalry in Texas between 1867-1869}. Before 1871, the operations of the regiment were limited to guarding the mail and settlements against Indians and to desultory attempts to overtake bands of Indian raiders. The regiment's commander during this period, Col. Lawrence Pike Graham, never had to lead a major campaign, and none of the regiment's fourteen skirmishes with Indians was of major significance.
However, in December 1870, Colonel
Ranald S. Mackenzie
was assigned command of the 4th Cavalry, with orders to put a stop to Comanche
and Kiowa
raids along the Texas frontier. On February 25, 1871, Mackenzie took command of the 4th Cavalry at Fort Concho
. A month later, he moved the headquarters of the regiment to Fort Richardson
, near Jacksboro; some companies of the 4th remained at Fort Griffin
and Fort Concho
. In May, while General
William T. Sherman, then the commanding general of the army, was at Fort Richardson, the Kiowa
s brutally mutilated some teamsters from a wagon train
on nearby Salt Creek Prairie (see Warren Wagon Train Raid
). A few days later at Fort Sill
, Sherman had three leaders of the raid, Satanta (White Bear)
, Satank (Sitting Bear)
, and Addo-etta (Big Tree), arrested and had Mackenzie
return them to Jacksboro
to stand trial for murder. On the way, an enlisted trooper killed Satank when he tried to escape; White Bear and Big Tree were later sentenced to life imprisonment.
In August 1871, Mackenzie led an expedition into Indian Territory against the Comanches and Kiowas who had left the agency, but he was later ordered to return to Texas. He then led eight companies of the 4th Cavalry and two companies of the 11th U.S Infantry
, about 600 men, in search of Quahadi Comanches, who had refused to go onto the reservation and were plundering the Texas frontier. On October 10, he skirmished with a group of them in Blanco Canyon
, near the site of present Crosbyton
, but the entire band escaped across the plains.
The following summer, Mackenzie, with six companies of the 4th Cavalry, renewed his search for the Quahadis. After establishing his supply camp on the Freshwater Fork of the Brazos River
(now the White River
) southeast of present Crosbyton, Mackenzie with five companies of cavalry followed a cattle trail across the unexplored High Plains
into the New Mexico Territory
and returned by another well-watered Comanchero
road from Fort Bascom
, near the site of present Tucumcari, New Mexico
, to the site of present Canyon. At the head of 222 cavalrymen on September 29, he surprised and destroyed Chief Mow-way's village of Quahadi and Kotsoteka Comanches on the North Fork of the Red River about six miles (10 km) east of the site of present day Lefors, Texas
. An estimated 52 Indians were killed and 124 captured, with a loss of 3 cavalrymen killed and 3 wounded. For almost a year, both the Kiowas and Comanches remained at peace.
In March 1873, Mackenzie and five companies (A, B, C, E, and K) of the 4th Cavalry were transferred to Fort Clark
with orders to put an end to the Mexican-based
Kickapoo and Apache
depredations in Texas, which had cost an alleged $48 million. On May 18, 1873, Mackenzie, with five companies of the 4th Cavalry, crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico; they then surprised and burned three villages of the raiders near Remolino, Coahuila
; the cavalrymen killed nineteen Indians and captured forty-one, with a loss of one trooper killed and two wounded. The soldiers recrossed the Rio Grande into Texas at daybreak the next morning, with some of the men having ridden an estimated 160 miles (257.5 km) in 49 hours. The raid and an effective system of border patrols brought temporary peace to the area. The John Wayne movie Rio Grande (film)
(part of John Ford's
Cavalry Trilogy) is loosely based on this incident.
When the Southern Plains Indians opened the Red River War
in June 1874, the Grant administration
discarded its Quaker peace policy and authorized the military to take control of the reservations and subdue all hostile Indians. General Philip H. Sheridan, commander of the Division of the Missouri, ordered five military expeditions to converge on their hideouts along the upper Red River country. In the ensuing campaign, the 4th Cavalry was the most successful. On September 26–27, it staved off a Comanche attack at the head of Tule Canyon, and, on the morning of September 28, descended by a narrow trail to the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon. There it completely destroyed five Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne villages, including large quantities of provisions, and captured 1,424 horses and mules, of which 1,048 were slaughtered at the head of Tule Canyon. Afterward, Mackenzie, with detachments of the regiment, made two other expeditions onto the High Plains. On November 3, near the site of Tahoka, in their last fight with the Comanches, the cavalrymen killed two and captured nineteen Indians. In the spring of 1875, Mackenzie and elements of the 4th Cavalry from various posts in Texas were sent to Fort Sill to take control of the Southern Plains Indians.
Meanwhile, the Indians in Mexico had renewed their marauding in Texas. In 1878 General Sherman, at the insistence of the Texans, transferred Mackenzie and six companies of the 4th Cavalry to Fort Clark. This time Mackenzie led a larger and more extensive expedition into Mexico, restored a system of patrols, and reestablished peace in the devastated region of South Texas.
Outside Texas, Mackenzie and the 4th Cavalry administered and controlled the Kiowa-Comanche and the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservations for several years, and, after the defeat of George Armstrong Custer
's command at the Battle of Little Bighorn in June 1876, forced Red Cloud
and his band of Sioux
and the Northern Cheyennes to surrender. In the autumn of 1879, Mackenzie with six companies of the 4th Cavalry subdued the hostile Ute
s in Southern Colorado
without firing a shot and in August 1880 forced them to move to a reservation in Utah Territory
.
Immediately thereafter, the 4th Cavalry was transferred to Arizona Territory
, where Mackenzie was to assume full command of all military forces in the department and subdue the hostile Apache
s. Within less than a month, the Apaches had surrendered or fled to Mexico, and on October 30, Mackenzie and the 4th Cavalry were transferred to the new District of New Mexico. By November 1, 1882, when W. B. Royall replaced Mackenzie as colonel, the 4th Cavalry had forced the White Mountain Apaches, Jicarilla Apache
s, Navajo
s, and Mescalero
s to remain peacefully on their respective reservations.
From 1884 to 1886 the 4th Cavalry again operated against the Apaches in Arizona and helped capture Geronimo
. Particularly noteworthy was B troop's pursuit of Geronimo into Northern Mexico led by Capt. Lawton and Surgeon Leonard Wood. Thus ended the regiment's participation in the Indian Wars.
In 1890 the regimental headquarters was moved to Walla Walla, Washington
.
and did not participate in World War I
.
, the regiment had exchanged its horses for armored vehicles/tanks and was redesignated the 4th Cavalry Group. It put ashore the first Allied soldiers of the D-Day
invasion on the Îles Saint-Marcouf
islands off the coast of France
. With the islands unoccupied, but heavily booby trapped, the cavalrymen came ashore at Utah Beach. The regiment added to its laurels in fierce fighting among the hedgerows of Normandy
and in the Hurtgen Forest
during the Battle of the Bulge
.
s of Southeast Asia
. The Squadron's firepower, mobility, and shock effect led to their use as "Fire Brigades" at the scenes of the hottest action. They were followed by the Third Squadron, Fourth Cavalry (which was part of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Division and commonly called "Three-Quarter Horse" or "Mackenzie's Raiders"). Both divisions were posted near Saigon and participated in some of the largest operations of the Vietnam War.
, as part of Operation Desert Shield. This led to the Squadron's spearhead of the division assault into Iraq
during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
On May 4, 1991, the 1-4 Cavalry received the Valorous Unit Award
for service in the Gulf. Excerpt from orders: "The 1st squadron, 4th cavalry led the 1st infantry divisions attack across Iraq and Kuwait cutting the Iraqi army's escape route, the Kuwait city/Basra highway. The Squadron continued its rapid advance, culminating with the capture of the Safwan airfield. During this drive the squadron destroyed 65 tanks, 66 armored personnel carriers, 66 trucks, 91 bunkers, and captured 3,000 enemy soldiers."
, (the first being 1-1 cav from Buedingen, Germany)supporting the peacekeeping mission set forth by the Dayton Peace Accord, for a period of eleven months at Camp Molly, Camp Alicia called the "Dog Pound" near Kalesija and Eagle Camp at Tuzla Main. 1999 and 2000 saw the air cav elements of the Quarterhorse returning to the Balkans
, this time Kosovo
, as members of Operation Joint Guardian II.
Steven Gonzales, SSG
Christopher Stone and SSG
Andrew Ramirez. All three soldiers were assigned to B Troop, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry of the 1st Infantry Division, stationed in Schweinfurt, Germany
.
The soldiers disappeared after reporting they had been surrounded and had come under small arms fire. NATO forces and Macedonian
police units immediately began searching for the missing three-man patrol. When captured, the Americans were operating as part of a NATO force put in place "conducting a peacekeeping and observation mission" near Macedonia's border with Kosovo
, which at the time was a province of Serbia
, Yugoslavia's
dominant republic.
Comments made by the American captives, while on television were censored by the Yugoslavian government. But a lip reader told London's Mirror that SPC
Gonzales had said "To everyone at home, I'm real fit, and I want to get out of this prison." SSG
Stone, his face smeared with blood, said, "I'm not making any comment at all because I don't feel safe. I feel a bit sick about it all." The third captive, SSG
Ramirez said nothing. Immediately after the three Americans were shown on TV, there was debate about their legal status. United States
officials first carefully avoided calling the soldiers POWs. They claimed the prisoners had been illegally abducted and demanded their immediate release.
Yugoslav authorities insisted the three were not POWs. They claimed the Americans had been captured on the Yugoslavian side of the border. Lawyers in Yugoslavia speculated the men could be charged with "waging aggression," which carries a jail sentence of up to 15 years, or "espionage," which has a maximum penalty of 20 years. Yugoslav officials said they intended to try the American soldiers as criminals.
The International Committee of the Red Cross
quickly moved declaring that the captives did qualify as POWs under the Geneva Convention treaty. "For us it is very clear. There is an international armed conflict between NATO and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and these three captured soldiers are ... prisoners of war," ICRC spokeswoman Doris Pfister said. "They can be tried if they are accused of war crimes or if they are accused of any crime which is linked to domestic law," Pfister said. "But what is important is that the fact of being on a mission for the American army is not a reason to try them." The most important thing, Pfister said, is to have access to the soldiers and to see that they are being well-treated. The ICRC asked Belgrade
for unsupervised visits with the soldiers, but received no reply. Pfister said there also has been debate about whether showing the men on Yugoslav television violated a section of the convention that protects them from "insults and public curiosity," but the legal interpretation of the article was not clear.
Yugoslavia later signaled a retraction when its foreign minister, Živadin Jovanović, referred to the American captives as prisoners of war (POW), a term that carries with it protected status under the treaty. Washington also changed position and began referring to the men as POWs.
By April 6, Yugoslavia had reversed its position and assured the international press that the American POWs would not be tried and would be released at the end of hostilities. That same day, the Yugoslav leadership declared a "unilateral ceasefire" in honor of "the greatest Orthodox holiday, Easter." The Yugoslavians pledged to work on a settlement to the crisis which would allow the ethnic Albanian refugees
to return to Kosovo
. The Clinton White House rejected the ceasefire saying it was not interested in "hollow gestures." U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen
said the Serb ceasefire idea was "not only completely unacceptable but absurd."
At the same time, Spyros Kyprianou
, a Greek
who was the parliament speaker on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus
, announced that he would travel to Yugoslavia to secure the release of the three American prisoners. Kyprianou suggested that NATO should observe a ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter holiday, if Yugoslavia would agree to free the three American servicemen. NATO refused the offer.
On April 9, Kyprianou
announced that the three U.S.
POWs would not be returned home early. His talks in Belgrade
to secure their release had failed. The Cypriot
envoy complained that within hours of his arrival in Belgrade
, NATO intensified the bombing all around the Yugoslavian capital. "It was expected … that during my stay at least some respect should have been shown and some understanding until I had finished my consultations," he said. The Clinton administration
responded by saying Mr. Kyprianou's failure was not a surprise. The Yugoslavians hardened their position saying that the POWs will not be released until the war is settled.
Finally on May 1, 1999, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević
ordered the release of the three United States soldiers held in Yugoslavia. This was after the US civil rights leader, Reverend Jesse Jackson
, made an appeal to Slobodan Milošević during a three-hour meeting in Belgrade
. Rev. Jesse Jackson
travelled to Yugoslavia with a delegation of religious leaders to seek the soldiers' release.
The move comes in spite of an earlier statement by Yugoslav Assistant Foreign Minister Nebojša Vujović, who said the release would not be "on the agenda" for the meeting. Rev. Jesse Jackson
said he had made a "moral appeal" to the Yugoslav leader during their meeting. During the meeting, President Milošević urged the religious leaders to jointly exert moral pressure "in order that the rule of law prevail over the rule of force in the world", Serbian Radio said.
White House
officials tried to dissuade Rev. Jackson from traveling to Yugoslavia. When he insisted on making the trip, they urged him to tell Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević
that there could be no link between the release of the soldiers and an end to NATO air strikes.
Rev. Jesse Jackson
, founder and leader of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition
who ran for the U.S. Presidency in 1984 and 1988, had previously secured the release of captives/hostages held in Syria
(1984), Cuba
(1987), Kuwait
and Iraq
(1990). Rev. Jackson was named in October 1997 as "Special Envoy of the President and Secretary of State for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa", however the White House
said his trip to Belgrade
was purely a private mission unrelated to his appointment as a Special Envoy.
and UH-60 Blackhawk
helicopters, as well as provide force protection personnel for the U.S. headquarters at Camp Bondsteel
. In late-October 2002, soldiers with 1st Infantry Division's, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment were abruptly told they would not deploy to Kosovo for peacekeeping duties, after working for several months to ready equipment they had received for their peacekeeping mission. 1st Infantry Division officials in Kosovo said they could not comment on the change, while a spokesman for V Corps, the division's Corps headquarters, referred all questions to EUCOM, the overall combatant command for V Corps. A EUCOM spokesman said he could not comment on the change, referring all questions back to V Corps. The first trainloads of the squadron's equipment bound for the Balkans from Germany was called back after departing Schweinfurt, en route to the Balkans.
On November 6, 2002, the 1st Infantry Division published a WARNO (warning order) establishing ARFOR-T (Army Forces Turkey). This mission was enormous, encompassing the subordinate units of 2 heavy mechanized divisions, 4th ID and 1st ID. Normally these missions are assigned to Corps headquarters. The following months involved extensive planning, Command Post Exercises, and a joint warfighter with 1st ID key personnel traveling to Ft. Hood, TX, to conduct planning with the 4th ID staff. During this time the 1st Squadron's Commander, Lt. Col. James H. Chevallier, designated about 40 personnel to comprise an ADVON, and they deployed to Turkey in early February. Their mission was to conduct a detailed route reconnaissance
from the seaport of debarkation (SPOD) at İskenderun
, on the Mediterranean Sea coast, in south-central Turkey, to the border crossing near the Tactical Assembly Areas located near the towns of Silopi
, Dicle
, and Cizre
, near the Turkish-Iraqi border. The route reconnaissance conducted by less than 30 Officers and Non-Commissioned Officer
s is believed to the longest route recon conducted in modern times; the men assigned the task catalogued every bridge, route constriction and obstruction, hill grade, and curve radius for nearly 500 miles (804.7 km). The goal of ARFOR-T was to open a second front, to crush Iraqi armed resistance from the North. The Quarterhorse, mounted on the hastily drawn, and refurbished, HMMWVs they had prepared initially for their Kosovo rotation, would conduct a screen along one of the 4th IDs flanks as it charged south out of Turkey. While the Quarterhorse was conducting the route reconnaissance, the Turkish government debated at length whether they should to allow Coalition forces to invade from their territory, finally signaling in early March 2003 that the invasion would not be permitted from their soil. By early April, all of the Quarterhorse Troopers returned to Schweinfurt, unsure what the future held, as the Iraqi Regime was toppled by forces assaulting north from Kuwait. The main body of the Squadron never deployed out of Germany, despite being on standby and prepared to move for nearly 2 weeks in early March.
It is worth noting, that despite the invasion from the north that never materialized, the Quarterhorse participated in an accidental, yet convincing and important, deception that caused Saddam Hussein
to order 13 armored divisions to the north to meet the invasion force. Because of this, the enemy force strength, or Order of Battle
, was significantly reduced in the South, enabling the rapid assault from Kuwait in the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
1-4 Cav deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom II (OIF II) from February 2004 to March 2005. The Squadron was deployed to two Base camps; Fob McKenzie near Ad-Duluiya and FOB Wilson just outside of Ad-Dawr south of Tikirt in Salah-ad-Din Province. The squadron relieved elements of two battalions from the 4th Infantry Division. In September 2004 the Squadron led the way for 1ID's retaking of the city of Samara from insurgent control and passed control of the city back to 2nd BDE, 1 ID. In January 2005 the Squadron oversaw the conduct of the first Iraqi parliamentary elections after the 2003 invasion within their sector and passed over control of their sector to elements of the 3rd Infantry division before redeployment.
(Archived 2009-10-22)
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
, whose lineage is traced back to the mid-19th century. It was one of the most effective units of the Army against Indians on the Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
frontier
Frontier
A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...
. Today the regiment exists as separate squadrons within the U.S. Army. The 1st Squadron of the 4th Cavalry's official nickname is "Quarterhorse", which alludes to its 1/4 Cav designation. The 2nd Squadron of the 4th Cavalry's official name is "Raiders." Today the "1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry", "2nd Squadron, 4th Cavalry", "4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry", and the "6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry" are parts of the 1st Infantry Division, while the "3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry" serves as part of the 25th Infantry Division. On September 23, 2009, the "4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry" officially stood up at Fort Riley
Fort Riley
Fort Riley is a United States Army installation located in Northeast Kansas, on the Kansas River, between Junction City and Manhattan. The Fort Riley Military Reservation covers 100,656 acres in Geary and Riley counties and includes two census-designated places: Fort Riley North and Fort...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
as part of the 1st "Devil" Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. On March 28, 2008, the "5th Squadron, 4th Cavalry" officially stood up at Fort Riley
Fort Riley
Fort Riley is a United States Army installation located in Northeast Kansas, on the Kansas River, between Junction City and Manhattan. The Fort Riley Military Reservation covers 100,656 acres in Geary and Riley counties and includes two census-designated places: Fort Riley North and Fort...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
as part of the 2nd "Dagger" Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. The 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry serves as part of the 1st Infantry Division, 3rd "Duke" Brigade, at Fort Knox
Fort Knox
Fort Knox is a United States Army post in Kentucky south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. The base covers parts of Bullitt, Hardin, and Meade counties. It currently holds the Army Human Resources Center of Excellence to include the Army Human Resources Command, United States Army Cadet...
, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
.
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 BarracksJefferson Barracks Military Post
The Jefferson Barracks Military Post, located on the Mississippi River at Lemay, Missouri, which is just south of St. Louis, Missouri,was, at first owned land by the DeGamache's then borrowed by military leaders, but after war, the land was not returned. It was an important and highly active U.S....
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, as the U.S. 1st Cavalry Regiment
U.S. 1st Cavalry Regiment
The 1st Cavalry Regiment is a unit in the United States Army which has its antecedents in the early 19th Century in the formation of the United States Regiment of Dragoons. To this day, the unit's Special Designation is "First Regiment of Dragoons".-Origins:The "United States Regiment of Dragoons"...
.
One year after its establishment, the 1st Cavalry Regiment's first military action was a peacekeeping mission in "Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858...
," where pro-slavery and free state factions clashed violently. It also fought against hostile Plains Indians. Its first commanders were Col.
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Edwin V. Sumner and Lt. Col.
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
Joseph E. Johnston
Joseph E. Johnston
Joseph Eggleston Johnston was a career U.S. Army officer, serving with distinction in the Mexican-American War and Seminole Wars, and was also one of the most senior general officers in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War...
, 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
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
warriors.
The regiment was Col. Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
's last command in the Federal Army
Regular Army
The Regular Army of the United States was and is the successor to the Continental Army as the country's permanent, professional military establishment. Even in modern times the professional core of the United States Army continues to be called the Regular Army...
before the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. 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
George B. McClellan
George Brinton McClellan was a major general during the American Civil War. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Early in the war, McClellan played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union...
and J.E.B. Stuart
J.E.B. Stuart
James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart was a U.S. Army officer from Virginia and a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb", from the initials of his given names. Stuart was a cavalry commander known for his mastery of reconnaissance and the use...
.
Overview
As early as 1854, the War DepartmentUnited States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
had been wanting to redesignate all mounted regiments as cavalry and to renumber them in order of seniority. As the 1st Cavalry Regiment was the fourth oldest mounted regiment in terms of active service, it was redesignated as the 4th United States Cavalry Regiment on August 3, 1861.
Most of the regiment was assigned to the Western Theater
Western Theater of the American Civil War
This article presents an overview of major military and naval operations in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.-Theater of operations:...
and fought against Confederates
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
in Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, Missouri, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, and the Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
. In 1861–62, two companies served with distinction in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
in the Army of the Potomac
Army of the Potomac
The Army of the Potomac was the major Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War.-History:The Army of the Potomac was created in 1861, but was then only the size of a corps . Its nucleus was called the Army of Northeastern Virginia, under Brig. Gen...
before being reunited with the rest of the regiment in Tennessee. Those companies fought in the major battles of First Bull Run
First Battle of Bull Run
First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas , was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, near the City of Manassas...
, the Peninsula Campaign
Peninsula Campaign
The Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. The operation, commanded by Maj. Gen. George B...
, Fredericksburg
Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, between General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside...
and Antietam
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam , fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000...
.
The bulk of the regiment fought gallantly and continuously in the western theater from Shiloh
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and...
to Macon
Macon, Georgia
Macon is a city located in central Georgia, US. Founded at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is part of the Macon metropolitan area, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. Macon is the biggest city in central Georgia...
, participating in the fights at Chickamauga
Battle of Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauga, fought September 19–20, 1863, marked the end of a Union offensive in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia called the Chickamauga Campaign...
, Stones River
Battle of Stones River
The Battle of Stones River or Second Battle of Murfreesboro , was fought from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee, as the culmination of the Stones River Campaign in the Western Theater of the American Civil War...
, and Battle of Nashville
Battle of Nashville
The Battle of Nashville was a two-day battle in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign that represented the end of large-scale fighting in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. It was fought at Nashville, Tennessee, on December 15–16, 1864, between the Confederate Army of Tennessee under...
.
Details of Civil War service
With so many regiments being sent east for the war effort, the 1st U.S. Cavalry was initially kept on the frontier until militiaMilitia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
-type units were raised to protect against Indian raids. On June 22, 1861, former 1st Cavalry officer George McClellan, now a major general
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
, requested Company A and Company E to serve as his personal escort. These two companies saw action in the Bull Run, Peninsula, Antietam and Fredericksburg campaigns, not rejoining the regiment until 1864. The rest of the 1st Cavalry was committed to action in Mississippi and Missouri.
Since 1854 it had been advocated to redesignate all mounted regiments as cavalry and to renumber them in order of seniority. This was done on August 3, 1861. As the 1st Cavalry was the fourth oldest mounted regiment, it was redesignated as the 4th Cavalry Regiment.
During the early years of the Civil War, Union
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
commanders scattered their cavalry regiments, conducting company, squadron (two company) and battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
(four company) operations. The 4th Cavalry was no exception, with its companies scattered from the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
to the Atlantic Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
carrying out the traditional cavalry missions of reconnaissance, screening and raiding.
In the first phases of the war in the West, companies of 4th Cavalry saw action in various Missouri, Mississippi and Kentucky campaigns, as well as the seizure of Forts Henry
Fort Henry
Fort Henry is the name of:*Fort Henry , a 1646 fort near present-day Petersburg, Virginia*Fort Henry , a 1774 fort near present–day Wheeling, West Virginia...
and Donelson
Fort Donelson
Fort Donelson was a fortress built by the Confederacy during the American Civil War to control the Cumberland River leading to the heart of Tennessee, and the heart of the Confederacy.-History:...
and the Battle of Shiloh. On December 31, 1862, a two-company squadron of the 4th Cavalry attacked and routed a Confederate cavalry brigade
Brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...
near Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro is a city in and the county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 108,755 according to the United States Census Bureau's 2010 U.S. Census, up from 68,816 residents certified during the 2000 census. The center of population of Tennessee is located in...
. In 1863–64, companies of the 4th saw further action in Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi. On June 30, 1863, another squadron charged a six-gun battery
Artillery battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
of Confederate artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
near Shelbyville, Tennessee
Shelbyville, Tennessee
Shelbyville is a city in Bedford County, Tennessee, United States. It had a local population of 16,105 residents at the 2000 census. Shelbyville, the county seat of Bedford County, was laid out in 1810 and incorporated in 1819...
, capturing the entire battery and three hundred prisoners.
By the spring of 1864, the success of the large Confederate cavalry corps of J.E.B. Stuart
J.E.B. Stuart
James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart was a U.S. Army officer from Virginia and a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb", from the initials of his given names. Stuart was a cavalry commander known for his mastery of reconnaissance and the use...
had convinced the Union leadership to form their own Cavalry Corps
Cavalry Corps (ACW)
Two corps of the Union Army were called Cavalry Corps during the American Civil War. One served with the Army of the Potomac; the other served in the various armies of the West.- Overview :...
in the East under General Philip Sheridan
Philip Sheridan
Philip Henry Sheridan was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close association with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S...
. The 4th Cavalry was ordered to reunite as a regiment and, on December 14, 1864, it joined in the attack on Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, as part of the Western Cavalry Corps commanded by General James Wilson
James H. Wilson
James Harrison Wilson was a United States Army topographic engineer, a Union Army Major General in the American Civil War and later wars, a railroad executive, and author.-Early life and engineering:...
. In the hard-fought battle, the 4th help turn the Confederate flank, sending them in retreat. As the Confederate forces attempted a delaying action at West Harpeth, Tennessee, an element of the 4th Cavalry led by Lt.
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Joseph Hedges charged and captured a Confederate artillery battery. For his bravery, Hedges received the Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
, the first one to be bestowed on a member of the 4th Cavalry.
In March 1865, General Wilson was ordered to take his cavalry on a drive through Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
to capture the Confederate supply depot at Selma
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....
. Wilson had devoted considerable effort in preparing his cavalry for the mission, and it was a superbly trained and disciplined force that left Tennessee, led by the 4th Cavalry. As the column moved south into Alabama, it encountered the famed Confederate cavalry leader Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He is remembered both as a self-educated, innovative cavalry leader during the war and as a leading southern advocate in the postwar years...
. With superior numbers and firepower, Wilson's force defeated the Confederates, allowing the Union troopers to arrive in Selma the next day. On April 2, 1865, the attack on Selma commenced, led by the 4th Cavalry in a mounted charge. A railroad cut and fence line soon halted the mounted attack. Dismounting, the regiment pressed the attack and stormed the town. Selma's rich store of munitions and supplies were destroyed, along with the foundries and arsenals.
Wilson next turned east to link up with General Sherman. His force took Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
, and Columbus, Georgia
Columbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...
, before arriving in Macon, Georgia
Macon, Georgia
Macon is a city located in central Georgia, US. Founded at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is part of the Macon metropolitan area, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. Macon is the biggest city in central Georgia...
, where word came of the surrender of Lee's and Johnston's armies. The regiment remained in Macon as occupation troops. After participating in the Battle of Columbus—the last battle of the war—the regiment assisted in capturing fugitive Confederate President Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...
.
Indian Wars
In August 1865, the 4th Cavalry was sent to Texas. At various times during the next thirteen years, units from its twelve companies occupied military posts between the Rio Grande River and JacksboroJacksboro, Texas
Jacksboro is a city in Jack County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,533 at the 2000 census. Jacksboro is located at the junction of U.S...
, and between San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
and San Angelo
San Angelo, Texas
San Angelo is a city in the state of Texas. Located in West Central Texas it is the county seat of Tom Green County. As of 2010 according to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total population of 93,200...
. {See Fifth Military District
Fifth Military District
The 5th Military District was a temporary administrative unit of the United States set up during the Reconstruction period following the American Civil War. It included Texas, from Brazos Santiago Harbor, , at the Mexican border, north to Louisiana. General Philip Sheridan served as its first...
for reports of the 4th Cavalry in Texas between 1867-1869}. Before 1871, the operations of the regiment were limited to guarding the mail and settlements against Indians and to desultory attempts to overtake bands of Indian raiders. The regiment's commander during this period, Col. Lawrence Pike Graham, never had to lead a major campaign, and none of the regiment's fourteen skirmishes with Indians was of major significance.
However, in December 1870, Colonel
Colonel (United States)
In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, colonel is a senior field grade military officer rank just above the rank of lieutenant colonel and just below the rank of brigadier general...
Ranald S. Mackenzie
Ranald S. Mackenzie
Ranald Slidell Mackenzie was a career United States Army officer and general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, described by General Ulysses S. Grant as its most promising young officer...
was assigned command of the 4th Cavalry, with orders to put a stop to Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
and Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
raids along the Texas frontier. On February 25, 1871, Mackenzie took command of the 4th Cavalry at Fort Concho
Fort Concho
Fort Concho is a National Historic Landmark owned and operated since 1935 by the city of San Angelo, the seat of Tom Green County in West Texas...
. A month later, he moved the headquarters of the regiment to Fort Richardson
Fort Richardson, Texas
Fort Richardson was an United States Army installation located one mile south of Jacksboro, Texas. Named in honor of Union General Israel B...
, near Jacksboro; some companies of the 4th remained at Fort Griffin
Fort Griffin
Fort Griffin was a Cavalry fort established in the late 1860s in the northern part of West Texas, specifically northwestern Shackelford County, to give settlers protection from early Comanche and Kiowa raids...
and Fort Concho
Fort Concho
Fort Concho is a National Historic Landmark owned and operated since 1935 by the city of San Angelo, the seat of Tom Green County in West Texas...
. In May, while General
General (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
William T. Sherman, then the commanding general of the army, was at Fort Richardson, the Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
s brutally mutilated some teamsters from a wagon train
Wagon train
A wagon train is a group of wagons traveling together. In the American West, individuals traveling across the plains in covered wagons banded together for mutual assistance, as is reflected in numerous films and television programs about the region, such as Audie Murphy's Tumbleweed and Ward Bond...
on nearby Salt Creek Prairie (see Warren Wagon Train Raid
Warren Wagon Train Raid
The Warren Wagon Train Raid, also known as the Salt Creek Massacre, occurred on May 18, 1871. Henry Warren was contracted to haul supplies to forts in the west of Texas, including Fort Richardson, Fort Griffin, and Fort Concho. Traveling down the Jacksboro-Belknap road heading towards Salt Creek...
). A few days later at Fort Sill
Fort Sill
Fort Sill is a United States Army post near Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.Today, Fort Sill remains the only active Army installation of all the forts on the South Plains built during the Indian Wars...
, Sherman had three leaders of the raid, Satanta (White Bear)
Satanta (White Bear)
This article refers to the Kiowa chief Satanta. For the Irish hero Sétanta, please see Cú Chulainn.Satanta was a Kiowa war chief. He was a member of the Kiowa tribe, he was born around 1820, during the height of the power of the Plains Tribes, probably along the Canadian River in the traditional...
, Satank (Sitting Bear)
Sitting Bear
Satank , was a prestigious Kiowa warrior and medicine man. He was born about 1800, probably in Kansas, and killed June 8, 1871. An able warrior, he became part of the Koitsenko , the society of the bravest Kiowa warriors. He led many raids against the Cheyennes, the Sacs, and the Foxes...
, and Addo-etta (Big Tree), arrested and had Mackenzie
Ranald S. Mackenzie
Ranald Slidell Mackenzie was a career United States Army officer and general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, described by General Ulysses S. Grant as its most promising young officer...
return them to Jacksboro
Jacksboro, Texas
Jacksboro is a city in Jack County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,533 at the 2000 census. Jacksboro is located at the junction of U.S...
to stand trial for murder. On the way, an enlisted trooper killed Satank when he tried to escape; White Bear and Big Tree were later sentenced to life imprisonment.
In August 1871, Mackenzie led an expedition into Indian Territory against the Comanches and Kiowas who had left the agency, but he was later ordered to return to Texas. He then led eight companies of the 4th Cavalry and two companies of the 11th U.S Infantry
11th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The 11th Infantry Regiment is a regiment in the United States Army.-The First 11th Infantry:Under the authority granted the President by the Act of July 16, 1798, to raise twelve additional regiments of infantry, the first 11th Infantry came into existence in the Army of the United States in...
, about 600 men, in search of Quahadi Comanches, who had refused to go onto the reservation and were plundering the Texas frontier. On October 10, he skirmished with a group of them in Blanco Canyon
Blanco Canyon
Blanco Canyon is a canyon located in the U.S. state of Texas. Eroded by the White River into the Caprock Escarpment on the east side of the Llano Estacado, the canyon runs for in a southeasterly direction, gradually widening from its beginning in southwestern Floyd County to across at its mouth...
, near the site of present Crosbyton
Crosbyton, Texas
Crosbyton is a city in and the county seat of Crosby County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,874 at the 2000 census. Crosbyton is part of the Lubbock Metropolitan Statistical Area....
, but the entire band escaped across the plains.
The following summer, Mackenzie, with six companies of the 4th Cavalry, renewed his search for the Quahadis. After establishing his supply camp on the Freshwater Fork of the Brazos River
Brazos River
The Brazos River, called the Rio de los Brazos de Dios by early Spanish explorers , is the longest river in Texas and the 11th longest river in the United States at from its source at the head of Blackwater Draw, Curry County, New Mexico to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico with a drainage...
(now the White River
White River (Texas)
The White River is an intermittent stream in the South Plains of Texas and a tributary of the Brazos River of the United States. It rises west of Floydada in southwestern Floyd County at the confluence of Callahan and Runningwater Draws. From there, it runs southeast for to its mouth on the...
) southeast of present Crosbyton, Mackenzie with five companies of cavalry followed a cattle trail across the unexplored High Plains
High Plains
High Plains refers to one of two distinct land regions:*High Plains , land region of the western Great Plains*High Plains , land region adjacent to the Great Dividing Range...
into the New Mexico Territory
New Mexico Territory
thumb|right|240px|Proposed boundaries for State of New Mexico, 1850The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of...
and returned by another well-watered Comanchero
Comanchero
The Comancheros were primarily New Mexican hispanic traders in northern and central New Mexico who made their living by trading with the nomadic plains tribes, in northeastern New Mexico and west Texas. Comancheros were so named because the Comanches, in whose territory they traded, were considered...
road from Fort Bascom
Fort Bascom
Fort Bascom, established in 1863, is located in New Mexico on the Canadian River slightly west of the Texas border. The fort was named in honor of Captain George Nicholas Bascom who was killed during the American Civil War on February 21, 1862 while defending Fort Craig against Confederate forces...
, near the site of present Tucumcari, New Mexico
Tucumcari, New Mexico
Tucumcari is a city in and the county seat of Quay County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 5,989 at the 2000 census. Tucumcari was founded in 1901, two years before Quay County was founded.-History:...
, to the site of present Canyon. At the head of 222 cavalrymen on September 29, he surprised and destroyed Chief Mow-way's village of Quahadi and Kotsoteka Comanches on the North Fork of the Red River about six miles (10 km) east of the site of present day Lefors, Texas
Lefors, Texas
Lefors is a town in Gray County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Pampa, Texas Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 559 at the 2000 census.-History:Lefors was founded in 1888 by Travis Leach, Perry LeFors, Henry Thut, and Henry B. Lovett...
. An estimated 52 Indians were killed and 124 captured, with a loss of 3 cavalrymen killed and 3 wounded. For almost a year, both the Kiowas and Comanches remained at peace.
In March 1873, Mackenzie and five companies (A, B, C, E, and K) of the 4th Cavalry were transferred to Fort Clark
Fort Clark
Fort Clark can refer to:*Fort Clark Trading Post State Historic Site - one of the largest Mandan Villages where George Catlin and Karl Bodmer visited*Fort Clark, Illinois near Peoria, Illinois...
with orders to put an end to the Mexican-based
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
Kickapoo and Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
depredations in Texas, which had cost an alleged $48 million. On May 18, 1873, Mackenzie, with five companies of the 4th Cavalry, crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico; they then surprised and burned three villages of the raiders near Remolino, Coahuila
Coahuila
Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...
; the cavalrymen killed nineteen Indians and captured forty-one, with a loss of one trooper killed and two wounded. The soldiers recrossed the Rio Grande into Texas at daybreak the next morning, with some of the men having ridden an estimated 160 miles (257.5 km) in 49 hours. The raid and an effective system of border patrols brought temporary peace to the area. The John Wayne movie Rio Grande (film)
Rio Grande (film)
Rio Grande is a 1950 Western film. It is the third installment of John Ford's "cavalry trilogy," following two RKO Pictures releases: Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon ....
(part of John Ford's
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
Cavalry Trilogy) is loosely based on this incident.
When the Southern Plains Indians opened the Red River War
Red River War
The Red River War was a military campaign launched by the United States Army in 1874, as part of the Comanche War, to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Native American tribes from the Southern Plains and forcibly relocate them to reservations in Indian Territory...
in June 1874, the Grant administration
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
discarded its Quaker peace policy and authorized the military to take control of the reservations and subdue all hostile Indians. General Philip H. Sheridan, commander of the Division of the Missouri, ordered five military expeditions to converge on their hideouts along the upper Red River country. In the ensuing campaign, the 4th Cavalry was the most successful. On September 26–27, it staved off a Comanche attack at the head of Tule Canyon, and, on the morning of September 28, descended by a narrow trail to the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon. There it completely destroyed five Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne villages, including large quantities of provisions, and captured 1,424 horses and mules, of which 1,048 were slaughtered at the head of Tule Canyon. Afterward, Mackenzie, with detachments of the regiment, made two other expeditions onto the High Plains. On November 3, near the site of Tahoka, in their last fight with the Comanches, the cavalrymen killed two and captured nineteen Indians. In the spring of 1875, Mackenzie and elements of the 4th Cavalry from various posts in Texas were sent to Fort Sill to take control of the Southern Plains Indians.
Meanwhile, the Indians in Mexico had renewed their marauding in Texas. In 1878 General Sherman, at the insistence of the Texans, transferred Mackenzie and six companies of the 4th Cavalry to Fort Clark. This time Mackenzie led a larger and more extensive expedition into Mexico, restored a system of patrols, and reestablished peace in the devastated region of South Texas.
Outside Texas, Mackenzie and the 4th Cavalry administered and controlled the Kiowa-Comanche and the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservations for several years, and, after the defeat of George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
's command at the Battle of Little Bighorn in June 1876, forced Red Cloud
Red Cloud
Red Cloud , was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota . His reign was from 1868 to 1909...
and his band of Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
and the Northern Cheyennes to surrender. In the autumn of 1879, Mackenzie with six companies of the 4th Cavalry subdued the hostile Ute
Ute Tribe
The Ute are an American Indian people now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. There are three Ute tribal reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah ; Southern Ute in Colorado ; and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, but extends to Utah and New Mexico . The name of the state of...
s in Southern Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
without firing a shot and in August 1880 forced them to move to a reservation in Utah Territory
Utah Territory
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah....
.
Immediately thereafter, the 4th Cavalry was transferred to Arizona Territory
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
, where Mackenzie was to assume full command of all military forces in the department and subdue the hostile Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
s. Within less than a month, the Apaches had surrendered or fled to Mexico, and on October 30, Mackenzie and the 4th Cavalry were transferred to the new District of New Mexico. By November 1, 1882, when W. B. Royall replaced Mackenzie as colonel, the 4th Cavalry had forced the White Mountain Apaches, Jicarilla Apache
Jicarilla Apache
Jicarilla Apache refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athabaskan language...
s, Navajo
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
s, and Mescalero
Mescalero
Mescalero is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation in southcentral New Mexico...
s to remain peacefully on their respective reservations.
From 1884 to 1886 the 4th Cavalry again operated against the Apaches in Arizona and helped capture Geronimo
Geronimo
Geronimo was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought against Mexico and the United States for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. Allegedly, "Geronimo" was the name given to him during a Mexican incident...
. Particularly noteworthy was B troop's pursuit of Geronimo into Northern Mexico led by Capt. Lawton and Surgeon Leonard Wood. Thus ended the regiment's participation in the Indian Wars.
In 1890 the regimental headquarters was moved to Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla is the largest city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,731 at the 2010 census...
.
Early 20th century
The 4th Cavalry served on the Mexican border in Texas from 1911 to 1913. For the next six years, the regiment served at Schofield Barracks in the Territory of HawaiiTerritory of Hawaii
The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 7, 1898, until August 21, 1959, when its territory, with the exception of Johnston Atoll, was admitted to the Union as the fiftieth U.S. state, the State of Hawaii.The U.S...
and did not participate in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
World War II
By World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the regiment had exchanged its horses for armored vehicles/tanks and was redesignated the 4th Cavalry Group. It put ashore the first Allied soldiers of the D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
invasion on the Îles Saint-Marcouf
Îles Saint-Marcouf
Îles Saint-Marcouf are a group of two small uninhabited islands off the coast of Normandy, France. They lie in the Baie de la Seine region of the English Channel and are 6.5 kilometres east of the coast of the Cotentin peninsula at Ravenoville and 13 kilometres from the island of Tatihou...
islands off the coast of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. With the islands unoccupied, but heavily booby trapped, the cavalrymen came ashore at Utah Beach. The regiment added to its laurels in fierce fighting among the hedgerows of Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
and in the Hurtgen Forest
Battle of Hurtgen Forest
The Battle of Hürtgen Forest is the name given to the series of fierce battles fought between U.S. and German forces during World War II in the Hürtgen Forest, which became the longest battle on German ground during World War II, and the longest single battle the U.S. Army has ever fought...
during the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
.
Vietnam War
In 1965, the First Squadron of the 4th Cavalry ("1st of the 4th Cavalry" or 1-4 Cavalry - popularly called "Quarterhorse") deployed to the Republic of Vietnam with the First Infantry Division, spending eight years fighting in the jungleJungle
A Jungle is an area of land in the tropics overgrown with dense vegetation.The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which referred to uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to "dry land", it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its...
s of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
. The Squadron's firepower, mobility, and shock effect led to their use as "Fire Brigades" at the scenes of the hottest action. They were followed by the Third Squadron, Fourth Cavalry (which was part of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Division and commonly called "Three-Quarter Horse" or "Mackenzie's Raiders"). Both divisions were posted near Saigon and participated in some of the largest operations of the Vietnam War.
Gulf War
In 1990, the First Squadron deployed to Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, as part of Operation Desert Shield. This led to the Squadron's spearhead of the division assault into Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
On May 4, 1991, the 1-4 Cavalry received the Valorous Unit Award
Valorous Unit Award
The Valorous Unit Award is the second highest unit decoration which may be bestowed upon a U.S. Army unit and is considered the unit equivalent of the Silver Star...
for service in the Gulf. Excerpt from orders: "The 1st squadron, 4th cavalry led the 1st infantry divisions attack across Iraq and Kuwait cutting the Iraqi army's escape route, the Kuwait city/Basra highway. The Squadron continued its rapid advance, culminating with the capture of the Safwan airfield. During this drive the squadron destroyed 65 tanks, 66 armored personnel carriers, 66 trucks, 91 bunkers, and captured 3,000 enemy soldiers."
Balkans Conflict
In 1995, 1-4 Cavalry was the second cavalry unit deployed to Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, (the first being 1-1 cav from Buedingen, Germany)supporting the peacekeeping mission set forth by the Dayton Peace Accord, for a period of eleven months at Camp Molly, Camp Alicia called the "Dog Pound" near Kalesija and Eagle Camp at Tuzla Main. 1999 and 2000 saw the air cav elements of the Quarterhorse returning to the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, this time Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, as members of Operation Joint Guardian II.
Yugoslavian POW Incident (1999)
On April 1, 1999, Yugoslav authorities paraded three grim-faced and bruised American soldiers on Serbian television. The soldiers had been captured the day before near the Macedonian border. The men were identified as SPCSpecialist (rank)
Specialist is one of the four junior enlisted ranks in the U.S. Army, just above Private First Class and equivalent in pay grade to Corporal. Unlike Corporals, Specialists are not considered junior non-commissioned officers...
Steven Gonzales, SSG
Staff Sergeant
Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in several countries.The origin of the name is that they were part of the staff of a British army regiment and paid at that level rather than as a member of a battalion or company.-Australia:...
Christopher Stone and SSG
Staff Sergeant
Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in several countries.The origin of the name is that they were part of the staff of a British army regiment and paid at that level rather than as a member of a battalion or company.-Australia:...
Andrew Ramirez. All three soldiers were assigned to B Troop, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry of the 1st Infantry Division, stationed in Schweinfurt, Germany
Schweinfurt Army Heliport
Schweinfurt Army Heliport is a military facility near Schweinfurt, Germany, being part of the United States Army Garrison. . It is controlled by the 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry, 173d Airborne Brigade Combat Team since 6 June 2006....
.
The soldiers disappeared after reporting they had been surrounded and had come under small arms fire. NATO forces and Macedonian
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
police units immediately began searching for the missing three-man patrol. When captured, the Americans were operating as part of a NATO force put in place "conducting a peacekeeping and observation mission" near Macedonia's border with Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, which at the time was a province of Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Yugoslavia's
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
dominant republic.
Comments made by the American captives, while on television were censored by the Yugoslavian government. But a lip reader told London's Mirror that SPC
Specialist (rank)
Specialist is one of the four junior enlisted ranks in the U.S. Army, just above Private First Class and equivalent in pay grade to Corporal. Unlike Corporals, Specialists are not considered junior non-commissioned officers...
Gonzales had said "To everyone at home, I'm real fit, and I want to get out of this prison." SSG
Staff Sergeant
Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in several countries.The origin of the name is that they were part of the staff of a British army regiment and paid at that level rather than as a member of a battalion or company.-Australia:...
Stone, his face smeared with blood, said, "I'm not making any comment at all because I don't feel safe. I feel a bit sick about it all." The third captive, SSG
Staff Sergeant
Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in several countries.The origin of the name is that they were part of the staff of a British army regiment and paid at that level rather than as a member of a battalion or company.-Australia:...
Ramirez said nothing. Immediately after the three Americans were shown on TV, there was debate about their legal status. United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
officials first carefully avoided calling the soldiers POWs. They claimed the prisoners had been illegally abducted and demanded their immediate release.
Yugoslav authorities insisted the three were not POWs. They claimed the Americans had been captured on the Yugoslavian side of the border. Lawyers in Yugoslavia speculated the men could be charged with "waging aggression," which carries a jail sentence of up to 15 years, or "espionage," which has a maximum penalty of 20 years. Yugoslav officials said they intended to try the American soldiers as criminals.
The International Committee of the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
quickly moved declaring that the captives did qualify as POWs under the Geneva Convention treaty. "For us it is very clear. There is an international armed conflict between NATO and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and these three captured soldiers are ... prisoners of war," ICRC spokeswoman Doris Pfister said. "They can be tried if they are accused of war crimes or if they are accused of any crime which is linked to domestic law," Pfister said. "But what is important is that the fact of being on a mission for the American army is not a reason to try them." The most important thing, Pfister said, is to have access to the soldiers and to see that they are being well-treated. The ICRC asked Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
for unsupervised visits with the soldiers, but received no reply. Pfister said there also has been debate about whether showing the men on Yugoslav television violated a section of the convention that protects them from "insults and public curiosity," but the legal interpretation of the article was not clear.
Yugoslavia later signaled a retraction when its foreign minister, Živadin Jovanović, referred to the American captives as prisoners of war (POW), a term that carries with it protected status under the treaty. Washington also changed position and began referring to the men as POWs.
By April 6, Yugoslavia had reversed its position and assured the international press that the American POWs would not be tried and would be released at the end of hostilities. That same day, the Yugoslav leadership declared a "unilateral ceasefire" in honor of "the greatest Orthodox holiday, Easter." The Yugoslavians pledged to work on a settlement to the crisis which would allow the ethnic Albanian refugees
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
to return to Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
. The Clinton White House rejected the ceasefire saying it was not interested in "hollow gestures." U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen
William Cohen
William Sebastian Cohen is an author and American politician from the U.S. state of Maine. A Republican, Cohen served as Secretary of Defense under Democratic President Bill Clinton.-Early life and education:...
said the Serb ceasefire idea was "not only completely unacceptable but absurd."
At the same time, Spyros Kyprianou
Spyros Kyprianou
Spyros Achilleos Kyprianou was one of the most prominent politicians of modern Cyprus. He served as the second President of the Republic of Cyprus from 1977 to 1988....
, a Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
who was the parliament speaker on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, announced that he would travel to Yugoslavia to secure the release of the three American prisoners. Kyprianou suggested that NATO should observe a ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter holiday, if Yugoslavia would agree to free the three American servicemen. NATO refused the offer.
On April 9, Kyprianou
Spyros Kyprianou
Spyros Achilleos Kyprianou was one of the most prominent politicians of modern Cyprus. He served as the second President of the Republic of Cyprus from 1977 to 1988....
announced that the three U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
POWs would not be returned home early. His talks in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
to secure their release had failed. The Cypriot
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
envoy complained that within hours of his arrival in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, NATO intensified the bombing all around the Yugoslavian capital. "It was expected … that during my stay at least some respect should have been shown and some understanding until I had finished my consultations," he said. The Clinton administration
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
responded by saying Mr. Kyprianou's failure was not a surprise. The Yugoslavians hardened their position saying that the POWs will not be released until the war is settled.
Finally on May 1, 1999, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
ordered the release of the three United States soldiers held in Yugoslavia. This was after the US civil rights leader, Reverend Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
, made an appeal to Slobodan Milošević during a three-hour meeting in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
. Rev. Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
travelled to Yugoslavia with a delegation of religious leaders to seek the soldiers' release.
The move comes in spite of an earlier statement by Yugoslav Assistant Foreign Minister Nebojša Vujović, who said the release would not be "on the agenda" for the meeting. Rev. Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
said he had made a "moral appeal" to the Yugoslav leader during their meeting. During the meeting, President Milošević urged the religious leaders to jointly exert moral pressure "in order that the rule of law prevail over the rule of force in the world", Serbian Radio said.
White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
officials tried to dissuade Rev. Jackson from traveling to Yugoslavia. When he insisted on making the trip, they urged him to tell Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
that there could be no link between the release of the soldiers and an end to NATO air strikes.
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
, founder and leader of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Rainbow/PUSH
Rainbow/PUSH is a non-profit organization formed as a merger of two non-profit organizations — Operation PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition — founded by Jesse Jackson. The organizations pursue social justice, civil rights and political activism.In December 1971, Jackson resigned from...
who ran for the U.S. Presidency in 1984 and 1988, had previously secured the release of captives/hostages held in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
(1984), Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
(1987), Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
(1990). Rev. Jackson was named in October 1997 as "Special Envoy of the President and Secretary of State for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa", however the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
said his trip to Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
was purely a private mission unrelated to his appointment as a Special Envoy.
- "K4B" and "Operation Iraqi Freedom"
The Schweinfurt-based "Quarterhorse" was tasked to be part of the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade task force due to rotate into Kosovo, in late 2002. The squadron was to lead the U.S. contingent's aviation task force of OH-58D KiowaOH-58 Kiowa
The Bell OH-58 Kiowa is a family of single-engine, single-rotor, military helicopters used for observation, utility, and direct fire support. Bell Helicopter manufactured the OH-58 for the United States Army based on the 206A JetRanger helicopter. The OH-58 has been in continuous use by the U.S...
and UH-60 Blackhawk
Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk
The UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-bladed, twin-engine, medium-lift utility helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky submitted the S-70 design for the United States Army's Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System competition in 1972...
helicopters, as well as provide force protection personnel for the U.S. headquarters at Camp Bondsteel
Camp Bondsteel
Camp Bondsteel is the main base of the United States Army under KFOR command in Kosovo. Located near Uroševac in the eastern part of Kosovo, the base serves as the NATO headquarters for KFOR's Multinational Brigade East . The base is named after Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient United States...
. In late-October 2002, soldiers with 1st Infantry Division's, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment were abruptly told they would not deploy to Kosovo for peacekeeping duties, after working for several months to ready equipment they had received for their peacekeeping mission. 1st Infantry Division officials in Kosovo said they could not comment on the change, while a spokesman for V Corps, the division's Corps headquarters, referred all questions to EUCOM, the overall combatant command for V Corps. A EUCOM spokesman said he could not comment on the change, referring all questions back to V Corps. The first trainloads of the squadron's equipment bound for the Balkans from Germany was called back after departing Schweinfurt, en route to the Balkans.
On November 6, 2002, the 1st Infantry Division published a WARNO (warning order) establishing ARFOR-T (Army Forces Turkey). This mission was enormous, encompassing the subordinate units of 2 heavy mechanized divisions, 4th ID and 1st ID. Normally these missions are assigned to Corps headquarters. The following months involved extensive planning, Command Post Exercises, and a joint warfighter with 1st ID key personnel traveling to Ft. Hood, TX, to conduct planning with the 4th ID staff. During this time the 1st Squadron's Commander, Lt. Col. James H. Chevallier, designated about 40 personnel to comprise an ADVON, and they deployed to Turkey in early February. Their mission was to conduct a detailed route reconnaissance
Route reconnaissance
Route Reconnaissance is the intelligence assessment of the operational environment in reconnaissance operations of routes for military use, including methods of reconnoitering and classifying them for other troops...
from the seaport of debarkation (SPOD) at İskenderun
Iskenderun
İskenderun is a city and urban district in the province of Hatay on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The current mayor is Yusuf Hamit Civelek .-Names:...
, on the Mediterranean Sea coast, in south-central Turkey, to the border crossing near the Tactical Assembly Areas located near the towns of Silopi
Silopi
Silopi is a district of Şırnak Province in Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region, close to the border with Iraq. The district, composed of Silopi center, 3 depending townships with own municipalities and 23 villages has an urban population of 73,400 .The Habur frontier gate, the only major...
, Dicle
Dicle
Dicle is a town and district of Diyarbakır Province, Turkey. Population is 8436 .Dicle is also the Turkish name of the Tigris river, which runs through the district and gave its name to it. The name derives through Akkadian Idiqlat from the original Sumerian name for the river, Idigna....
, and Cizre
Cizre
Cizre is a town and district of Şırnak Province in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey, located at the border to Syria, just to the north-west of the Turkish-Syrian-Iraqi tripoint....
, near the Turkish-Iraqi border. The route reconnaissance conducted by less than 30 Officers and Non-Commissioned Officer
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
s is believed to the longest route recon conducted in modern times; the men assigned the task catalogued every bridge, route constriction and obstruction, hill grade, and curve radius for nearly 500 miles (804.7 km). The goal of ARFOR-T was to open a second front, to crush Iraqi armed resistance from the North. The Quarterhorse, mounted on the hastily drawn, and refurbished, HMMWVs they had prepared initially for their Kosovo rotation, would conduct a screen along one of the 4th IDs flanks as it charged south out of Turkey. While the Quarterhorse was conducting the route reconnaissance, the Turkish government debated at length whether they should to allow Coalition forces to invade from their territory, finally signaling in early March 2003 that the invasion would not be permitted from their soil. By early April, all of the Quarterhorse Troopers returned to Schweinfurt, unsure what the future held, as the Iraqi Regime was toppled by forces assaulting north from Kuwait. The main body of the Squadron never deployed out of Germany, despite being on standby and prepared to move for nearly 2 weeks in early March.
It is worth noting, that despite the invasion from the north that never materialized, the Quarterhorse participated in an accidental, yet convincing and important, deception that caused Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
to order 13 armored divisions to the north to meet the invasion force. Because of this, the enemy force strength, or Order of Battle
Order of battle
In modern use, the order of battle is the identification, command structure, strength, and disposition of personnel, equipment, and units of an armed force participating in field operations. Various abbreviations are in use, including OOB, O/B, or OB, while ORBAT remains the most common in the...
, was significantly reduced in the South, enabling the rapid assault from Kuwait in the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
1-4 Cav deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom II (OIF II) from February 2004 to March 2005. The Squadron was deployed to two Base camps; Fob McKenzie near Ad-Duluiya and FOB Wilson just outside of Ad-Dawr south of Tikirt in Salah-ad-Din Province. The squadron relieved elements of two battalions from the 4th Infantry Division. In September 2004 the Squadron led the way for 1ID's retaking of the city of Samara from insurgent control and passed control of the city back to 2nd BDE, 1 ID. In January 2005 the Squadron oversaw the conduct of the first Iraqi parliamentary elections after the 2003 invasion within their sector and passed over control of their sector to elements of the 3rd Infantry division before redeployment.
Current status
- 1st Squadron is the Cavalry Squadron of the 4th BCT, 1st Infantry Division stationed at Fort RileyFort RileyFort Riley is a United States Army installation located in Northeast Kansas, on the Kansas River, between Junction City and Manhattan. The Fort Riley Military Reservation covers 100,656 acres in Geary and Riley counties and includes two census-designated places: Fort Riley North and Fort...
, KansasKansasKansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
. - 3rd Squadron is the Cavalry Squadron of the 3d BCT, 25th Infantry Division, stationed at Schofield Barracks, HawaiiHawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. - 4th Squadron is the Armored Reconnaissance Squadron of the 1st BCT, 1st Infantry Division, stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas.
- 5th Squadron is the Armored Reconnaissance Squadron of the 2d BCT, 1st Infantry Division, stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas.
- 6th Squadron is the Cavalry Squadron of the 3d BCT, 1st Infantry Division, stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Campaign Participation Credit
- Indian Wars:
- Comanches;
- Solomon River, Kansas; July 1857
- Little Big Horn;
- Red River;
- Ramonlina;
- Pale Duro Canyon;
- Geronimo's Apaches Expedition; 1886
- Civil War:
- First Bull Run;
- Peninsula Campaign;
- Antietam;
- Fredericksburg;
- Chickamagua;
- Murfreesboro;
- Nashville;
- Columbus, Georgia;
- Capture of Jefferson Davis;
- World War II:
- D-Day - hedgerows of Normandy; 1944
- Huertgen Forest, Battle of the Bulge; 1944
- Korean War:
- Vietnam:
- Defense;
- Counteroffensive;
- Counteroffensive, Phase II;
- Counteroffensive, Phase III;
- Tet Counteroffensive;
- Counteroffensive, Phase IV;
- Counteroffensive, Phase V;
- Counteroffensive, Phase VI;
- Tet 69/Counteroffensive;
- Summer-Fall 1969;
- Winter-Spring 1970;
- Sanctuary Counteroffensive;
- Counteroffensive, Phase VII;
- Consolidation I;
- Consolidation II;
- Cease-Fire
- Southwest Asia:
- Defense of Saudi Arabia;
- Liberation and Defense of Kuwait;
- Cease-Fire
- Iraqi Campaign
- Transition of Iraq
- National Resolution
- Iraqi Surge
- Afghanistan Campaign
- Consolidation II
Decorations
- Presidential Unit CitationPresidential Unit Citation (US)The Presidential Unit Citation, originally called the Distinguished Unit Citation, is awarded to units of the Armed Forces of the United States and allies for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy on or after 7 December 1941...
(Army) for BINH THUAN PROVINCE - Valorous Unit AwardValorous Unit AwardThe Valorous Unit Award is the second highest unit decoration which may be bestowed upon a U.S. Army unit and is considered the unit equivalent of the Silver Star...
for QUANG TIN PROVINCE - Valorous Unit AwardValorous Unit AwardThe Valorous Unit Award is the second highest unit decoration which may be bestowed upon a U.S. Army unit and is considered the unit equivalent of the Silver Star...
for FISH HOOK - Meritorious Unit CommendationMeritorious Unit CommendationThe Meritorious Unit Commendation is a mid-level unit award of the United States military which is awarded to any military command which displays exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service, heroic deeds, or valorous actions....
(Army) for SOUTHWEST ASIA - Valorous Unit AwardValorous Unit AwardThe Valorous Unit Award is the second highest unit decoration which may be bestowed upon a U.S. Army unit and is considered the unit equivalent of the Silver Star...
for Desert Storm 1st squadron - Valorous Unit AwardValorous Unit AwardThe Valorous Unit Award is the second highest unit decoration which may be bestowed upon a U.S. Army unit and is considered the unit equivalent of the Silver Star...
for Operation Iraqi Freedom II - Superior Unit AwardSuperior Unit AwardThe Superior Unit Award is a decoration of the United States Army which is awarded in peacetime to any unit of the Army which displays outstanding meritorious performance of a difficult and challenging mission carried out under extraordinary circumstances....
for Operation Joint Endeavour - 1st Squadron
External links
- Battle of Red River
- 4th US Cavalry and the Lee-Peacock Feud (Texas) 1869
- The History of the 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment
(Archived 2009-10-22)