“..After much fighting, losing tens of thousands...
“In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave — the meeting point between savagery and civilization.” Frederick Jackson Turner’s 1893 essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History’.
Painting cover: Painting by Alfred Jacob Miller providing a rare glimpse into life at Fort Laramie in 1837, depicting it as a bustling frontier crossroads between the U.S. Army and Native American tribes. This fragile coexistence, characterized by seasonal rendezvous and diplomatic negotiations, eventually fractured as mass westward migration led to broken treaties and the escalating violence of the Indian Wars.
In 1866, immediately after the end of the American Civil War, ten cavalry regiments were established, each numbering roughly 600–700 men. After brief training at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, and basic familiarization with horses and weapons, the troops were dispatched to the American West, where they were assigned to frontier duty and operated across the Great Plains, the Southwest, the Rockies, and the Pacific Northwest. Rather than being permanently tied to particular states, regiments frequently shifted between territories according to operational needs.
Typically, the main body of each regiment was stationed at a large central fort, while smaller detachments—often no larger than one or two troops (around 50–100 men)—were posted to numerous smaller outposts scattered across the vast frontier. The army’s quality varied: although about 15–20% of the men were Civil War veterans and experienced non-commissioned officers, many others were recent recruits with limited military background. Budget reductions imposed by Congress sharply curtailed training time and supplies, leaving new soldiers with only minimal preparation for service on the plains and limited ammunition for practice.
New cavalry recruits went through very brief basic instruction, often only weeks at a depot before assignment, and once on frontier posts they frequently received little formal horse or weapons training; many new enlisted men were left to “observe, learn, and apply fighting skills from… experienced veterans”, with annual ammunition for marksmanship sometimes as low as about 90 rounds per soldier.
The cavalry carried out difficult and often dangerous duties across the frontier, covering vast distances, protecting settlers, and engaging in battles that tested their endurance, skill, and discipline under harsh and unpredictable conditions. In 28/9/1874, Colonel Mackenzie’s cavalry attacked a Comanche, Cheyenne, and Kiowa camp in the Texas Panhandle. They destroyed lodges and captured hundreds of horses, crippling the tribes’ mobility and forcing many back to reservations.
During the Powder River expedition (1 July – 4 October 1865) a large U.S. Army force marched into Powder River country across parts of modern Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska to punish Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes after increased raids. The expansive campaign involved multiple clashes, inflicted casualties on both sides, and ended without a decisive strategic victory. On 11 July 1869 at Summit Springs, in response to increased raids, General Eugene Carr led cavalry and scouts against Cheyenne Dog Soldiers in the Republican River valley. U.S. troops and allied Pawnee scouts surprised the Indian camp, killed leaders including Tall Bull.
Of course, the cavalry’s service was far from easy, and some defeats were devastating. At the famous Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, Custer and 210 men of the 7th Cavalry were killed in a single engagement against overwhelming Native forces. Similarly, at the Fetterman Massacre in 1866, 81 soldiers were ambushed and killed along the Bozeman Trail, leaving no survivors. These losses, alongside numerous smaller skirmishes, underscored the dangers, harsh conditions, and heavy human cost of frontier service.
– Courtesy of John Langellier
and Bob Boze Bell –
Many recruits were former laborers or farmers, along with large numbers of immigrants who had little prior experience with horses. Life in the forts was monotonous and isolated; alcoholism was widespread, morale often low, and desertion rates at times extremely high. Between 1866 and 1876 alone, well over a thousand men deserted from the cavalry regiments. At Fort Union in 1870 a soldier wrote that drunkenness among officers was so bad that if they were court‑martialed for it “it would consume all their time… a more drunken set I never saw,” reflecting how pervasive alcohol was in garrison life.1 A post in an Army museum publication notes that many soldiers turned to desertion or drunkenness “as diversions from so doleful, unprofitable and aimless an existence”.2
Food quality was generally poor. Supplies often included hardtack dating back to Civil War stocks—so hard that it had to be soaked before eating—along with flour and salted pork of mediocre quality. “None of the posts at that time… were provided with decent food… The bacon issued to the soldiers was not only rancid… I saw a flat stone… sandwiched between the layers.”3. In terms of recruitment, the ranks included significant numbers of Irish (roughly a quarter or more of the force) and Germans, with smaller contingents of other European nationalities such as Italians, Swiss, and Swedes.
A concrete account is the one of General Philippe Regis de Trobriand’s diary reference (1867). It reveals how extreme frontier conditions affected enlisted men’s health. “His diary shows wintertime diet problems… scurvy and dietary diseases were problems for enlisted men but not officers… officers had better food and cooks.”4 Accounts of frontier posts describe routine duties such as building and maintaining forts, cleaning equipment, and raising food to supplement monotonous government rations, with “alcoholism and desertion” described as “twin evils” because they offered an escape from boredom.5
The soldiers’ appearance frequently diverged from parade-ground standards. Long beards, civilian scarves or hats (often straw hats), and non-regulation shirts were common, while worn trousers, belts, boots, and saddles—weathered by the harsh life of the plains—were often the only unmistakably military items. Photographic and plate commentary from period military history shows enlisted soldiers circa the Indian Wars wearing modified Civil War‑era jackets, sky‑blue trousers, non‑regulation slouch hats, and civilian scarves, indicating how uniform standards often fell away in actual service on the plains.
Two of the regiments, the 9th and 10th Cavalry, were African American units—later known as “Buffalo Soldiers.” They served widely across the Southwest and Great Plains and developed a strong reputation for discipline and effectiveness.
Despite difficult conditions, the U.S. cavalry carried out extensive duties: covering immense distances on patrol, building and repairing roads and bridges, escorting wagon trains, protecting settlers and mining operations, and fighting numerous engagements with Native American tribes. During the Indian Wars, which lasted roughly from 1865 to 1891, the army suffered over a thousand fatalities overall, with the cavalry accounting for a substantial share. The campaigns were marked by both notable successes and tragic defeats, led by figures such as Nelson Miles, George Armstrong Custer, and George Crook. In every sense, the Indian Wars constituted a long and arduous chapter of American frontier history.
Sources (excluded from the Footnotes below)
Us Army In The Plains Indian Wars 1865-1891 [PDF]
Huachuma illustrated, a magazine of the Fort
Men at Arms 438 – US Infantry in The Indian Wars 1865-93
Footnotes:
Frontier Life 1866–1876. Forts, rations and isolation
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“In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave — the meeting point between savagery and civilization.” Frederick Jackson Turner’s 1893 essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History’.
Painting cover: Painting by Alfred Jacob Miller providing a rare glimpse into life at Fort Laramie in 1837, depicting it as a bustling frontier crossroads between the U.S. Army and Native American tribes. This fragile coexistence, characterized by seasonal rendezvous and diplomatic negotiations, eventually fractured as mass westward migration led to broken treaties and the escalating violence of the Indian Wars.
In 1866, immediately after the end of the American Civil War, ten cavalry regiments were established, each numbering roughly 600–700 men. After brief training at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, and basic familiarization with horses and weapons, the troops were dispatched to the American West, where they were assigned to frontier duty and operated across the Great Plains, the Southwest, the Rockies, and the Pacific Northwest. Rather than being permanently tied to particular states, regiments frequently shifted between territories according to operational needs.
Typically, the main body of each regiment was stationed at a large central fort, while smaller detachments—often no larger than one or two troops (around 50–100 men)—were posted to numerous smaller outposts scattered across the vast frontier. The army’s quality varied: although about 15–20% of the men were Civil War veterans and experienced non-commissioned officers, many others were recent recruits with limited military background. Budget reductions imposed by Congress sharply curtailed training time and supplies, leaving new soldiers with only minimal preparation for service on the plains and limited ammunition for practice.
New cavalry recruits went through very brief basic instruction, often only weeks at a depot before assignment, and once on frontier posts they frequently received little formal horse or weapons training; many new enlisted men were left to “observe, learn, and apply fighting skills from… experienced veterans”, with annual ammunition for marksmanship sometimes as low as about 90 rounds per soldier.
The cavalry carried out difficult and often dangerous duties across the frontier, covering vast distances, protecting settlers, and engaging in battles that tested their endurance, skill, and discipline under harsh and unpredictable conditions. In 28/9/1874, Colonel Mackenzie’s cavalry attacked a Comanche, Cheyenne, and Kiowa camp in the Texas Panhandle. They destroyed lodges and captured hundreds of horses, crippling the tribes’ mobility and forcing many back to reservations.
During the Powder River expedition (1 July – 4 October 1865) a large U.S. Army force marched into Powder River country across parts of modern Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska to punish Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes after increased raids. The expansive campaign involved multiple clashes, inflicted casualties on both sides, and ended without a decisive strategic victory. On 11 July 1869 at Summit Springs, in response to increased raids, General Eugene Carr led cavalry and scouts against Cheyenne Dog Soldiers in the Republican River valley. U.S. troops and allied Pawnee scouts surprised the Indian camp, killed leaders including Tall Bull.
Of course, the cavalry’s service was far from easy, and some defeats were devastating. At the famous Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, Custer and 210 men of the 7th Cavalry were killed in a single engagement against overwhelming Native forces. Similarly, at the Fetterman Massacre in 1866, 81 soldiers were ambushed and killed along the Bozeman Trail, leaving no survivors. These losses, alongside numerous smaller skirmishes, underscored the dangers, harsh conditions, and heavy human cost of frontier service.
– Courtesy of John Langellier
and Bob Boze Bell –
Many recruits were former laborers or farmers, along with large numbers of immigrants who had little prior experience with horses. Life in the forts was monotonous and isolated; alcoholism was widespread, morale often low, and desertion rates at times extremely high. Between 1866 and 1876 alone, well over a thousand men deserted from the cavalry regiments. At Fort Union in 1870 a soldier wrote that drunkenness among officers was so bad that if they were court‑martialed for it “it would consume all their time… a more drunken set I never saw,” reflecting how pervasive alcohol was in garrison life.1 A post in an Army museum publication notes that many soldiers turned to desertion or drunkenness “as diversions from so doleful, unprofitable and aimless an existence”.2
Food quality was generally poor. Supplies often included hardtack dating back to Civil War stocks—so hard that it had to be soaked before eating—along with flour and salted pork of mediocre quality. “None of the posts at that time… were provided with decent food… The bacon issued to the soldiers was not only rancid… I saw a flat stone… sandwiched between the layers.”3. In terms of recruitment, the ranks included significant numbers of Irish (roughly a quarter or more of the force) and Germans, with smaller contingents of other European nationalities such as Italians, Swiss, and Swedes.
A concrete account is the one of General Philippe Regis de Trobriand’s diary reference (1867). It reveals how extreme frontier conditions affected enlisted men’s health. “His diary shows wintertime diet problems… scurvy and dietary diseases were problems for enlisted men but not officers… officers had better food and cooks.”4 Accounts of frontier posts describe routine duties such as building and maintaining forts, cleaning equipment, and raising food to supplement monotonous government rations, with “alcoholism and desertion” described as “twin evils” because they offered an escape from boredom.5
The soldiers’ appearance frequently diverged from parade-ground standards. Long beards, civilian scarves or hats (often straw hats), and non-regulation shirts were common, while worn trousers, belts, boots, and saddles—weathered by the harsh life of the plains—were often the only unmistakably military items. Photographic and plate commentary from period military history shows enlisted soldiers circa the Indian Wars wearing modified Civil War‑era jackets, sky‑blue trousers, non‑regulation slouch hats, and civilian scarves, indicating how uniform standards often fell away in actual service on the plains.
Two of the regiments, the 9th and 10th Cavalry, were African American units—later known as “Buffalo Soldiers.” They served widely across the Southwest and Great Plains and developed a strong reputation for discipline and effectiveness.
Despite difficult conditions, the U.S. cavalry carried out extensive duties: covering immense distances on patrol, building and repairing roads and bridges, escorting wagon trains, protecting settlers and mining operations, and fighting numerous engagements with Native American tribes. During the Indian Wars, which lasted roughly from 1865 to 1891, the army suffered over a thousand fatalities overall, with the cavalry accounting for a substantial share. The campaigns were marked by both notable successes and tragic defeats, led by figures such as Nelson Miles, George Armstrong Custer, and George Crook. In every sense, the Indian Wars constituted a long and arduous chapter of American frontier history.
Sources (excluded from the Footnotes below)
Us Army In The Plains Indian Wars 1865-1891 [PDF]
Huachuma illustrated, a magazine of the Fort
Men at Arms 438 – US Infantry in The Indian Wars 1865-93
Footnotes: