This is the first volume of a four-volune work. The total work represents the culmination of more than twenty years of painstaking research. It is an exhaustive delineation, in words and pictures, of every aspect of the attire and equipment of that most exciting of all United States military forces?the cavalry. Volume I covers the Revolutionary period, with a detailed account of the ?sires? of the United States Cavalry, the Continental Light Dragoons. Then come the War of 1812 and the formation of the United States Mounted Ranger Battalion, and later the United States Dragoons. The uniforms, insignia, decorations, arms, horse equipment, accoutrements, and saddles are described and profusely illustrated in 11 color plates and 96 black-and-white drawings. Appended are sections defining the nomenclature of the horse, horse equipment, and arms, as well as a roster of cavalry bugle calls.

The Revolution, the War of 1812, the Early Frontier 1776-1850--The Frontier, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Indian War, 1851-1880--The Last of the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, the Brink of the Great War 1881-1916--World War I, the Peacetime Army, World War II 1917-1943