Cavalry Camp at Cumberland Landing just before McClellan advanced up the Penninsula.
This photograph shows the cavalry Camp at
Cumberland Landing just before
McClellan advanced up the
Peninsula.
The entire strength of the cavalry the previous autumn had aggregated 8,125 men, of which but 4,753 are reported as “present for duty, equipped.”
It was constantly drilled during the
fall and
winter of 1861, with enough scouting and outpost duty in the
Virginia hills to give the cavalry regiments a foretaste of actual service.
In the lower photograph we get a bird's-eye view of
Cumberland Landing where
McClellan's forces were concentrated after the siege of
Yorktown and the affair at
Williamsburgh, preparatory to moving on
Richmond.
The cavalry reserve with the Peninsular army under that veteran horseman
Philip St. George Cooke, was organized as two brigades under
General Emry and
Colonel Blake, and consisted of six regiments.
Emry's brigade comprised the Fifth United States Cavalry, Sixth United States Cavalry, and
Rush's Lancers — the Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
Blake's brigade consisted of the First United States Cavalry, the Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and
Barker's squadron of Illinois Cavalry.
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The first extensive Federal cavalry camp--1862 |
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