They were considered to be the ELITE of the United States Army. When the Infantry walked, they rode: while the Infantry toiled through summers drilling and marching guard, they broke new trails across the Continent. They were the United States Dragoons, established by an act of Congress on March 2, 1833.
Only one regiment was authorized at first, but its success led Congress in 1836 to raise a Second Dragoon Regiment. The designation Dragoon Regiment remained in use until 1861, when the name officially was changed to Cavalry. The First Dragoon Regiment was composed of ten companies, but after the first five companies were recruited, they were sent to Fort Gibson under their Colonel, Henry Dodge, to winter. The others followed later. Dodge was a politician, who was transferred to the Dragoons from a battalion of Mounted Rangers. Much of the actual training of the newly formed companies devolved upon the second in command, Lt. Col. Stephen Watts Kearny, and officers who served under Kearny attributed the "high character which the regiment subsequently attained" to him.
In the summer of 1834, Colonel Dodge led his Dragoons on their first march southward to meet with the Pawnee and Comanche Indians and try to rescue an American boy whose father had been murdered by Indians while hunting west of Fort Gibson. This first venture was less than successful, although the boy was rescued and the painter, George Catlin, who accompanied the regiment, had the opportunity to sketch the Indians he encountered for the benefit of future generations. The regiment left Fort Gibson 400 strong; but sickness soon broke out both among the men and horses, and by the time the False Washita was reached, only 250 men were able to go on. Over 100 Dragoons and several officers (one-quarter of the command) died along the way.
In 1836, Colonel Dodge resigned and was succeeded by Kearny. Maj. Richard Mason advanced to Kearny's former position. That same year, the Second Regiment of Dragoons was organized at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, and sent to Florida to participate in the engagements against the Seminole Indians. The First Regiment, however, remained on the frontier, principally west of the Mississippi River. Kearny was an exemplary officer, who instilled confidence and pride in his men. Col. Albert Brackett, who wrote a history of the Cavalry published in 1865, served with the First Dragoons in the 1850's and described the Second Dragoons as having "more dash about it than any other regiment" but the "old 1st Dragoons had a steadiness of purpose and determination which had made many an enemy quail on many a field."
The American Army in 1844 consisted of 8573 men of which the ten companies of the First Dragoons numbered about 623 men. Each company at full strength had a captain, a first lieutenant, a second lieutenant, four sergeants, four corporals, two buglers, one farrier and blacksmith, and fifty privates. The men were armed with Hall's carbines and, later, musketoons, Dragoon sabers called "old wristbreakers" of the Prussian pattern, and horse pistols.
All of the weapons had drawbacks. The carbine when carried muzzle down lost the charge from the chamber and could not stand much wear. In Indian fighting, the sabers were simply a nuisance. They jingled abominably, were difficult to keep sharp in metal scabbards, and when a soldier was "close enough on an Indian to use a saber," it was about even "as to which goes under first."
Information for this page was taken from the Historic Furnishing Plan for The Dragoon Stables by Sally Johnson Ketcham.
