During the Civil War years, most of the regular units which had been serving on the Frontier were withdrawn. Their place was taken by locally-raised "Volunteers", and, towards the end of the Civil War, by five regiments of "U.S. Volunteers", raised from Confederate prisoners of war who preferred the uncertainties of Frontier campaigning to rotting in Northern prison camps. Many of the original Volunteer units, raised as they were from frontiersmen with considerable skill and knowledge of the terrain, proved to be extremely effective.

By 1866, with the end of the Civil War, the Regulars began to return. The troops serving on the Frontier were drawn from a variety of sources. They included Civil War veterans from both sides who had been unable to settle to civilian life, men who had served in European armies, recent immigrants, criminals, wastrels and bankrupts.

The aftermath of Civil War had left the Frontier in a state of increased unrest, and it was partly because of this, as well as the need to police the unreconstructed Southern states, that on July 28th 1866 President Andrew Johnson authorised an increase in the Army establishment from 19 to 45 regiments. The existing 6 cavalry regiments were to be increased to 10, including 2 with black soldiers with white officers, (nicknamed "buffalo soldiers"). About a third of the Army was stationed in the South, and in 1369, with the situation there becoming more stable, the Army began to be trimmed down again. By 1874 the number of men actually available was normally around 19,000.

The responsibilities of the Army on the Frontier were enormous. In 1868 there were 59 forts in the West, held by 92 companies of cavalry, and by 1874 the number of outposts had risen to 200. This meant that in practice the troops in one place were usually too weak to deal with any major Indian outbreak without being reinforced, which was both a costly and complicated task in view of the great distances involved.

The U.S. Army

Civil War Transition
Cavalry Units
Weapons

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