The Frontier soldier carried a variety of weapons. Seen on parade, but rarely in the field, was the brass-hilted Model 1860 light cavalry sabre. The regulation revolver, carried by all ranks, was in early years the Colt and Remington 0.44 calibre percussion type. From 1872 onwards, this was gradually replaced by the Colt 0.45 revolver. Enlisted men, and many officers, carried a single-shot breech-loading carbine. To begin with, this was usually a Civil War-type 0.52 short range weapon, but from about 1873 an improved type was gradually introduced, but it was frequently the case that soldiers found themselves out-gunned by the Indians they were fighting against. Many officers carried non-regulation weapons; Custer, for example, had a pair of British-made revolvers and a Remington sporting rifle. General George Crook carried a shot gun. Butchers' knives were frequently carried.

The regular soldier on the Frontier wore a wide variety of dress. General Crook, a not untypical example, was noted for never wearing uniform if he could avoid it. In the 1875 campaign he was described as wearing "boots, of Government pattern number 7, trousers of brown corduroy, badly burned at the ends, shirt of brown, heavy woollen; blouse, of the old Army style, a brown Kossuth (hat) of felt, ventilated at the top. An old army overcoat, lined with red flannel, and provided with a high collar made of the skin of a wolf shot by the general himself..." and a leather belt with 40 or 50 brass cartridges. Custer, another supreme individualist, also wore non-regulation dress, consisting at Little Big Horn of a light grey low-crowned hat, heavily fringed buckskin jacket and a trooper's dark blue shirt.

Partly because regulation dress was of such low quality, other ranks also showed a widespread tendency to improvise. Broad-brimmed hats, usually black or grey, were the most common headgear. On campaign, regulation blue shirts, or black and white check "hickory" ones bought from traders were popular. Usually worn were sky-blue regulation kersey trousers, combined with calf-length boots. The yellow neckerchiefs immortalised in the films of John Wayne were seldom seen - red were more common. In winter dress improvisation was still more varied, the average soldier often protecting himself from the bitter cold with several layers of clothing, topped off with a buffalo-hide coat.

On campaign, it became the tendency for the troops to travel as light as possible, carrying 60- 100 rounds of ammunition, a blanket, overcoat, canteen and five days rations of meat and hardtack.

An increasingly valuable role, particularly in the South West, was played by Indian scouts organised into companies commanded by white officers which were attached to regular regiments. These usually wore a mixture of native and regulation dress.

Artillery was widely used on the Frontier, and could be highly effective particularly in its moral effects. Generally the basic types proved adequate; the staple weapon was the brass 12 pdr "Napoleon" smooth-bore, though 12pdr mountain howitzers and Gatling guns were also employed, the latter generally ineffectively.

The U.S. Army had great difficulty in effectively countering Indian methods of warfare. Coming to grips with a highly mobile and elusive foe was to prove highly frustrating. The Indians would normally only attack small isolated detachments and patrols, and the Army for its own protection tended to move in large columns which were slow and cumberAome and unlikely to catch their opponents. The attempted solution to this was to flood hostile territory with several columns of troops, which, it was hoped, would trap the enemy by weight of numbers. This sometimes worked, but greater success was experienced in the tactics employed by such commanders as George Crook, who increased the mobility of his forces by stripping them of all non-essential items, and who made extensive use of Indian auxiliaries to use their own methods against the hostiles.

But even if the Indians were successfully brought to battle, the result was far from a foregone conclusion; man for man, the average warrior was superior to his Army counterpart, a fact that was recognised by the soldiers, along with the savagery of their opponents. (It was common practice for soldiers to choose suicide rather than face being taken alive by the Indians.) More than one encounter of the Pony Wars ended in defeat and disaster for the U.S. Army.

The U.S. Army

Civil War Transition
Cavalry Units
Weapons

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