EIGHTH CAVALRY

Most of Command's Service for More Than Half a Century Has Been on Frontier
(By Voorheis Richeson)

The Eighth Regiment of Cavalry was one of the four which were organized in 1866 under authority of an Act of Congress of July 28 of that year. The occasion of this increase of the Regular Army, when the Civil War had been over little more than a year, was our rapid expansion toward the West, with the attendant increasing hostility of the Indians, who resented further encroachment on their hunting grounds.

The Eighth Cavalry was recruited on the Pacific coast, which was just then beginning to feel the first effects of the disillusioning aftermath which inevitably followed the gold rush of 1849 and later. Into the ranks of the new regiment, came many miners and other adventurers who had gone into the new country and who had not found the wherewithal to put foundations under their air castles. These reckless spirits, many of them seeking new thrills in the Army, were gathered together in two great rendezvous at the Presidio of San Francisco, Cal., and Fort Vancouver, Washington Territory, at which places companies were organized. By Feb 1,1867, the last two troops of the command, L and M, were filled.

The entire regiment, however, had not waited until this time to take the field. For by the time Troops L and M were listed as complete organizations, the other organizations of the command were already scattered far and wide at isolated posts in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, Idaho and Arizona Territories. Regimental Headquarters, which had first been established at Benicia Barracks, was by that time at Camp Whipple, Arizona Territory.

This disposition of the several organizations, with the exception of the numerous changes of stations for individual troops within the foregoing area, held until 1870. The duties of the command during this period were various and sometimes strenuous. Marauding Indians had to be watched over and kept to their reservations, and this sometimes, meant stiff fighting, with loss of life: settlers individually and en masse were in constant need of protection from white thieves as well as from red men; wagon trains, of settlers and of companies, which were crossing the plains in almost countless number, had to be escorted. All this work the Eighth Cavalry was called upon to do within the bounds of the territory to which it had been assigned.

In 1870 the regiment was transferred to New Mexico Territory, the troops taking stations at Forts Union, Craig, Selden, Wingate, Bascom and Stanton in that territory and at Fort Garland in Colorado Territory. These places that are but names tucked away in all but forgotten records today, were then strategic points along the chief highways of trade. These routes led through a country as primitive as was the Atlantic seaboard when the first settlers landed at Jestown. This meant that there was work in plenty for the soldiers to do.

The regiment remained in New Mexico until 1875. During this five-year period the troops of the command, no doubt, traversed several thousand miles, marching back and forth across the unsettled country which did not even enjoy the advantage of one trunkline railroad at that time.

In July, 1875, the command left New Mexico and marched to Texas. There it remained until 1888, performing similar duties to those performed in the territory from which it had come. The several troops were stationed during the period at post all the way from Fort Brown, to Fort Hancock, not many miles from El Paso.

In1888 a concentration of the regiment was effected at Fort Concho, Texas. From that point it marched overland to Fort Meade, South Dakota, covering a distance of approximately 1,700 miles. As the troops were scattered widely over Texas at the time the concentration began, some of them were required to cover a total distance of more than 2,000 miles. The command arrived at its destination on September 3, having left Fort Concho about June 1. Assuming that no hiking was done on Sundays the command, therefore, covered an average of about thirty miles a day during the long trip. This march is, indeed, still said to be one of the longest ever made by a regiment during a single change of stations. It was made apparently without any mishaps, and without particular incident.

Headquarters of the command remained at Fort Meade until October 6, 1898, when it moved by rail to a camp in Alabama, preparatory to going to Cuba as part of the Army of Occupation.

Many of the individual troops, however, were detached from Fort Meade and stationed at isolated posts in the Dakotas and Montana. The work of the command in this section was in some respects similar to that which it had performed in New Mexico and Texas, except that, the country being more highly civilized and more thickly settled by that time, there was less field duty necessary, and garrison life became more and more the order of the day.

Sailing from Savannah, Ga., on Nov 13, 1898, Regimental Headquarters and six troops reached Nauvitas, Cuba, on the 19th. From there the command marched overland to Puerto Principe, where it eventually went into barracks, only to be ousted and sent back into camp by the ravages of yellow fever which soon broke out.

For approximately three years, until Feb 25, 1902, the headquarters of the regiment remained at this place. The regimental commander and his staff officers were in charge of civil affairs of the province of Puerto Principe.

Leaving Cuba on Feb. 25, 1902, Headquarters and the troops which had been in the islands returned to the United States and went to Fort Reno, Oklahoma Territory, to join the First Squadron, which was already stationed at that place. Within a few months, however, these veteran organizations of the Cuban Occupation were transferred to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.

February 1905, found the command under order to go to the Phillippine Islands. Headquarters and the Second Squadron left Jefferson Barracks at once. The other squadrons, which were stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, began the journey later in the spring, and by July the entire regiment was in the Phillippines.

The command remained in the islands until 1907, occuping stations at widely separacted points, principally in the Royal Province, with headquarters at Fort William McKinley. The insurrection had been put down by that time in most parts of the archipelago, and there was no serious fighting to be done. There were, however, many

dangerous outposts in the jungles to be manned and considerable patroling of unsettled regions to be done. On this work detachments of the Eighth Cavalry were engaged. Otherwise garrison duty and general training occupied the time of the troopers.

Returning to the United States in 1907, the command went to Fort Robinson, Nebraska, for station, with three troops detached to posts in Wyoming, where the usual garrison duties were performed.

Then, in 1910, the regiment was ordered to the Phillippine Islands a second time. The command less four troops which were left on detached service in the United States in Nebraska and Arizona Territories, sailed from San Francisco on Dec. 13. The four troops left behind temporarily followed in March, 1911, after being relieved by organizations of the 12th Cavalry.

The Phillippine tour prolonged itself until Aug. 1915. While during most of the time the command devoted its energies to general training in garrison and on maneuvers, there were several minor brushes with the Moros. Upon more than one occasion detachments on duty in the island of Mindanao were fired upon by natives. Loss of life on both sides, however, was negligible.

The tour of duty was arduous chiefly as a result of many changes of station which involved long marches in the tropical jungle.

Returning to the United States this time in Sept. 1915, the command was sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, for station. This post has been its home ever since.

During the border troubles of 1916-1917, the Eighth Cavalry remained in the United States on border patrol. While headquarters remained at Fort Bliss, troops were stationed at outlying points along the Rio Grande to the south. Upon several occasions detachments pursued bandits across the border

On Oct. 1, 1917, the regiment as a unit left Fort Bliss for the Big Bend District, a vast territory larger than most eastern states, which was being harassed by cattle thieves and bandits from across the border. Headquarters was established in Marfa, Texas.

In this district the command remained on patrol duty until Oct 1, 1919, just two years, when it returned to Fort Bliss. During its stay in the Big Bend District, the regiment was on almost constant field duty. Many bandit and cattle thief raids upon large ranches were repulsed and the marauders driven out of the country. The southern border at that time, and in that particular sector, was sorely unsettled and the fact of America's participation in the World War did not help matters. The Eighth Cavalry, therefore, found itself responsible for a job that was at once strenuous and delicate. The fact that it kept order in the important sector, and did not upset international relations will forever be a happy commentary upon the efficiency and tact of those who directed its policies.

Since 1919 the regiment has remained at Fort Bliss. As part of the First Cavalry Division, which believes in using the vast expanse of uninhabited territory around El Paso for maneuvers in which the enemy is represented by full strength organizations instead of little white flags, the Eighth still spends a good part of its time hiking long distances and sleeping in pup tents
--U.S. Army Recruiting News.