| 1st Regiment New Mexico Volunteer Cavalry | |
|---|---|
 Flag of the United States, 1865-1867 | |
| Active | May 31, 1862-September 30, 1866 |
| Country |  United States of America |
| Allegiance | Union |
| Branch |  United States Army Cavalry |
| Engagements | Battle of Canyon de Chelly Battle of Adobe Fort |
The 1st Regiment New Mexico Cavalry was a volunteer cavalry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
In August 1861, Ceran St. Vrain and Kit Carson organized the 1st New Mexico Volunteer Infantry Regiment. This regiment fought at the battle of Valverde. On March 31, 1862, the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th New Mexico Infantry Regiments were consolidated to form the 1st New Mexico Volunteer Cavalry Regiment with Kit Carson as colonel. [1] The regiment was dispersed throughout the Department of New Mexico stationed at various frontier forts: Stanton, Goodwin, McRae, Wingate, Craig, Canby, Sumner, Marcy, Bascom, Union, and other points in that department, during entire term of service.
In January 1864 Kit Carson led a detachment of nearly 400 in the battle of Canyon de Chelly. Later that year Carson led a detachment at the first Battle of Adobe Walls. The regiment was mustered out on September 30, 1866. [2] However the 1st Battalion Cavalry and Infantry was organized from it August 31, 1866. It continued on duty in the Department of New Mexico and Arizona until mustered out November 23, 1867. [3] : 1366
With the declaration of war with Spain in April 1898 the 1st New Mexico Cavalry entered Federal service as the 2d Squadron, 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, better known as the "Rough Riders." Theodore Roosevelt conceived the idea of raising a cavalry regiment recruited from businessmen, cowboys and outdoorsmen. Roosevelt, a former New York National Guardsman, helped to organize the regiment and was appointed its lieutenant colonel. After training in Texas and Florida, the Rough Riders landed in Cuba, without their horses, on June 22, 1898. It was during the Battle of San Juan Hill, on July 1, that the Rough Riders, under the command of Lt Col Roosevelt, made their mark in American military history. Ordered to seize Kettle Hill in support of the main attack, the Rough Riders fought their way to the top despite heavy enemy fire. New Mexico's E and G Troops were among the first to reach the top of Kettle Hill. After taking the hill, the Rough Riders continued their attack, seizing the heights overlooking the city of Santiago. The American victory led to the Spanish surrender two weeks later.
The heritage of the 2nd Squadron, 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, is perpetuated by the 200th Air Defense Artillery, New Mexico Army National Guard.http://www.ng.mil/resources/photo_gallery/heritage/roughriders.html
The Rough Riders was a nickname given to the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish–American War and the only one to see combat. The United States Army was small, understaffed, and disorganized in comparison to its status during the American Civil War roughly thirty years prior. Following the sinking of USS Maine, President William McKinley needed to muster a strong ground force swiftly, which he did by calling for 125,000 volunteers to assist in the war. The U.S. had gone to war in opposition to Spanish colonial policies in Cuba, which was then torn by a rebellion. The regiment was also nicknamed "Wood's Weary Walkers" for its first commander, Colonel Leonard Wood. This reflected their dissatisfaction that despite being cavalry, they ended up fighting in Cuba as infantry, since their horses were not sent there with them.
The Battle of San Juan Hill, also known as the Battle for the San Juan Heights, was a major battle of the Spanish–American War fought between an American force under the command of William Rufus Shafter and Joseph Wheeler against a Spanish force led by Arsenio Linares y Pombo. The battle proved to be one of the most significant battles of the war and, along with the Siege of Santiago, a decisive battle in deciding the fate of the United States Army campaign in Cuba. The American forces, outnumbering the Spanish defenders 16-to-one, charged upon the heights and dispersed the Spanish after suffering heavy casualties.
The Battle of El Caney was fought on July 1, 1898, during the Spanish-American War. 500 Spanish soldiers held for twelve hours, until they ran out of ammunition, Henry W. Lawton's 5th US Division, made up of 6,899 men. This action prevented the American advance to the San Juan Hills as had been requested of General William Rufus Shafter.
The Battle of Valverde, also known as the Battle of Valverde Ford, was fought from February 20 to 21, 1862, near the town of Val Verde at a ford of the Rio Grande in Union-held New Mexico Territory, in what is today the state of New Mexico. It is considered a major Confederate success in the New Mexico Campaign of the American Civil War, despite the invading force abandoning the field and, eventually, retreating from the territory entirely. The belligerents were Confederate cavalry from Texas and several companies of Arizona militia versus U.S. Army regulars and Union volunteers from northern New Mexico Territory and the Colorado Territory.
The 10th Cavalry Regiment is a unit of the United States Army. Formed as a segregated African-American unit, the 10th Cavalry was one of the original "Buffalo Soldier" regiments in the post–Civil War Regular Army. It served in combat during the Indian Wars in the western United States, the Spanish–American War in Cuba and in the Philippine–American War. The regiment was trained as a combat unit but later relegated to non-combat duty and served in that capacity in World War II until its deactivation in 1944.
The 28th United States Colored Infantry, also called the 28th Indiana Infantry (Colored),1 was an African American infantry regiment from the state of Indiana that fought in the American Civil War.
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Galvanized Yankees was a term from the American Civil War denoting former Confederate prisoners of war who swore allegiance to the United States and joined the Union Army. Approximately 5,600 former Confederate soldiers enlisted in the "United States Volunteers", organized into six regiments of infantry between January 1864 and November 1866. Of those, more than 250 had begun their service as Union soldiers, were captured in battle, then enlisted in prison to join a regiment of the Confederate States Army. They surrendered to Union forces in December 1864 and were held by the United States as deserters, but were saved from prosecution by being enlisted in the 5th and 6th U.S. Volunteers. An additional 800 former Confederates served in volunteer regiments raised by the states, forming ten companies. Four of those companies saw combat in the Western Theater against the Confederate Army, two served on the western frontier, and one became an independent company of U.S. Volunteers, serving in Minnesota.
The 1st Nebraska Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 71st New York Infantry Regiment is an organization of the New York State Guard. Formerly, the 71st Infantry was a regiment of the New York State Militia and then the Army National Guard from 1850 to 1993. The regiment was not renumbered during the early 1920s Army reorganization due to being broken up to staff other units from 1917 to 1919, and never received a numerical designation corresponding to that of a National Guard regiment.
Thomas Harbo Rynning was an officer in the United States Army who served with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish–American War. He was also the captain of the Arizona Rangers, warden of Yuma Territorial Prison, and a United States Marshal in San Diego, California.
The 1st Rhode Island Infantry Regiment were two regiments of the United States Army, the first of which was raised in 1861 at the beginning of the American Civil War on a 90-day enlistment, the second during the Spanish–American War in 1898.
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Captain Allyn K. Capron (1871–1898) was the first United States Army officer to die in the Spanish–American War.
Jules Garesche "Gary" Ord was a United States Army First Lieutenant who was killed in action after leading the charge of Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th U.S. Cavalry up San Juan Hill. History now records that Ord was responsible for the "spontaneous" charge that took the San Juan Heights during the Spanish–American War in Cuba on July 1, 1898.
Hispanics in the American Civil War fought on both the Union and Confederate sides of the conflict. Not all the Hispanics who fought in the American Civil War were "Hispanic-Americans", in other words citizens of the United States. Many of them were Spanish subjects or nationals from countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America. Some were born in a US Territory and therefore did not have the right to US Citizenship. It is estimated that approximately 3,500 Hispanics, mostly Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans living in the United States joined the war: 2,500 for the Confederacy and 1,000 for the Union. This number increased to 10,000 by the end of the war.
Brigadier General John Henry Parker aka "Gatling Gun Parker" was a brigadier general in the United States Army. He is best known for his role as the commander of the Gatling Gun Detachment of the U.S. Army's Fifth Army Corps in Cuba during the Santiago campaign in the Spanish–American War.
The Rough Riders Memorial is a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States that commemorates those members of the "Rough Riders" who died in the Spanish–American War in 1898. The grey granite shaft was erected by surviving members of the Rough Riders and their friends and supporters. Although Arlington National Cemetery, a number of secondary sources, and even the bronze plaque on the memorial say the monument was dedicated in 1906 and one source says 1905, contemporary newspaper accounts show the memorial was dedicated on April 12, 1907.
Henry W. Nash,, known informally as Harry Nash, was an Arizona pioneer who served as a Sergeant in Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish–American War. Later, he was one of the first Thomasites sent by the U.S. government to establish an English language-based public education system in the Philippines in the early 1900s.