Booknotes: Horse Soldiers at Gettysburg

New Arrival:
• Horse Soldiers at Gettysburg: The Cavalryman’s View of the Civil War’s Pivotal Campaign by Daniel Murphy (Stackpole Bks, 2023).

Acknowledging that Gettysburg Campaign cavalry operations have already been explored at exhaustive depth through the efforts of a number of skilled chroniclers of Civil War mounted warfare, Daniel Murphy's Horse Soldiers at Gettysburg: The Cavalryman’s View of the Civil War’s Pivotal Campaign nevertheless stakes a claim for uniqueness.

In Murphy's estimation, "(m)ost cavalry treatments of the campaign and battle have focused on strategy, operations, and tactics and zoomed in on particular episodes: the Battle of Brandy Station in June 1863 (the largest cavalry engagement on American soil), Jeb Stuart’s controversial ride-for-glory that deprived Lee of important intelligence for days, Union cavalry general John Buford’s role in the start of the battle on July 1, and the cavalry battle involving not only Stuart but also George Armstrong Custer east of Gettysburg on July 3."

While Horse Soldiers at Gettysburg also recounts Gettysburg Campaign mounted operations from beginning to end, it freshly combines that well-trodden narrative with "an equestrian’s sense for what it’s like to ride and manage horses." As his author bio informs us, Murphy is "a classically trained fencer, avid equestrian, and living historian" who "has served as cavalry coordinator for several National Park Service films." Utilizing hands-on perspectives gained from those experiences, Murphy "brings a horseman’s eye to the story of the campaign: how individual cavalrymen experienced the campaign from the saddle and how horses—with special needs for care and maintenance—were in fact weapons that helped shape battles."

In the preface, the author notes that the process described above led him to "reach conclusions that varied from many standard interpretations," some minor and others more significant in nature. His overall goal is to "show the events from the participants' perspectives, with a similar practical knowledge, or horse sense, that the cavalry operated under in 1863" (pg. viii).