With color and verve, Gregory J. W. Urwin presents the history of the mounted forces of the United States. He combines combat reports, personality profiles, and political and social overviews to present a complete picture of a bygone era extending from the Revolutionary War well into the twentieth century. For more than a century, the U.S. Cavalry played a prominent role in American military conflicts, serving as both a frontier police force and as a major combat arm in the republic's conventional wars. Urwin begins his story in New York City in 1776 with the Continental Light Dragoons and continues it through the days of the "pony soldiers" of the western plains, including detailed coverage of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry Regiment. Urwin concludes with descriptions of General John J. Pershing's 1916 Punitive Expedition into Mexico and the exploits of the 26th U.S. Cavalry, the only United States mounted outfit to see combat in World War II, during the defense of the Philippines in 1941-42.