The development of cavalry tactics during the American Civil War is a good example of innovation and adaptation around available resources and skills. This adaptive process is one of the driving factors that fills this period with such flavour, and it fundamentally shapes the way that our wargames unfold to tell the story of the war.
The Northern and Southern cavalries adapted and innovated differently. For one side this pathway would be supported by innovation that enabled success. The other, starved of resources, was doomed to failure.
At the outbreak of war in 1861, the US army included just five cavalry regiments, most of which were deployed in small detachments across the west. This body of men was not suitably trained or suited to the war in which they were about to embark. This situation was worsened by the loss of a significant number of officers who went over to the Confederacy, gifting the rebels a cadre of cavalry leaders that was to enable them to claim
