I am happy to recommend to readers of this website, Dan Murphy’s new cavalry study, Horse Soldiers at Gettysburg, The Cavalryman’s View of the Civil War’s Pivotal Campaign. I met Dan about five years ago, when he had just begun work on his new project. Over the intervening years we have toured and discussed the battlefields in the Loudoun Valley many times. We have agreed on some interpretations and disagreed on others. Those disagreements are minor and such differences are probably good for our craft. Challenging each other’s thinking should only be viewed as a good thing, as we seek to unravel the mysteries of events 160 years ago.

Dan has written, what I believe, is the first campaign length study of cavalry operations in several decades. And, as a living historian or reenactor of several eras of cavalry operations, he has done so from the viewpoint of a cavalryman. Being a desk-bound student of cavalry operations in the war myself, Dan, along with good friends Andrew German and Steve Dacus, all three with many years in the saddle, have patiently tried to help me understand the vagaries of Civil War era cavalry drill and formations. Dan brings his knowledge and experience to his new study. Soon, Andy German will as well, with his history of the 1^st Pennsylvania Cavalry, and I will also introduce you to Steve Dacus in a few days.

Several years ago, Dan agreed to write a post for this site, and you can find his article here.