Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 03.djvu/150

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In reviewing the history of the regular army of the United States, the author, on page 24, volume I, makes the following statement:

It was the third dragoons which was formed to serve only during the Mexican war, and that regiment was disbanded at the close of that war. The "mounted rifles," though formed about the same time, was formed as a permanent regiment, and was continued in the service, with that distinctive appellation, until August the 3d, 1861, when it was designated the "third cavalry." The three mounted regiments, therefore, in the service in 1855, when the first and second cavalry were formed, were the first and second dragoons and the mounted rifles. By the act of Congress of August 3d, 1861, the first and second dragoons were designated respectively the first and second cavalry, the mounted rifles the third cavalry, and the first and second cavalry respectively the fourth and fifth cavalry.

The term "cavalry," in common parlance, includes all mounted troops, but in military phrase "dragoons," "mounted rifles" and "cavalry" originally constituted different arms of the service,