The purpose of this selection is to document the character and exploits of the Federal cavalry during the Civil War - the cavalry that George Armstrong Custer knew and in which he served before he gained fame as an Indian fighter. These mounted encounters will be reported with emphasis from the Federal point of view, and the intra-service rivalries will be those of Federal officers and administrations rather than Confederate ones. Also distinguished among Federal cavalry commanders in this audio are Philip St. George Cooke, George Stoneman, Alfred Pleasonton, Phil Sheridan, John Buford, J. Irvin Gregg, David M. Gregg, H. Judson Kilpatrick, Elon Farnsworth, and many others.

In spite of hardships and privations, the Confederate cavalry had excellent morale throughout the war. The mud, the cold, the hunger, the brutally long marches, did not appear to detract from the glamour of its service. Morale grew and remained high for the best of reasons: a string of unbroken and often spectacular successes, brilliant leadership, and exploits that struck the imagination. It was far otherwise for the Federal horsemen. It was apparent to the Union men themselves that they were being wasted and their efforts frittered away in employments that gave them no chance to perform creditably. There is only a scant record of cavalry engagements above the level of mere skirmishes in which the Federal horsemen were not worsted before the summer of 1863.

The spring reorganization of 1863 was the start of a new era for the Federal cavalry. It began to prove itself in a succession of engagements: Kelly's Ford, Brandy Station, Buford's fight on the first day at Gettysburg, and Gregg's and Custer's on the third day. There were still failures, but these were failures of leadership for the most part. No longer did the Confederates automatically have the better of the Federals. There was a new spirit in the air, and both the Confederate and the Federal cavalry knew it.