1st Cavalry Regiment ( 1855 ) 1st Cavalry Regiment ( 1855 ) was a unit of the United States Army , and was the first US Army unit to be designated " Cavalry " . Previously , mounted riflemen were called " Dragoons " . In 1833 the " First Regiment of Dragoons " was formed and soon after that the " Second Regiment of Dragoons " . These two regiments continued until 1860 , when they were renamed the 1st Cavalry Regiment and the 2nd Cavalry Regiment . At the same time the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Regiments that were formed in 1855 were renamed the 4th Cavalry Regiment and the 5th Cavalry Regiment . Origins . The 1st Cavalry Regiment : along with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment was authorized in 1855 and formed at Jefferson Barracks , MO . All field grade officers ( majors or above ) and one half of the company grade officers ( captains and lieutenants ) were to come from existing army units . The other half of the company grade officers and most of the enlisted men came from civilian life . Each company sent out one lieutenant and one sergeant to city after city to recruit men to fill the ranks . Posters , displayed in each city promised good clothing , rations and medical attention . The pay rate was $ 12 . 00 a month for privates , $ 14 . 00 for corporals , $ 17 . 00 for Duty Sergeants , and $ 22 . 00 for First Sergeants . The regiment had four field - grade officers , one full colonel in command , one lieutenant colonel as second in command and two majors . Each of the ten companies had a captain , one first lieutenant , one second lieutenant , four sergeants , four corporals and eighty - four privates . Also attached to each company was a one farrier and blacksmith and two buglers . Each company had horses of a distinctive color . This served two purposes . In addition to the dramatic effect on parade , the distinctive color made it easy for members of the regiment to locate their company in the heat of battle . The assigned colors were Company A had sorrels , B , grays ; C , sorrels ; D , bays ; E , roans ; F , sorrels ; G , blacks ; H , bays ; I , sorrels ; and , K , bays . The buglers had white horses . The officers each had two horses . They could select the color of their choice . Officers were required to provide their uniforms , equipment and horses . The new recruits after a physical exam , were trained in horsemanship and as cavalrymen at Fort Leavenworth and Jefferson Barracks . Campaigns . Against the Sioux . In the fall of 1855 the regiment was ordered to participate in an expedition against the Sioux . As it turned out , the regiment were not directly involved in the major engagement with the Sioux . Kansas Territory Slavery Issue . In 1856 the regiment was engaged in maintaining the peace in the Kansas Territory between the pro - slavery group who fought to make the territory a slave state , and the free - state faction , who bitterly opposed them . This conflict had given rise to the term " Bleeding Kansas " . Campaign against the Cheyenne of 1857 . During the summer of 1856 , Cheyenne war parties attacked four wagon trains , killing twelve people and kidnapping two . The commander of the Department of the West recommended that the Cheyenne be punished for their attacks on emigrant trains . He recommended that any action be put off until spring of 1857 . In May 1857 preparation began for the expedition with the organizing of the 1st Cavalry under Colonel Edwin Vose Sumner at Fort Leavenworth . Sumner divided the regiment into two columns in order to circle the Cheyenne hunting grounds in central Kansas Territory . One column , under Major John Sedgwick , departed on May 18 with four companies , five Delaware scouts and forty wagons , heading west along the Arkansas River past Bent ' s Fort north up to the South Fork of the Platte River . There they were to meet Sumner ' s column , which had left Fort Leavenworth on May 20 , with four cavalry companies , 300 cattle and 51 wagons . Sumner ' s column went north and then west up to Fort Kearny , where three companies of the 6th Infantry Regiment and two companies of the 2nd Dragoons , five Pawnee scouts and ten more wagons were added . After considerable difficulty in crossing the South Platte River , Sumner ' s column and Sedgwick ' s columns met at the South Platte as planned on July 4 . The whole regiment then traveled east through central Kansas to their rendezvous with the Cheyenne on the Solomon river . The map in the inset shows the routes taken by both columns . Meanwhile , the Cheyenne , about three hundred strong , were midway between the two columns , probably around the Republican River , where they had spent the previous winter . The Cheyenne consisted of both Northern Cheyenne and Southern Cheyenne . They knew the U . S . Cavalry were searching for them , so they remained banded together longer than they normally did . On July 29 , 1857 , The U . S . 1st Cavalry Regiment caught up with the Cheyenne on the bank of the Solomon River . As the two groups paused within about a mile of each other , the cavalry commander , Col . E . V . Sumner , gave the command " Gallop march . " Both groups approached each other at full speed . Col . Sumner then commanded " Sling carbines ! Draw Sabers ! Charge . " It was the first time sabres had been used in the West . The astonished Indians , whose medicine , administered by holy men before the battle , protected them from carbines but not from sabers , became terrified when they saw the sabers . They pivoted and ran as fast as their horses would carry them away from the troopers . The chase lasted for about seven miles before the Indians , having faster horses , pulled ahead too far for the cavalry to follow . During the brief fighting that took place during the chase , two troopers were killed and nine , including Lt . J . E . B . Stuart , who was to become the Confederates ' most famous cavalry general during the Civil War , were wounded . An estimated nine Indians were killed on the field and an unknown number were wounded . The cavalry wounded and a detachment of infantry were left behind in a makeshift fort while the rest of the 1st Cavalry followed the Indians as best they could . This engagement was the climax of The Cheyenne Expedition , which began two and a half months earlier at Ft . Leavenworth , Kansas . After the battle the regiment left the wounded , including J . E . B . Stuart and one company of infantry , and followed the trail of the Cheyenne south towards the Arkansas river . They found and destroyed a large abandoned village that had recently been occupied but were not able to catch the rapidly dispersing Indians . The regiment received orders to split up and send four companies under Major Sedgewick to join Col . Albert Sidney Johnston at Fort Kearney to become part of the Utah Expedition , while the other two companies were to proceed to Fort Leavenworth under Col . Sumner . However , before reaching Fort Kearney Major Sedgewick received further orders to return to Fort Leavenworth to rejoin the rest of the regiment .