To add to what Mr. Keever said much of the horseflesh that was shipped to Arkansas for the army arrived in poor shape. Forage was hard to come by, so the cavalry regiments were almost always poorly mounted. The book "The Union Cavalry in the Civil War, Vol 3, the war in the west" by Stephen Starr spends some time dealing with this issue & explains it well. To give an example of the state of the Union cavalry, the first week of August 1864 Joseph West took a two brigade cavalry force after enemy who had been demonstrating south of the Little Red river. Col. Geigers brigade from DeValls Bluff mounted 1,500 men during this expedition. After going to Searcy they turned east & swam the White river in a rain storm, only to be ordered to turn around & swim back across the river in pitch dark. This force then went back to Searcy, then up the Little Red for a few days. Nothing was accomplished during such expeditions except to wear out men & horses. About two weeks later Shelby attacked the railroad & Col. Geiger rode out of the Bluff with 690 men. Two weeks before he could mount 1,500. One problem with the cavalry was that it was brigaded with infantry divisions. In Sept. of 1864 a seperate cavarly division was formed with Joseph West as its commander. West went to great lengths to get the cavalry division in shape. The irony of this is that by Jan/Feb. 1865 many of the cavalry regiments were dismounted & horses were sent from Arkansas to New Orleans as reinforcements to Gen. Canby in his upcoming assault on Mobile.