Sir,

The reason for Texas to raise more Cavalry regiments than Infantry regiments was likely out of necessity than because of a throw back to the knights of old. Texas, of coarse, did not have an infrastructure to move bodies of men rapidly within their state lines so the next natural step would be to mount them.

I would like to see your data that quantifies the number of Cavalry regiments outnumbering Infantry regiments overall in the Confederacy. Being pretty familiar with both Georgia and Tennessee regiments, I do not believe this to be the case with these two states.

The reason you find Cavalry regiments being dismounted permenantly overall and as in the case with in Cleburne's Division specifically is the replacement system for horse flesh was an individual soldier responsiblity in the Confederacy. This disadvantaged cavalry soldiers from distant locations in particular because they would have to take a leave of absence and go and literally beg, borrow, or steal to replace a broken, dead, or wounded horse. The Federals, on the other hand, developed a depot system to replace horses and keep the soldier in the fight.

This permanent "dismounting" is different from the tactical dismounted fighting of the mounted infantry. Dismounting is standard operating procedure and soldiers understood that the horse holder was part of the job. What many Southern regiments did was task the body servants to be the horse holders in order to allow the soldiers to move with the rest of the unit.

The evolution of fighting dismounted came with experience in combat, development of weapons (both repeating and rifle arms). Mounted Cavalry charges sounds sexy and briefs well but any cavalry mounted formation going against an Infantry regiment and/or artillery battery had a disadvantage. My ggggrandfather was in Ashby's 2nd Tennessee Cavalry Regiment and found this out first hand when his regiment charged an artillery battery that was protecting the Federal supply train at Murfreesboro. Artillery shot + hitting horse = Wounded, captured ancestor and dead horse. Again, I refer to my example in the first email about Forrest's fight on the first day of Chickamauga. Dismounting and fighting provided the opportunity to lesson exposure time to enemy fire.

I hope this helps.

Respectfully,

Gerald D. Hodge, Jr.
War Between the States Historian
Historian: 39th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment
http://39thgavolinfrgt.homestead.com/39thHomepage.html

Major, Armor
U.S. Army