1st Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment


The 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army as part of the Pennsylvania Reserves infantry division during the American Civil War.

Service

The 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry was organized at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as the "44th Volunteers" and mustered in for state service in July and August 1861 under the command of Colonel George Dashiell Bayard.
Companies H, I, and K were organized at Camp Wilkins in Pittsburgh, August 1861. Company L was organized as an independent company on July 30, 1861 and served duty at Baltimore until January 7, 1862 when it joined the regiment. Company M was organized as an independent company August 5, 1861. At Baltimore until October 3, 1861, then on the eastern shore of Maryland under Lockwood picketing and scouting until January 7, 1862 when it joined the regiment.
The regiment was attached to McCall's Division, Army of the Potomac, to March 1862. Cavalry, McDowell's I Corps, Army of the Potomac, to April 1862. Bayard's Cavalry Brigade, Department of the Rappahannock, to June 1862. Bayard's Cavalry Brigade, III Corps, Army of Virginia, to September 1862. Bayard's Brigade, Cavalry Division, Army of the Potomac, to January 1863. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac, to June 1863. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac, to June 1865.
The 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry ceased to exist on June 17, 1865, when it was consolidated with the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry and 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry to form the 2nd Regiment Pennsylvania Provisional Cavalry.

Detailed service

The regiment lost a total of 201 men during service; 9 officers and 87 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 1 officer and 104 enlisted men died of disease.

Commanders

Among the tributes paid to the regiment, during and after the Civil War, were the Congressional Medal of Honor awards conferred upon members of the regiment for valor and the placement of the 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry monument on the battlefield at the Gettysburg National Park.