DELAWARE'S FORGOTTEN CAVALRY

by Dave Tabler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2027

Tabler chronicles the Civil War experiences of the First Delaware Cavalry in this grassroots history.

One of the Civil War’s more unheralded battalions, the First Delaware Cavalry, is perhaps best known for its contributions to the Union’s Gettysburg campaign and for its notoriously poor leadership under Major Napoleon Bonaparte Knight. A young, inexperienced leader with virtually no prior combat experience, Knight is portrayed in this volume as a drunkard and ineffective opportunist who had initially sought to join the Confederacy but secured his position with the Union “through political patronage rather than military competence” as the son of a wealthy farmer. Indeed, Knight was entirely absent from the battalion’s best-known battle at Westminster, Maryland. Many historians believe that the skirmish (called Corbit’s Charge after Captain Corbit, who look the reins after Knight was found missing), though a loss for the Union, would ultimately contribute to the defeat of the Confederates at Gettysburg days later by slowing the advance of General J.E.B. Stuart. While Knight’s actions serve to drive the book’s timeline, what makes this work special is its emphasis on the perspectives of three of his sergeants—Harrison Vandegrift, Townsend Downes, and Spencer Hitch—who preserved their thoughts in daily diaries. An unmarried farmer, Vandegrift was moderately educated and spent his spare time reading novels, and Downes had a keen understanding of the military’s bureaucratic details as a middle-class merchant. Hitch was the least educated of the trio, and his diary is the most unfiltered. He writes about a myriad of topics—from the weather to personal grievances—in entries replete with grammatical and spelling errors. While their backgrounds and points of view are individually distinct, all three were deeply critical of Knight, and, per Tabler, their accounts tell a story of “moral courage” despite the First Delaware Cavalry’s “institutional failure.”

The diary entries are transcribed in the book, presented in an unedited format that makes for an immersive, authentic read under the careful editorial oversight of Tabler, who provides commentary and clarification in footnotes when needed. The entries offer fascinating insights into the lives of 19th-century soldiers, and the book compellingly explores the ways in which the sergeants maintained their personal courage despite Knight’s weak leadership. The author expresses admiration for the First Delaware Cavalry’s rank and file as the men navigated their precarious situation, but he doesn’t attempt to hide their shortcomings. Hitch’s entries, for instance, frequently contain racial slurs aimed at Black Americans, and Downes, per Tabler, sometimes took a “more openly punitive tone” when discussing the alleged crimes of Black Americans he encountered. As the author of multiple previous works on Delaware’s history, Tabler has a firm grasp on the state’s unique history as a border state where slavery remained legal despite its participation in the war on behalf of the Union. The volume’s 15 chapters are all supported by citations that reference both academic publications and primary sources that extend beyond the core three diaries and include material from a host of archival repositories. The well-researched, engagingly written text is supplemented by visual elements that include maps, photographs, paintings, and engravings. A fascinating, nuanced, bottom-up history of one of the Civil War’s lesser-known battalions.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2027

ISBN: 9798992166781

Page Count: 364

Publisher: Self

Review Posted Online: July 30, 2026

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

HISTORY | MILITARY | UNITED STATES