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US Cavalry Association

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The U.S. Cavalry Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit preserving U.S. Celebrating our 50th Anniversary. Cavalry service. Every U.S. Army’s mounted services.

Army Cavalry history, traditions, and the legacy of the American horse soldier through competitions, education, and our Museum & Archives. The mission of the United States Cavalry Association (USCA) is to preserve the history and traditions of the U.S. We accomplish this goal through publications, events, and preservation of artifacts, photographs and written materials associated with the cavalry in our Museum and Research Library. Cavalry Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization. Olympic and National Team horse and rider up through 1948 came from the U.S. Today the U.S. Cavalry Association preserves this fine tradition through sponsorship of the annual National Cavalry Competition (NCC) and regional competitions. The National Cavalry Competition classes include military and combat horsemanship, military field jumping, mounted saber, mounted pistol, and cross-country mobility. After three days of competition, one trooper is named NCC Champion. The only prerequisites for participation are the ability to ride and the willingness to learn the traditional skills of the cavalry trooper. Competitors include civilians and military personnel from the U.S. and overseas.

10/12/2026

Monday Museum Moment: A Small Ribbon With a Big Story

It would be easy to overlook this little ribbon in a case of medals, but it gives us plenty to wonder about.

It appears to be the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross, a South Vietnamese decoration recognizing valor in combat. The three bronze palms represent citations at the Army or Armed Forces level. Depending on how the ribbon was assembled, they may reflect three qualifying citations.

Another clue is what’s missing: the gold frame usually seen around the unit citation ribbon. That suggests this could represent an individual award, although we would need the servicemember’s records to confirm it.

Who wore it? Where did they serve? What happened that earned them this recognition? Those are the questions we hope to answer when we research pieces like this.

Here at the U.S. Cavalry Association, preserving an artifact is only part of the work. We also want to remember the person who wore it and keep their story with it.

10/09/2026

FIGURE IT OUT FRIDAY!

Time to put your history detective skills to work!

This unusual object is part of the U.S. Cavalry Association Museum collection at Fort Reno. At first glance, it might look a little familiar, but there are several clues hiding in its shape, glass lens, mounting hardware, and construction.

Can you figure out what it is and what it would have been used for?

Bonus points if you can tell us where it would have been mounted and why an object like this would have been important to someone traveling with horses.

Drop your guesses in the comments, but don’t give it away too quickly if you know the answer!

We’ll reveal the answer after everyone has had a chance to investigate, then again just check the comments. Someone usually gets the answer before I can reveal it.

10/08/2026

Thursday: Through the Museum Thursday

Through the Museum Thursday: Help Preserve the Legacy

The U.S. Cavalry Association is more than a museum. We are a community dedicated to preserving, researching, and sharing the history and legacy of the United States Cavalry for future generations.

One of the simplest ways you can help support that mission is by becoming a member of the U.S. Cavalry Association.

Your membership helps us care for historic artifacts, preserve archival records and photographs, support continued research, share cavalry history with the public, and ensure these stories are not lost to time.

Members also receive The Cavalry Journal four times each year, featuring articles from dedicated cavalry historians and researchers. Each issue brings new research, fascinating discoveries, personal stories, and pieces of long-forgotten cavalry history back into the light.

Membership also connects you with others who share an interest in preserving the people, horses, units, traditions, and stories that shaped the history of the U.S. Cavalry.

Every membership helps us continue protecting this legacy so that future generations can learn from it, appreciate it, and carry it forward.

If you have enjoyed our museum, followed our historical posts, attended the National Cavalry Competition, researched a cavalry ancestor, or simply believe this history deserves to be preserved, we would love to have you join us.

Become a member today through our online store: https://uscavalryassociation.org/product-category/memberships/

Help us keep cavalry history in the saddle for generations to come.

10/07/2026

Wednesday: What Happened Wednesday

WHAT HAPPENED WEDNESDAY | October 5, 1879

On October 5, 1879, five troops of the 5th U.S. Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Wesley Merritt, reached the besieged soldiers at the Battle of Milk River in Colorado.

The relief column had ridden hard to get there.

Major Thomas Thornburgh's command had been attacked several days earlier while traveling toward the White River Ute Agency. After Thornburgh was killed, the surviving soldiers established a defensive position and endured days of fighting while waiting for help.

Then came the cavalry.

Merritt's command made an extraordinary forced march toward Milk River. Contemporary accounts describe the troopers covering roughly 70 miles on October 4 alone, resting only briefly as they pushed through the night toward the surrounded command.

At approximately 5:30 a.m. on October 5, Merritt's advance reached the position.

Before entering the defenses, a trumpeter sounded the officer's call, identifying the approaching force as the 5th Cavalry relief column.

For the exhausted soldiers who had been holding their position for days, few bugle calls could have been more welcome.

The arrival of Merritt and the 5th Cavalry effectively brought the Battle of Milk River to an end as the Ute forces withdrew.

The episode illustrates something easy to overlook when we picture the Horse Cavalry. Cavalry service was not always a dramatic charge across an open battlefield. Often its greatest value was mobility.

Troopers and their horses could be called upon to cover enormous distances, carry information, reinforce isolated commands, es**rt supplies, scout unfamiliar country, and arrive where help was desperately needed.

On October 5, 1879, that mobility helped save a surrounded Army command.

Sources: National Park Service, Henry Johnson and the Battle of Milk River U.S. Army historical accounts of the Battle of Milk River and Merritt's relief expedition

10/06/2026

Trooper Tuesday: Benjamin Barrett, 11th Ohio Cavalry

This Trooper Tuesday, we remember Benjamin Barrett (1843–1923), who served with the 11th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Cavalry.

The story of the 11th Ohio Cavalry is different from many Civil War cavalry regiments. Rather than spending most of its service on the major battlefields of the East or South, the regiment was sent west to the American frontier.

Its troopers served along the North Platte and Sweetwater Rivers and across what are now Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and surrounding territories. They guarded overland routes, es**rted travelers and supplies, carried messages, scouted, and served across hundreds of miles of remote country.

For men like Barrett, cavalry service meant long stretches far from home, where weather, distance, isolation, limited supplies, and caring for both horse and rider shaped daily life.

But Barrett’s story did not end with his military service.

In 1991, his grandson added Benjamin Barrett to the U.S. Cavalry Association’s BioCav Project. Today, his 20-page biography is preserved in our BioCav files.

That is what makes this collection so special.

Military records can tell us when and where a cavalryman served. Family histories preserve something more personal: photographs, letters, memories, personalities, and stories passed from one generation to the next.

We hope to continue adding these stories and secure funding to digitize the BioCav collection, making these records searchable and accessible to researchers, descendants, and the public.

Benjamin Barrett died more than a century ago, but because his family chose to preserve his story, we can still tell it today.

That is the BioCav Legacy.

10/05/2026

Museum Moment Monday

Today’s Museum Moment gives us a glimpse into more than cavalry equipment. It also tells us something about family life on a frontier military post.

This is a lady’s sidesaddle, designed so a woman could ride with both legs positioned on the same side of the horse. Its distinctive shape and pommels helped keep the rider secure while riding in the style considered appropriate for women of the period.

If you have never visited the U.S. Cavalry Museum at Historic Fort Reno, Oklahoma, the building itself is part of the story.

Our museum is housed in the historic Married Officers’ Duplex along Officers’ Row. When this building served as a military residence, an officer could have lived here with his wife and children.

Life on the frontier was not always easy or safe. Fort Reno was established during the turbulent 1870s, a period of enormous change across the Southern Plains. The post was connected to military operations during and after the Red River War and later served near the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency at Darlington.

For families living here, hardship went far beyond military conflict. They faced isolation, severe weather, prairie fires, accidents, disease, limited medical care, and the challenge of raising children far from many of the comforts and services they had known elsewhere.

Imagine stepping out of this very duplex more than a century ago, mounting a horse with a sidesaddle like this one, and looking out across a landscape filled with uncertainty.

That is one of our favorite things about the museum. The artifacts tell one part of cavalry history, but the building surrounding them has stories of its own.

Come visit us at Historic Fort Reno and experience a little piece of frontier life for yourself.

10/02/2026

🔎 FIGURE IT OUT FRIDAY

Take a close look at this week’s mystery artifact.

It says 10 Pesos, but this was no ordinary Philippine currency.

💰 Who issued this money?
🌏 When and where was it used?
🐭 And why did people eventually give notes like this a rather unflattering nickname?

Drop your guesses in the comments before we reveal the answer!

HINT: This piece dates to World War II, when control of the Philippines changed hands and currency became another tool of occupation.

We’ll post the full story after everyone has had a chance to Figure It Out!

10/01/2026

Through the Museum Thursday

We are deeply honored to share a special recognition from the Oklahoma Museums Association celebrating the U.S. Cavalry Association’s 50th year of service.

Being recognized by an organization that works so hard to strengthen, connect, and support museums across Oklahoma means a great deal to us.

This anniversary year has also been a year of growth and renewal for the U.S. Cavalry Association. We have seen major changes, updates, and improvements to our museum building, collections, programs, and organization. We are strengthening the care of our historic materials, expanding educational opportunities, improving our spaces, and developing new ways to share the stories entrusted to us.

And we are only getting started.

As we look toward the next 50 years, we are moving forward with new programs, partnerships, preservation projects, educational opportunities, and community connections. We are also inviting new members, volunteers, researchers, educators, donors, families, and partners to step forward and help us preserve the valuable legacy of the U.S. Cavalry for future generations.

Preserving history is never the work of one person or one organization. It happens when people come together and decide these stories are worth protecting.

We are especially excited to become more active within the Oklahoma museum community and to continue building our relationship with the Oklahoma Museums Association and its member institutions. We look forward to learning, collaborating, and finding new ways to support one another in preserving Oklahoma’s history.

To the Oklahoma Museum Association (OMA), thank you for this meaningful recognition and for celebrating this milestone with us. We are proud to be part of Oklahoma’s museum community and excited for everything still ahead.

Fifty years brought us here. Now we are building what comes next!

09/30/2026

What Happened Wednesday - What Happened Wednesday | September 30, 1916

🐎 What Happened Wednesday

On this day in 1916, John J. Pershing accepted his appointment as a Major General while commanding the U.S. Army’s expedition into Mexico.

Pershing’s career was deeply rooted in the U.S. Cavalry. He began his Army service with the 6th Cavalry and later served with the 10th Cavalry, one of the Army’s Buffalo Soldier regiments.

During the Mexican Punitive Expedition of 1916–1917, Pershing commanded U.S. forces sent into Mexico following Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico. Cavalry troops traveled hundreds of miles across difficult terrain in search of Villa and his forces.

The expedition also showed how quickly warfare was changing. Horses served alongside motor vehicles and airplanes, giving the Army an early look at the combination of traditional cavalry and new technology.

Pershing’s September 1916 appointment came at a major turning point in his career. Less than a year later, after the United States entered World War I, he would be selected to command the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe.
His career connected the era of mounted cavalry with the rapidly modernizing Army of the 20th century.

Sources:
U.S. Army Center of Military History, John Joseph Pershing
U.S. Army Center of Military History, The Mexican Expedition, 1916–1917
Everett T. Tomlinson, The Story of General Pershing

09/29/2026

🐎 Trooper Tuesday: John P. Dove, 3rd U.S. Cavalry

This week, we remember John P. Dove, a mounted cavalryman who served with the 3rd U.S. Cavalry at Fort Myer, Virginia, beginning in 1928.

Born May 13, 1906, in Mayfield, Pennsylvania, Dove enlisted in the U.S. Army as a young man and entered cavalry service during the interwar period, when the horse was still an important part of Army life.

While stationed at Fort Myer, Dove participated in the ceremonial duties for which the 3rd Cavalry was well known. One particularly notable moment came in March 1930, when he rode with the 3rd Cavalry in the funeral cortege of former President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft at Arlington National Cemetery.
Dove's service gives us a glimpse into a fascinating chapter of cavalry history. The 1920s and 1930s were years of transition, as the Army gradually moved toward mechanization while mounted cavalrymen continued to train, serve, and represent the Army in major national ceremonies.

After leaving the military, Dove settled in Dundalk, Maryland. He worked as a structural mechanic for Martin-Marietta, operated Wise Cleaners with his wife for more than three decades, and became a founding member of the Wise Avenue Volunteer Fire Company.

Later in life, he moved to New Bern, North Carolina, where he continued volunteering in his community. Dove died in 2003 at the age of 97.

His story reminds us that cavalry service did not end with the frontier era. Men like John P. Dove carried the traditions of mounted service well into the 20th century.

Trooper Tuesday honors the soldiers whose service helped shape the history and traditions of the United States Cavalry.

Address

3220 N. Jesse Reno Street
El Reno, OK
73036

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 4pm
Tuesday	10am - 4pm
Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 4pm

Telephone

+14054226330

Website

http://uscavalryassociation.org/, https://uscavalryassociation.org/events/

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