Is there a difference between Federal cavalrymen and union soldiers?

Answer 1

All Federal cavalrymen were Union soldiers, but not all Union soldiers were cavalrymen. Most Union soldiers were infantrymen - foot soldiers. There were also artillerymen, who worked the cannon. Cavalrymen were horse soldiers. They rode horses where they went, and practiced as a group to train the horses to do the maneuvers they had to perform. They scouted ahead of and on the flanks of the army, they watched for the enemy to approach so their army would not be caught by surprise, and they sometimes tried to charge in a group to break the enemy line. The cavalry charge had been very important in Napoleon's time, and all American officers had studied Napoleon, but in the Civil War the foot soldiers had rifles (they had only short range muskets in Napoleon's day) and could shoot the cavalrymen at long range when they started a charge, so this was not done much. Cavalrymen usually had a type of sword called a saber, to cut down the enemy with in a charge. By the end of the war they had quit carrying sabers and started carrying six-shot revolver pistols, usually two of these per man. The cavalry's primary weapon was a carbine, a shorter rifle than the infantry used, which could not take a bayonet. The bayonet charge on foot still decided many battles, so if cavalry got into a dismounted fight with infantry, since they did not have bayonets, cavalry usually could not stand up long to infantry - they would have to mount their horses and ride off.