Welcome to the online training grounds for the 17th PA Cavalry Remount Group, and all others who follow the Poinsett's Manual. It is very difficult to get the Poinsett's Manual since it apparently was never republished and followed after the Civil War. We were very luck to receive a package of information, in which the following pages are derived from. We hope this will be helpful to you and your group. Feel free to contact us about any changes in information.

Did you know that the first American Cavalry tactics manual was written by a botanist?

Poinsett's "Cavalry Tactics" Manual

Joel Roberts Poinsett, who today is best remembered for his work as a botanist, introducing a Mexican flower to the U.S. (later named the Poinsettia in his honor), wrote the first official tactics manual for mounted dragoons and cavalry. It was approved and published in 1841 by the War Department, known by troopers then as simply "Poinsett's Tactics." These were the cavalry tactics taught at the military academy at West Point up to and during the war. Poinsett's work taught a double-rank formation for combat, much different than a new manual to be published just before the Civil War began by Philip St. George Cooke, whose manual taught the long, single-rank formation for combat.

Click on Orange underlined words to view pages listed below:

Basic Commands

Guild for Battalion Maneuvers - Soon to Come