"A cavalry solider should not exceed in weight one hundred and sixty pounds, should be active and strong, physically sound, with a natural fondness for horses and experience in handling them.  His duties are more arduous and severe than those of the footman.  His first care should be his horse at all times.  The two are inseparable, and one is of little account without the other.  A dismounted cavalry soldier, leading a broken-down horse and trudging wearily along in the rear of the column, is a pitiable and ridiculous sight; whilst the perfect cavalry soldier, neatly dressed, arms and accoutrements in perfect order, his horse well fed and thoroughly groomed, and riding with ease, grace, and self-possession, is always an object of admiration." 

(From August V Kautz, The 1865 Customs of Service for Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers--A Handbook for the Rank and file of the Army)

Regiment lost during service 2 officers [Couch and Mullins] and 71 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded and 2 officers and 67 enlisted men as a result of disease. Total Civil War casualties for the First Missouri State Militia Cavalry were 142 men.

Note Concerning Roster:  The roster which can be accessed at the left is really an every name and every variation of a name list derived from the records of the National Archives by the United States Park Service that can be accessed at http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.htm 

  For a unit that had in all probability no more than 1200 members, this list contains 2015 names.  How and why did this happen?  The military during the Civil War did not have serial numbers, social security numbers, dog tags and did not have the immense amount of data on each participant that it has on soldiers serving today.  On top of this, many of the soldiers were either illiterate or semi-literate.  Each time a soldier reenlisted or regimental returns were prepared, there was the potential for mistakes in spelling names.  Now it is hard to tell if there were really two William Branscombs in company H or if someone just maded out duplicate paperwork on him.  The simplest solution is to present all of the names and variations of the spellings and let the user decide based on his or her purpose.  Eventually, of course, it would be advantages to everyone to develop a list that closely reflects the real membership in the unit.  This we hope to eventually do, but it will be a long process.