As armies formed across a splintering United States in early 1861, the call to the colors sounded and volunteer groups began to assemble. One such unit, formed in New Orleans, was the Orleans Light Horse, an independent light-cavalry troop described by the New Orleans Daily Picayune as “a fine body of men all splendidly mounted.” In this thoroughly researched Civil War regimental history, Donald Peter Moriarty II follows the Orleans Light Horse from its organization in February 1861 through its March 1862 muster into active service with the Confederate States Army to the war’s end, in 1865. As  the escort company to Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk and, later, Lieutenant General Alexander P. Stewart, the Orleans Light Horse was an integral part of the Army of Mississippi and the Army of Tennessee. A Fine Body of Men provides service records and additional biographical information for the company’s 215 cavalrymen, while inviting readers to experience the major campaigns of the Civil War’s Western Theater alongside these brave soldiers.

A native of Louisiana currently residing in California, Moriarty is a retired lieutenant colonel of the US Army.