6th West Virginia Cavalry Regiment

The 6th West Virginia Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

6th West Virginia Cavalry Regiment
Flag of West Virginia
Active	January 26, 1864, to May 22, 1866
Country	United States
Allegiance	Union
Branch	Cavalry

Service

Lt. Col. Francis Thompson

The 6th West Virginia Cavalry Regiment was organized from the 3rd West Virginia Infantry Regiment on January 26, 1864. The regiment absorbed the remaining battalion of the 5th West Virginia Cavalry Regiment on December 14, 1864.

The 6th West Virginia Cavalry Regiment mustered out at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 22, 1866.

Casualties

The 6th West Virginia Cavalry Regiment suffered 5 officers and 28 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded in battle and 2 officers and 201 enlisted men dead from disease for a total of 236 fatalities.

Commanders

• Colonel David T. Hewes (Dismissed February 15, 1864)
• Lt. Colonel Frank W. Thompson

See also

• West Virginia Units in the Civil War
• West Virginia in the Civil War

Notes

References

• Dyer, Frederick H. (1908). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, Iowa: Dyer Pub. Co. OCLC 1028851810. Retrieved April 2, 2026.
• Lang, Joseph J. (1895). Loyal West Virginia from 1861 to 1865 : With an Introductory Chapter on the Status of Virginia for Thirty Years Prior to the War. Baltimore, MD: Deutsch Publishing Co. OCLC 779093.
• Snell, Mark A. (2011). West Virginia and the Civil War : Mountaineers are Always Free. Charleston, SC: History Press. ISBN 978-1-61423-390-9. OCLC 829025932.
• Union Army (1908). The Union Army, Vol. 2: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal States 1861-65, Records of the Regiments in the Union Army, Cyclopedia of Battles, Memoirs of Commanders and Soldiers; New York, Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio. Madison, Wisconsin: Federal Publishing Company.

Further reading

• Holliday, George H. (1883). On the Plains in '65: Twelve Months in the Volunteer Cavalry Service, among the Indians of Nebraska, Colorado, Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. Publisher not identified. https://www.loc.gov/item/11021726/
• Holliday, George H. ed. Glenn V. Longacre. (2021). On the Plains in '65: The 6th West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry in the West. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. ISBN 9780821424285.
• McDermott, John D. (2003). Circle of Fire: The Indian War of 1865. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-8117-0061-5.