FORT MCALLISTER, Ga. - The trees towered overhead, draping a soft cover of leaves and Spanish moss above the Soldiers. Standing in a circle, the uniformed men listened to a speech from a grey haired man clad in wool clothing and worn riding boots. Behind them a horse stomps her foot and swished her tail at a fly. In this atmosphere, it is easy to imagine it's the early 1860's, and the group of men are cavalry Soldiers fighting in the Civil War.
While it is over one hundred and fifty years since the war has ended, the cavalry Soldiers gathered here are imagining they are back in the past, exactly the goal of the visit.
"Today ties the unit and its leadership back to our lineage as cavalry," explained Lt. Col. Christopher Jones, the commander of 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, Third Infantry Division.
This experience, called a 'staff ride,' was started in the latter part of the 19th century.
"It was designed to capture the experience of veterans of the Civil War who were still on active duty and use them to instruct young officers," explained Buck Meeks, the Fort Stewart museum historian. "They went to battlefields because we didn't have national parks in those days, and they would ride the battlefield with their maps, historical texts and with this veteran."
These interactive history lessons were popular in the years following the Civil War, but as the veterans faded away, so did the staff rides.
However, in 1986, a historian at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., was asked to revive the experience and develop guides to classic staff rides such as Manassas and Gettysburg.
Those guides tied effortlessly into coastal Georgia's military history, which spans nearly 300 years.
"If you drive from Fort Stewart to Savannah you can't help but drive through two battlefields," said Meeks. "But there isn't always a park or historic site with all the markers in the ground to say what happened there. That is where a guy like me comes in to say, 'Where we are now is where this happened.'"
For the leaders of 5th Sqn., 7th Cav. Regt., having the opportunity to learn about their history in the exact spot their predecessors stood is invaluable. Teaching them now is Meeks, and Lt. Col. (Ret.) Bobby Jolley, a 'horseback historian' who specializes in staff rides.
"We all need to reflect back sometimes on the past wars and conflicts and how it relates to us today," said 5/7 Cav., Command Sgt. Maj. Kerry Dyer. "I hope [the leaders] go back and relay down to the younger Soldiers the lessons learned today."
As Jolley mounts his horse, completely dressed in historical tack, and gallops away through the towering trees, for a moment everyone is swept back to a period when Stetsons and spurs were not just tradition, but a necessity.
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