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Ordered by Lt. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright to occupy a strategic coastal village on Luzon Island and hold it until American and Filipino troops arrived, Lt. Edwin P. Ramsey set out with two horse-mounted columns of the 26th Cavalry (Philippine Scouts) on January 16, 1942. Riding his powerful charger, Bryn Awryn, a chestnut gelding with a small white blaze on his forehead, Lt. Ramsey and his cavalry troopers rode into Morong, where they fought advancing Japanese infantrymen.
Military historians would later record the 26th Cavalry's engagement at Morong as the last horse-mounted charge in U.S. history.
On the eve of World War II, the 26th Cavalry Regiment (Philippine Scouts) was part of Gen. Wainwright's Northern Luzon Force, a force that was made up of 22,000 men, including U.S. soldiers and three newly inducted Philippine Army divisions. The 26th Cavalry was garrisoned at Fort Stotsenburg, adjacent to Clarke Field, 75 miles northeast of Manila.
The mounted unit was organized into two squadrons of three troops each, a total of 784 enlisted men and 54 officers, with an average length of service of 13 years. Gen. Wainwright, a former cavalry man himself, considered the troopers of the 26th Cavalry an elite regiment, one that was experienced, trained, disciplined and combat ready. The unit's missions were the same as traditional mounted cavalry units of the past-reconnaissance, security, raid, attack, pursuit, delay and defend.
On the muggy plains of Luzon, the horse soldiers of the 26th Cavalry trained on their mounting and dismounting skills. The troopers also practiced the mounted charge, the most famous military tactic of the cavalry, where with weapons drawn, men and horses hurled themselves against an enemy with surprise, speed and deadly force.
With the saber phased out of cavalry service in 1935, the primary weapon for the horse soldier in 1941 was the 45caliber semiautomatic, a magazine-fed pistol. A lanyard, which was worn from the left shoulder to right hip, was attached to the butt of the pistol and prevented the loss of the pistol if dropped while on horseback.
With war between America and Japan inevitable, President Franklin D. Roosevelt activated Douglas MacArthur back into the U.S. Army from retirement. On July 27, 1941, the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE)...