raw recruits

There are a few funny things about the US cavalry in Pillers of the Sky (1956) compared to the real 1868 US army. Did you ever wonder about how accurate the depictions of exotic Indian tribes are in cavalry movies - well the depictions of the "cavalry tribe" in western movies are usually very inaccurate despite it being much more familiar and understandable to modern Americans.

There is a scene were a private is threatening his annoying horse and a sergeant tells him to cut it out - the army got the soldier for free but had to pay for the horse. And there are the scenes were the veteran sergeants complain that their unit has been flooded with raw recruits.

So I think that the writers assumed that the cavalry in 1868 would be a lot like the armed forces of the United States in the 1950s. And in the 1950s many Americans volunteered to serve in the United States Army but the majority of soldiers in the much larger Army of the United States (note the difference in name) were drafted.

But in the 19th century every single soldier in the regular army - which was called the United States Army - was a volunteer. Of course the regular army was very small compared to those of European powers. In times of war the United States had to quickly recruit and train and equip military forces many times the size of the regular army.

And they did that by conscripting many thousands of men to form the vast temporary armies used to fight in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, and the Spanish American War, right? That's why those temporary forces were known as the United States Draftees, right?

Nope. The temporary forces raised to fight in the big wars were known as United States Volunteers. During the biggest of all 19th century wars, the Civil War, the US and Rebel governments did resort to conscription, but only a small proportion of soldiers were drafted. In the Union army, the draft produced 50,663 drafted men and 117,986 substitutes paid by drafted men to serve in their places, less than ten percent of total enlistments.

So all other soldiers in 19th century federal forces, including soldiers of the regular army serving on the frontier were volunteers. In real history the term of service was three years after the Civil War, thus a unit receiving new recruits a few times a year would normally have about one third of its soldiers in their first year, one third in their second year, and one third in their third year of service.

Of course a new unit would have all of its men enlist at once, so all of the soldiers who hadn't served in other units would be recruits. But in that era the regular army was enlarged only in 1866 and was reduced in later years, so in 1868 the new units created in 1866 would be full of men in their second year of service.

And when a real life cavalry unit went on campaign the newest recruits would usually be left behind at the fort if they were not considered sufficiently trained for combat.

So Pillars of the Sky (1956) greatly exaggerates the rawness of the recruits, probably because the creators imagined that the United States Army during in the Indian Wars was much more like the Army of the United States some of them probably had been drafted into.