1. Most swords/sabers in both infantry (officers) and cavalry were the same general design (slightly curved) although made by different manufacturers.
2. Cavalry preferred a carbine, a shorter-barreled rolling-breach weapon. It had shorter range, faster reload, a rifled barrel, and was lighter than the Springfield musket. But it was expensive and so were its cartridges. 3. A cavalry regiment was the same as an infantry regiment, 1200 men, consisting of two brigades (600 men) of six companies each, with a brigade under the command of a colonel and a regiment under command of a brigadier general.
4. The U.S. did not have “heavy” cavalry. This was European and featured larger horses and men wearing metal helmets and metal breastplates. All American cavalry was “light.”
5. No American units of which I am aware ever used lances.
6. Wade Hampton and JEB Stuart for the South, Alfred Pleasanton and John Buford for the North.
Mexican cavalry used lances effectively against American troops at the Battle of San Pascual in 1847, but I am unaware that Americans ever used these weapons.
***5. No American units of which I am aware ever used lances.***
I have read somewhere that lances were used by one unit. They were practically laughed off the field of combat.