William F. Fox, Lt. Col. U. S. V., Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865: A Treatise on the extent and nature of the mortuary losses in the Union regiments, with full and exhaustive statistics compiled from the official records on file in the state military bureaus and at Washington

First Michigan Cavalry.

Total of killed and wounded, 584; died in Confederate prisons (previously included), 56.

notes.--This regiment, with one exception, sustained the heaviest loss in action of any cavalry regiment in the war. It was organized at Detroit in August, 1861, and left the State on September 29, with 1,144 officers and men. It went into winter quarters at Frederick, Md., but in February, 1862, moved into Virginia, joining Banks's troops in their advance up the Shenandoah Valley. While there it was attached to Williams's Division, and took a large share of the cavalry fighting in that campaign. Colonel Brodhead fell, mortally wounded, at Manassas while leading a charge; the loss of the regiment in that battle was 8 killed, 13 wounded, and 97 captured,--many of the latter being wounded; it was then in Buford's Cavalry Brigade. In 1863 the regiment was assigned to Custer's Brigade of Michigan Cavalry. At Gettysburg the regiment lost 10 killed, 43 wounded, and 20 missing out of 300 engaged, the loss occurring in a charge against a superior force; a charge which Custer pronounced unequalled for brilliancy and gallantry in “the annals of warfare.” in the spring campaign of 1864, the losses from May 4th to June 30th were 40 killed, 138 wounded, and 65 missing; total, 243. The list of battles given above are those only in which men were killed, but the regiment participated in many others in which it lost men wounded or captured.