The 8th Cavalry Regiment was constituted 28 July 1866 and organized as a regiment on 21 September 1866 at Camp Reynolds, Angel Island, California

Angel Island, California

Angel Island is an island in San Francisco Bay that offers expansive views of the San Francisco skyline, the Marin County Headlands and Mount Tamalpais. The entire island is included within Angel Island State Park, and is administered by California State Parks. It has been used for a variety of...

. Enlisted personnel were "composed chiefly of men enlisted on the Pacific Coast, and included many of the class styled 'Forty-niners'; men who had worked months or years in the mines and were typical specimens of the roving order of citizens. Many of them were wild characters who enlisted in the same spirit of adventure which led them to the frontier, and typically had difficulty in adapting themselves to the conformity of a military life." Many desertions occurred; the percentage rose to 41 by the end of 1867.