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2nd Cavalry Division (United States)

former cavalry division of the United States Army

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ4633619 ↗
Source-derived summary

The 2nd Cavalry Division was a cavalry division of the United States Army that was constituted from 1921 to 1944, with the headquarters active for two brief periods before and during U.S. involvement in World War II. The division was disbanded in 1944.

Heraldry

Shoulder sleeve insignia

Description: On a yellow Norman shield with a green border, a blue chevron below two eight-pointed blue stars.

Blazon: Or, a chevron azure, in chief 2 mullets of eight points of the second, a bordure vert.

Symbolism: The shield is yellow, the Cavalry color. The stars (representing spur rowells) are taken from the coat of arms of the 2d Cavalry Regiment, which had initially been a part of the division.

Worn from 20 August 1921 – 10 May 1944

History

Interwar period

The 2nd Cavalry Division was constituted in the Regular Army on 20 August 1921, allotted to the Seventh Corps Area, and assigned to the Second Army. Although the division headquarters was not activated until 1 April 1941, many of the units of the division were active from 1921 to 1940, and many others were active as "Regular Army Inactive" (RAI) units by being manned with personnel of the Organized Reserve. The active elements of the division in the 1920s and 1930s consisted mainly of the cavalry regiments, Troop A, 9th Engineer Squadron, the various artillery units assigned during the period, and elements of the quartermaster train (later the 17th Quartermaster Squadron). The division's designated mobilization station was Fort Riley, Kansas, where many of the units were concentrated in the 1920s and 1930s, and where they conducted their annual summer training. On 15 August 1927, under special instructions from the War Department, the division was reorganized to consist of the 2nd, 4th, 12th,

and 14th Cavalry Regiments, the 4th Field Artillery Battalion, and the 16th Observation Squadron.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “2nd Cavalry Division (United States)” as former cavalry division of the United States Army. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1921, 1944, 1941, 1940—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1921-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Cavalry, Division and United can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as former cavalry division of the United States Army. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4633619. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1921, 1944, 1941 and 1940.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “2nd Cavalry Division (United States)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.