High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 8th Cavalry Regiment was constituted 28 July 1866 and organized as a regiment on 21 September 1866 at Camp Reynolds, Angel Island, California. 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. The officers assigned to the regiment were all veterans of the Civil War. The first colonel was John Irvin Gregg, and the first lieutenant colonel was Thomas Devin, both of whom had been generals and commanded cavalry divisions during the war. The Eighth Cavalry served on the Frontier during the late 19th century.