American Occupation

The regiment was organized into two (2) squadrons of six (6) troops with fifty-four (54) officers and seven hundred eighty-four (784) enlisted men. At the start of the Second World War, the regiment provided covering force to the retrograde operations of the Filipino and American troops to the Bataan in December 1941.

On 16 January 1942 in Morong, Bataan, elements of the 26th Cavalry conducted in the last organized horse cavalry charge in history. In the stubborn and heroic defense of Bataan, the unit was largely decimated in the course of undertaking mounted and dismounted cavalry actions.

With the establishment of the Commonwealth Government under President Manuel L Quezon in 1935, the National Defense Act became the priority attention of the National Legislature. The Philippine Army was established composed of regular and reserve force. The old Philippine Constabulary became the nucleus of the regular force while the reserve force were to be composed of graduates of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and 20-year old conscripts from the general citizenry to enable the Commonwealth Army to have a Citizen Army by 4 July 1946, the scheduled date of granting of Philippine Independence pursuant to the Tydings-McDuffie Law. Part of the newly-organized Commonwealth Army was the Cavalry.

The 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Regular Division, Philippine Army was organized on 30 September 1936 but was attached to the Presidential Guards in Malacañang very much similar with the Aguinaldo’s Cavalry Corps many years earlier. Despite its purely prewar garrison duties, it saw action in Bataan but because of superior enemy firepower, the troops were soon decimated and the unit was disbanded on 12 February 1942 in Bataan. The horses were turned into troop provision to augment the dwindling food supply and its personnel were made to fight simply as foot soldiers.