Three companies of volunteer cavalry were organized in Minnesota in 1861, and mustered into the Curtis Horse (regiment), later redesignated the 5th Iowa Cavalry. In February 1864, the Minnesota companies were removed from the regiment, and remustered as an independent cavalry battalion, known as Brackett's Battalion, after its commander, Major Alfred B. Brackett. The unit participated in the western theater during the Civil War, with duty in Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Alabama, and later, as part of the Northwestern Indian expedition in the Dakotas.