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Culpeper, Virginia. Capt. Pierce's private horses, wagons, etc. September, 1863
Washington, D.C., vicinity. 17th New York Battery, with horses harnessed to guns. June, 1863
"...we call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words." ~Anna Sewell: Black Beauty~
Would you happen to have info (a discription, etc.) on General P.R. Cleburne's mount during the battle of Pickett's Mill, Georgia, or anyof the general's war horses? I've read an account of him riding his horse, IIRC ?, named 'Jeff Davis' during this battle. There seems to be a severe lack of photos taken of the Confederate Army of Tennessee when comparing it to the Eastern Army. I'd appreciate you or anyone sharing info regarding Gen. Cleburne's warhorses. I think another horse Gen. Cleburne rode was named 'Red Pepper.'I can't locate info on any of his mounts.
There is an article in the February 2006 issue of Civil War Times concerning horses in the Southern Armies.
Total losses for horses in the entire WTBS was about 20% 7.4 million horses.
Southern losses were about 1.25 million horses, or about 1/2 of what they had to begin with.
Reason was that it was advantageous to kill the horses in order to deny the enemy forces easy mobility, especially artillery and cavalry.
A standard artillery battery (six guns) required about 100 horses to move the guns and associated equipment.
The loss of horses not only crippled the Southern war effort, but the economy as well. The inability to provide forage for the remaining horses contributed to the Union forces, with better fed animals, being able to overtake the Southerners. The weakened state of the Southern animals meant that even though Gen Grant allowed the surrendering Confederates to take their horses home, not all made it home.
__________________ F. S. Powers
Union Ancersor: Pvt Arnuah Norton, 60th Ohio. (G-G-G Grandfather) Died at Salisbury NC, November 3, 1864
Confederate Ancestors: Captain Thomas A. Morrow, 29th Texas Cavalry (G-G-G- Uncle) and 2LT George W. Morrow, 31st Texas Cavalry (G-G-G Grandfather). Both survived the war
Would you happen to have info (a discription, etc.) on General P.R. Cleburne's mount during the battle of Pickett's Mill, Georgia, or anyof the general's war horses? I've read an account of him riding his horse, IIRC ?, named 'Jeff Davis' during this battle. There seems to be a severe lack of photos taken of the Confederate Army of Tennessee when comparing it to the Eastern Army. I'd appreciate you or anyone sharing info regarding Gen. Cleburne's warhorses. I think another horse Gen. Cleburne rode was named 'Red Pepper.'I can't locate info on any of his mounts.
Rob:
There isn't a great deal of information on General Cleburne's war horses and there is definitely a severe lack of photos taken of the Confederate Army in comparison to that of the East; but one horse I know of named Dixie was killed at the Battle of Perryville.
An excerpt on the horse Jeff Davis by General F.D. Grant:
"During the campaign and siege of Vicksburg, a cavalry raid or scouting party arrived at Joe Davis' plantation (the brother of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy) and there captured a black pony which was brought to the rear of the city and presented to me. The animal was worn out when it reached headquarters but was a very easy riding horse and I used him once or twice. With care he began to pick up and soon carried himself in fine shape.
At that time my father was suffering with a carbuncle and his horse being restless caused him a great deal of pain. It was necessary for General Grant to visit the lines frequently and one day he took this pony for that purpose. The gait of the pony was so delightful that he directed that he be turned over to the quartermaster as a captured horse and a board of officers be convened to appraise the animal. This was done and my father purchased the animal and kept him until he died, which was long after the Civil War. This pony was known as "Jeff Davis."
Thanks for the information from "Civil War Times" and I thought you might enjoy this article on artillery horses, and one in particular named Old Sam:
It is easy to forget that the field artillery was almost as a dependent upon horses as the cavalry. Gibbon held that a battery of six light guns needed 110 horses to take the field, and an even larger number would be required for a battery of mounted artillery. As the principle motive power for the guns, they were a prime target for the opposing force; disabling the horses meant that the guns were at risk of capture. Horses, like the soldiers who depended upon them, were also subject to the rigors of disease, poor rations, and the too-often squalid living conditions of an army camp. The death toll has never been calculated, but the cost of the War in horse flesh was surely enormous.
As their lives and guns so often depended upon their horses, artillerymen were disposed to accept without excessive grumbling the regulations for their care. The bugler would sound stable call after reveille and roll, and water call after breakfast. The same routine for the horses would be repeated late in the afternoon. Morning and afternoon drill also meant a workout for the horses, after which they needed to be walked to cool down, curried, and probably watered again. There were always sick horses requiring care, and those who died requiring burial. (This last was described by John Billings, with the humor that can only be the product of a long passage of time, in his Hardtack and Coffee.)
One driver was assigned to each pair of horses, riding the on (left) horse and holding reins for it and the off horse.
Skilled riders were required for this service, which combined the daring of the cavalry troopers with the precision teamwork expected of the artilleryman. Drivers were issued a leg-guard, an iron plate encased in leather and strapped to the right leg to prevent the limber pole from injuring them. The duties of a driver are described in more detail in Field Artillery Positions and Duties, by R. B. Hansen. For a more extended discussion of artillery horses, see James R. Cotner, Horsepower Moves the Guns.
The Story of an Artillery Horse: Loomis Battery's "Old Sam"
The Coldwater Light Artillery had been a crack militia unit well before the commencement of the Civil War, and when hostilities began, this unit from Branch County, Michigan, was one of the first to offer its services for the cause of the Union. The people of Coldwater were justifiably proud of their Battery, and donated everything needed to complete the equipment of the unit.
Among these donations was the use of Old Sam, a horse owned by Mr. Clark, a local innkeeper. Old Sam had been employed for several years as a cab horse, bringing passengers from the train station to the inn. When the Battery left Coldwater in May, the thoughts of those left behind were all of the men; few could have spared concern for a horse. But the men themselves had apparently already adopted Old Sam as something of a pet, the sight of him pulling his cab down the old post road being familiar to them all.
Loomis's Battery was often found where fighting was the thickest, and the toll on the Battery's horses was even more fearsome than the toll on the men. In savage fighting at Perrysville 33 horses were killed or disabled. The Battery was again heavily engaged at Murfreesboro, losing nearly 40 horses. Finally, in the debacle at Chickamauga, the Battery lost five of its guns and nearly 50 horses. In the course of the War, many others were lost to disease, or simply wore out their lives in the hard work and scant forage that were the lot of the artillery horse.
But somehow, through all of this, Old Sam plugged along. His seemingly charmed life made him a symbol of survival to the men of Loomis's Battery, and he continued to be a reminder of the home they had left behind so many months before.
After mustering out, the men of the Battery were sent home to Coldwater, and so was Old Sam. When the ramp from his railroad car was lowered, Sam needed no one to tell him that he had reached his old familiar station. Not waiting to be bridled, he simply trotted down the ramp and went directly to his old stable, his empty stall waiting for him. Again like the soldiers with whom he had spent four years, he returned to the work he had known before the War. He retired to a local farm a few years later, but continued to be a special participant in every Decoration Day parade and GAR encampment.
When at last his time had come to an end, the veterans with whom he'd served had long since come to regard Old Sam as one of them, and were loathe to part with him, even in death. Though the law forbade his being buried in the local cemetery, those veterans felt there was a higher law to be followed. Local legend, passed on from father to son for over a century, says that they buried Sam in an unplotted area of the town's cemetery. There are still a few descendants and relatives of those men who can point to a large shallow depression in a disused corner of the cemetery as the final resting place of Old Sam, the artillery horse.
For more information on Loomis's Battery (Battery A, 1st Michigan Light Artillery) see: Matthew C. Switlik, Loomis' Battery: First Michigan Light Artillery, 1859-1865 (1975)
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