This happened at Chickamauga. So many artillery horses were lost that batteries had to abandon their guns when retreating due to lack of horses and many times the possession of the guns changed hands multiple times.
Capt. Goodspeed of 1st Ohio Battery A still had some horses left. He went out to retrieve some captured Confederate guns. One of the captured batteries he realized were Union Guns, and he was able to determine what battery had lost them. He then returned the guns to that batteries camp. Not sure what was worse, the humiliation of losing your guns in battle or having someone bring them back to you.
Pvt. James Walker of 1st Ohio Battery A stated: "any amount of horses starved to death at the picket rope from want of food"
Capt. Goodspeed of Battery A wrote: "Horses Wounded 15, and in consequence of not unharnessing for six days and the hardship they have undergone, I will loose 25 more horses"
With a battery normally having about 120 horses, this represents 1/3 of his horses lost in this battle alone