" An Arab Tradition Is That An Angel Presented To Them, A Horse "

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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When the angel Gabrielle tells you " Welcome this creature " you listen. Legend has it Ishmael first saw this animal galloping out of a dust storm, a gift from Heaven. It's a longer story and quite a few versions are out there but that's the gist.

I'm personally not all that interested in history after the combustion engine arrived. OH the big stuff sure, everything just became a little boring after we lost our partnership with the horse. In 2019 we sit in increasingly sequestered, sealed and comfort controlled metal pods that transport us from A. to B., where you get out to engage whatever you came there for. Most of the world we whizzed past has been missed and apart from my daughter ( who names her cars ) there's simply no interaction beyond swearing at other drivers, the price of gas and your garage bill when the pod quits at intersection.

There's a reason so many, many photos out of the ACW feature someone's beloved horse. Status accounts for some, ' blooded horses ' an indication owners were wealthy men. It's not a romantic, fee-good notion understanding how vital these animals were and how genuinely cherished.
" Captain Beckwith's horse, Brandy Station ". No sign of Beckwith, it's about his horse.
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Looks Morgan-y to me.

George Washington was a horse nut anyway, his war horse Blueskin another of Gabrielle's most famous gifts. You don't see the man being as enthusiastic about a future black limo. Blueskin, Bucephalus,Copenhagen- horses out of past wars. Jeff Davis, Little Sorrel, Old Baldy, Frank- famous horses of the ACW were only a few. We lost 6 million, how many went to war?
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We lost a LOT. Yes, certainly ' progress ' can be er, good, the world got smaller, this ridiculous concept called The Economy exploded with the advent of cars and it's more comfortable sitting in heated/cooled comfort. Not sure we traded up and it's unclear in 2019 we quite get how massive a change it was.

Also Brandy, these Captain Sharp's- I ' think ' one was Gimlet although not positive. You took photos of your horse because these animals were part of your life. I'm not sure I have a photo of our mechanic with the truck. It's a nice truck. It's not very interactive.
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Six million horses and mules were lost between 1861-1865. Six million gifts from Gabrielle himself. The thing is, apart from the famous/well known names of horses either ridden by famous/well known and the long-lived war horses that made news we're still a little clueless. Horses are pretty decorations in fields we drive by- in the cars that changed everything.

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We wouldn't haven eaten much without them. Horses civilized the world then carried us into wars when the whole thing broke down.

Snip from an LoC tif, Washington DC 1865. Carts and carriages parked on the street and in the small stables later converted into garages. You still see alleys in small towns lined with them. They're vanishing, you can still find them.
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Looking for stories evoking our past, the daily relationship we had with an angel's gifts. A steamer went down ( I think Hatteras? ), carrying with it 200 horses, private mounts of officers and many of them gifts towns bestowed on men marching off to war. Newspapers mourned the loss of those horses first then listed men lost in the disaster. We're so used to horses as backdrops to the war it's easy to discount what they were to daily, heck, hourly life.

Leaving out the handful of horses with whom we're familiar ( as dear as their names may be ), anyone have favorites, favorite stories and less-known stories of the era and war? I'm still trying to re-find an account by a cavalry trooper who was forced to walk to Richmond when captured watching a Confederate officer ride his horse. He never saw it again and mourned it for the rest of his life. Wasn't it Tillie's father at Gettysburg who begged for the return of the family's elderly mare? She was a friend, not their horse.

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Carriage with match greys, the Grand Review parade. I'm sorry but it beats waving from a convertible.
 
Wasn't it Tillie's father at Gettysburg who begged for the return of the family's elderly mare? She was a friend, not their horse.

I'll need to look up the story of Tillie's horse to refresh my memory, but Harriet Bayly's family suffered this same loss at Gettysburg too. They were trying to save Nellie, the pet horse of the family's recently deceased 10-year-old daughter, but all efforts failed, and Nellie was taken from them. The story is summarized in an earlier post based on the compelling account by Margaret Creighton from her book "The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle." Her telling of the story is masterful, and as I read it, I couldn't help being hopeful despite the foreboding sense that all would not end well.
 
I'll need to look up the story of Tillie's horse to refresh my memory, but Harriet Bayly's family suffered this same loss at Gettysburg too. They were trying to save Nellie, the pet horse of the family's recently deceased 10-year-old daughter, but all efforts failed, and Nellie was taken from them. The story is summarized in an earlier post based on the compelling account by Margaret Creighton from her book "The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle." Her telling of the story is masterful, and as I read it, I couldn't help being hopeful despite the foreboding sense that all would not end well.

In Adams County, Pennsylvania (which includes Gettysburg) alone, the Confederates confiscated a reported 800 horses from area farms, town stables and hiding places. Many if not most of those animals pulled confiscated wagons, buggies, carriages, etc. that were incorporated into the Confederate army.
 
My Mom, who is in her 80’s still talks about the plow horses she knew in her youth, and how one tried to “eat” one of the barrettes from her hair.

I have ridden many horses in my life, and loved several. I can’t imagine having someone come and take one. It would be rather like sending your beloved dog or cat off to war, (In modern times), knowing you will never see them again, and never know how they faired. Our animals are our family. At least mine are.
 
) there's simply no interaction beyond swearing at other drivers, the price of gas and your garage bill when the pod quits at intersection.
I can’t stand driving a car, I absolutely hate it, which is why I prefer the freedom of two wheels, my motorcycle is my iron horse and I’m just as proud of my motorcycle as anyone in the past would have been of their horse, I name my motorcycles depending on its character and when I’m out riding...I talk to it, mad yes, but as they say, ‘four wheels moves the body, two wheels move the soul.
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I'll need to look up the story of Tillie's horse to refresh my memory, but Harriet Bayly's family suffered this same loss at Gettysburg too. They were trying to save Nellie, the pet horse of the family's recently deceased 10-year-old daughter, but all efforts failed, and Nellie was taken from them. The story is summarized in an earlier post based on the compelling account by Margaret Creighton from her book "The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle." Her telling of the story is masterful, and as I read it, I couldn't help being hopeful despite the foreboding sense that all would not end well.


I thought they were able to get Nellie back? Thought I read a Confederate officer agreed she was elderly - guess it was another story. Rats, now I'll end up looking for that story!

Whose horse was hidden in the house and was discovered anyway? Was that Nellie?

In Adams County, Pennsylvania (which includes Gettysburg) alone, the Confederates confiscated a reported 800 horses from area farms, town stables and hiding places. Many if not most of those animals pulled confiscated wagons, buggies, carriages, etc. that were incorporated into the Confederate army.


Trying to remember whose book it was talking about this in depth- is it " Flames Beyond Gettysburg ",Scott Mingus? Hate to get it wrong. How at least draft horses ended up left behind because the Confederates found them slow and easily winded.You could see that plus boy would they have needed an awful lot of fodder impossible to find on marches.
 
I can’t stand driving a car, I absolutely hate it, which is why I prefer the freedom of two wheels, my motorcycle is my iron horse and I’m just as proud of my motorcycle as anyone in the past would have been of their horse, I name my motorcycles depending on its character and when I’m out riding...I talk to it, mad yes, but as they say, ‘four wheels moves the body, two wheels move the soul.
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That was an aspect of living over there I hadn't understood before. There's a vastly different feel about bikes in general, tough to pin down. Please note I'm not making a call on better/worse, it's just different. For every horse person I knew there was another whose Triumph parts were being tinkered with on the kitchen table.

I took one ride as a passenger just for fun- one in 5 years. Roads as wide as my belt bordered by those high hedges, blind curves, cars diving into lay-bys.... I do remember someone screaming and it may have been me.
 
(Greg Coco, ed., Recollections of a Texas Colonel at Gettysburg, Robert M. Powell, 5th Texas, p. 46) In Adams County alone the reported loss was about 800 horses, 1,000 head of cattle, a dozen mules, over 200 hogs, over 400 sheep and at least 250 wagons and carriages of all sorts.

(28 July letter of Pvt John C. Applewhite, H/12 MS) We brought from Pennsylvania 1,400 horses and 7,000 cattle.
 
I can’t stand driving a car, I absolutely hate it, which is why I prefer the freedom of two wheels, my motorcycle is my iron horse and I’m just as proud of my motorcycle as anyone in the past would have been of their horse, I name my motorcycles depending on its character and when I’m out riding...I talk to it, mad yes, but as they say, ‘four wheels moves the body, two wheels move the soul.
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Amen. Unless its snowing or pouring I commute daily on my motorcycle year round.
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