Artillery Horses

[m14msgt]

anything written on artillery horses used during the war?

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Not sure if you will find what you are looking for in this source, but it might be a place to start- this particular volume covers artillery.

The photographic history of the civil war : Miller, Francis Trevelyan, 1877-1959 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

At head of title: Semi-centennial memorial

archive.org

 

[m14msgt]

thanks much

 

[EJ Zander]

anything written on artillery horses used during the war?

Is there anything in particular about them you are interested in?

 

[m14msgt]

well...i am writing a research paper for a Ph.D. level research course on the CW. I chose artillery horses b/c I am interested in that subject. I suppose I would like to know how much of an impact they made on the war effort and if they were cared for differently than cavalry horses.

 

[drezac]

I did some calculations regarding the feeding of artillery horses to give an example of what they had to deal with logistically. I have posted it in threads in the past, here is a copy if it can help you.

As far as feeding horses, I did some calculations and the logistics would be even difficult today.

From the field artillery manual regarding horses:
"The Daily allowance of oats, barley and corn is 12 pound;that of hay, 14 pounds."
One Battery would have 120 horses (for mounted. For horse artillery, add about 75 more)
Note: the following numbers are based on an assumption that all batteries had a per-regulation amount of horses. In reality, I am quite sure that many did not have a full per-regulation complement of horses, but the only realistic numbers to use are per-regulation.

Per Day for a battery:
Oats, barley and corn: 1,440 Pounds
Hay: 1,680

a modern square bale of hay weighs about 40 pounds.
a modern bag of grain 50 pounds
Per Battery
42 bales of hay
29 bags of feed

At Gettysburg there were approximately 65 union artillery batteries.
65 * 120 horses = 7,800 artillery horses

65 * 1440 Pounds of oats,barley and corn= 93,600 pounds/day
65 * 1680 pounds of hay= 109,200 pounds/day

in modern square bails: 109,200/40=2,730 bales of hay/day
modern bags of feed; 93,600/50= 1,872 bags of feed/day

plus add in water

plus, what goes in eventually comes out - don't know how many pounds come back out of the horse, but for that many horses, that's still a major problem to clean up.

The reality is that there is no way that could be provided. Living off the land was notpossible (that many horses would have the ground stripped to dirt within days.)


also, here is a link to a document regarding Union Artillery at Chickamauga - it may have some information you can use:
Union Artillery at Chickamauga

 

[EJ Zander]

Great topic for a paper! The harness horses and mules dont get nearly the attention they deserve. The average working life was only a few months. Lots of good past threads on here were we discussed breeds, feed rates, working them at a killing pace, foot care, harnessing, harness types etc. You can search by thread title or key word.

 

[USS ALASKA]

What is a broken down horse? | Soldiers who fought on Horseback: Cavalry

Reading a book about Stuart's ride during the Gettysburg Campaign, and I ran across a phrase I have seen many times before, a "broken down horse". What exactly is a broken down horse? Is this another way to say lame? Or is it just tired and hungry? And how long to unbreak it?

civilwartalk.com

HTHs,
USS ALASKA