Member Review Horses and mules.

[wausaubob]

https://books.google.com/books?id=K...ce=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false p.379
Its strange to think that these were the dominant facts of the US Civil War. Armies in the field possessed thousands of horses and thousands more mules. They all had to be fed, whether they were in battle or not. And what goes in, humorous as it seems, must come out.
This reality gradually reduced the mobility of the Confederate armies. It probably explains why General Bragg's army was stationary once it got back to Chattanooga. And in Virginia, by 1864, Lee's army could never stray far from Richmond and the railroads, because there weren't enough locomotives left to move the tonnage to the front.
The shooting, the guns, the human losses, all seem so important. But the steady improvement in livestock supplied to the US armies, and the gradual improvement in forage, in the manner it had been cured, and in the mixture of grain forwarded to the army, by 1864 in the US armies gave the US a decisive edge even in land combat.
To make an accurate history of the US Civil War a director would start with a horse and a mule and its daily ration. There would be no need to rely on period photos. Horses, mules, hay and oats still exist.

 

[RedRover]

Indeed!

The Confederate cavalry and artillery was another case in point. The soldiers themselves owned them themselves. But the CS Government's difficulties and inefficiencies wore on them. It was generally necessary after 1861 to disband cavalry units to "recruit" the horses in a measure.

The Federals were aware of this, and particularly that the Confederate's valley cavalry so depended, and the Burning raid by Sheridan really did a job on the Confederate cavalry from those districts. By December, '64-January '65, General Rosser could only muster about 250 mounted men for his operations. The numbers increased in the spring... but they faced a federal cavalry force growing stronger over the winter with remounts, etc.

 

[wausaubob]

Indeed!

The Confederate cavalry and artillery was another case in point. The soldiers themselves owned them themselves. But the CS Government's difficulties and inefficiencies wore on them. It was generally necessary after 1861 to disband cavalry units to "recruit" the horses in a measure.

The Federals were aware of this, and particularly that the Confederate's valley cavalry so depended, and the Burning raid by Sheridan really did a job on the Confederate cavalry from those districts. By December, '64-January '65, General Rosser could only muster about 250 mounted men for his operations. The numbers increased in the spring... but they faced a federal cavalry force growing stronger over the winter with remounts, etc.

In the Tennessee theater alone, the scale of the US reconditioning stables in Nashville and Chattanooga was impressive. @Rhea Cole often provides the links. I suppose the same system existed in Washington, D.C. and Culpepper Ct House. It was a huge advantage for the US to have the necessary tonnage brought to the armies by water both at City Point and Savannah.

 

[Rhea Cole]

In the Tennessee theater alone, the scale of the US reconditioning stables in Nashville and Chattanooga was impressive. @Rhea Cole often provides the links. I suppose the same system existed in Washington, D.C. and Culpepper Ct House. It was a huge advantage for the US to have the necessary tonnage brought to the armies by water both at City Point and Savannah.

There was a reconditioning facility on the north side of West Virginia. Recently a bio of the remarkable man who ran that facility was on The Emerging Civil War daily post. There was nobody like him in the CSA.

The facility was on the river, so had easy access to receiving & distribution of reconditioned animals.

 

[wausaubob]

There was a reconditioning facility on the north side of West Virginia. Recently a bio of the remarkable man who ran that facility was on The Emerging Civil War daily post. There was nobody like him in the CSA.a dThe facility was on the river, so had easy access to receiving & distribution of reconditioned animals.

And easy access to the well tended farms of Ohio and Pennsylvania. And that is one way the paid labor states were different than the secessionist states. Farmers may not supported the Lincoln administration, but that did not prevent them from sending their livestock to auction and shipping their hay and oats to a train depot.

 

[wausaubob]

And then there are the iron shoes needed for the feet of the livestock. The US never tried to get competitive bids for horseshoes. They had one contractor who could beat everyone else with respect to volume and they just ordered the amount they needed.

 

[drezac]

And then there are the iron shoes needed for the feet of the livestock. The US never tried to get competitive bids for horseshoes. They had one contractor who could beat everyone else with respect to volume and they just ordered the amount they needed.

That is not unusual during wartime. Even today if there is an urgent need, they will bypass competitive bidding and make the purchase from whoever can provide the item.

 

[Choatecav]

Indeed!

The Confederate cavalry and artillery was another case in point. The soldiers themselves owned them themselves. But the CS Government's difficulties and inefficiencies wore on them. It was generally necessary after 1861 to disband cavalry units to "recruit" the horses in a measure.

The Federals were aware of this, and particularly that the Confederate's valley cavalry so depended, and the Burning raid by Sheridan really did a job on the Confederate cavalry from those districts. By December, '64-January '65, General Rosser could only muster about 250 mounted men for his operations. The numbers increased in the spring... but they faced a federal cavalry force growing stronger over the winter with remounts, etc.

My great-grandfather was a CS cavalryman. One of the things that I have that has been passed down through the years, is a copy of a hand-written receipt showing where he bought a fine "sorrel" horse from another man for "$160" (a huge amount in the day) "for use in Confederate service" and to be paid back by money earned in said service. This all took place on March 17, 1863 and I often wonder what happened to the horse and everything else as there was no payment for services.

 

[Rhea Cole]

That is not unusual during wartime. Even today if there is an urgent need, they will bypass competitive bidding and make the purchase from whoever can provide the item.

Of course any journeyman farrier could very efficiently make a horseshoe. A man who worked for my dad had been in n the horse cavalry before WWII. He became a farrier. If memory serves, the training took a couple of years. His final test was to properly shoe a horse beginning with bar stock in what I thought was an impossibly short period of time.

My late friend Larry Mullins was a master farrier. He taught my green coal blacksmithing class. Larry was trusted with the care of astronimically expensive horses. His horse shoe making demo was revelatory.

Every heated exactly the right color, every hammer blow & punch was precise. There wasn't a single wasted motion.

He explained that with every step a horse's hoof twists as it pushes off. On the sand of a show ring or the MacAdamized Nashville Pike, that twist was like sanding off the soft iron of a CW era shoe.

After traveling the 30 miles of the Pike, (+/-) 1/2 of the 100 horses in a battery would have to be reshod. There was no way the artificers & their traveling forge could have forged the shoes for that many horses in a timely fashion. Smithies figured a farrier's pay at the rate of shoeing eight horses / day starting with bar stock.

A constant supply of the, compared to steel, soft metal shoes was a strategic necessity. An improperly shod horse was not only compromised motive power, it could be become permanently lame.

Here in the Middle Tennessee horse country, a farrier going about his rounds is not an uncommon sight. There is a horse shoing carriculum at Middle TN State University.

Note: Blacksmithing is a distinctly seperate craft from that of a farrier. I know lifelong blacksmiths who have never forged a horse shoe. Neither have I.

My CW 2nd great grandad was a farrier. He shod horses for both sides. A cousin discovered because his name was easily misspelled, he was at least three & possibly five people on a roll kept by a barely literate clerk. Not many could say that they contributed three times what an ordinary man did to the CSA.

 

[RedRover]

My great-grandfather was a CS cavalryman. One of the things that I have that has been passed down through the years, is a copy of a hand-written receipt showing where he bought a fine "sorrel" horse from another man for "$160" (a huge amount in the day) "for use in Confederate service" and to be paid back by money earned in said service. This all took place on March 17, 1863 and I often wonder what happened to the horse and everything else as there was no payment for services.

Alexander Hunter of the 4th Virginia Cavalry, in his memoir has some striking references to the difficulties of keeping mounted for a Confederate cavalryman. From google books...

Alexander Hunter, google books

An ancestor in the cavalry informed his son (who died in 1994) that both armies in Northern Virginia stripped the farmers bare... both sides constantly foraging, and both sides carrying off any good horses.

 

[drezac]

Note: Blacksmithing is a distinctly seperate craft from that of a farrier. I know lifelong blacksmiths who have never forged a horse shoe. Neither have I.

there is a world of difference.
My son was in the farrier program at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio . For a Farrier, the forge work is a very small part of what they do. A Farrier must have detailed knowledge of the Hoof, how to identify and correct hoof problems, how to properly trim and angle the hoof before attaching the shoe. While he did learn how to forge shoes, most of the forge work was for the final shaping of the shoe. He spent as much time studying horse anatomy as he did learning how to make shoes.

 

[Choatecav]

It is almost impossible for us to grasp the importance of horses and mules, not just in the war effort, but to life in general, during the 19th century.
I used to conduct programs at various historical group meetings (SCV, UDC, various city and civic clubs, etc.) on the importance of the horse to that timeframe. In various settings, the horse/mule was the automobile, tractor, truck, etc. for transportation and travel and then also for plowing and preparing ground for crops, clearing land and a litany of other services. All of these increase exponentially when you add the factor of war.....

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

The surest way to get yourself hanged if you were a white male in the 1800s was to be a murderer or a horse thief. That's how important a horse was to society.

 

[wausaubob]

It is almost impossible for us to grasp the importance of horses and mules, not just in the war effort, but to life in general, during the 19th century.
I used to conduct programs at various historical group meetings (SCV, UDC, various city and civic clubs, etc.) on the importance of the horse to that timeframe. In various settings, the horse/mule was the automobile, tractor, truck, etc. for transportation and travel and then also for plowing and preparing ground for crops, clearing land and a litany of other services. All of these increase exponentially when you add the factor of war.....an

And every large city had thousands of horses and mules, and only a limited number of out lots that they could graze in. Especially in northern cities, the surrounding farmland could sell hay and oats to the city, if they could get it there.

 

[wausaubob]

You folks are wonderful.