The Burden Horseshoe Bending Machine

[RaggedAssSecond]

The Burden horseshoe bending machine was invented in 1835 and he supplied the Union Army with horseshoes.

Were any Burden horseshoe machines captured by the South in 1861 or later during the war?

Is there anyway to distinguish Union horseshoes from Confederate horseshoes?

 

[Rhea Cole]

Absolutely not.

Burden's machine was a complete game changer. It takes a master farrier (+/-) an hour to shape a horseshoe from bar stock & fit it to a horse's hoof. When a battery of 100-125 horses completed a transit of the MacAdamized Nashville / Murfreesboro Pike up to 1/2 of the horses would need to be partially or completely re-shod.

As farrier Larry Mullens explains it, a horse twists its foot as it steps. The combination of the soft iron shoe & the gravel of the Pike acted like sandpaper & wore the shoes right down. Replacing the worn shoes with a sized pre-made shoe only took a fraction of the time.

CSA farriers were reduced to scavenging horseshoes from dead animals. Lilliott19 cites the killing of disabled horses for their shoes.

Burden's factory had been the almost exclusive source of horseshoes in America long before the war started. His was an integrated operation that included mining, refining & production of 3,600 finished shoes / hour in Troy NY.

Needless to say, both commercial & CSA spies attempted to steal Burden's methods. The sheer scale & efficiency of the 1,500 people who manned the factory couldn't be replicated.

Link:

How Horseshoes Helped Win the Civil War

While Scotsman Henry Burden was a prolific inventor and industrialist who played a major role in the Civil War, his vital contributions are generally unknown. Many of his inventions helped the North, but the design and perfection of a horseshoe-making machine was his most important one. As a...

www.americanfarriers.com

 

[wausaubob]

Absolutely not.

View attachment 551177
Burden's machine was a complete game changer. It takes a master farrier (+/-) an hour to shape a horseshoe from bar stock & fit it to a horse's hoof. When a battery of 100-125 horses completed a transit of the MacAdamized Nashville / Murfreesboro Pike up to 1/2 of the horses would need to be partially or completely re-shod.

As farrier Larry Mullens explains it, a horse twists its foot as it steps. The combination of the soft iron shoe & the gravel of the Pike acted like sandpaper & wore the shoes right down. Replacing the worn shoes with a sized pre-made shoe only took a fraction of the time.
View attachment 551197
CSA farriers were reduced to scavenging horseshoes from dead animals.

Burden's factory had been the almost exclusive source of horseshoes in America long before the war started. His was an integrated operation that included mining, refining & production of 3,600 finished shoes / hour in Troy NY.

Needless to say, both commercial & CSA spies attempted to steal Burden's methods. The sheer scale & efficiency of the 1,500 people who manned the factory couldn't be replicated.

Link:

How Horseshoes Helped Win the Civil War

While Scotsman Henry Burden was a prolific inventor and industrialist who played a major role in the Civil War, his vital contributions are generally unknown. Many of his inventions helped the North, but the design and perfection of a horseshoe-making machine was his most important one. As a...

www.americanfarriers.com

Even if someone had the specifications from the patent office, they would still have to build the machines, attach the steam power, and keep the machine in repair. That would require an advanced machine shop.

 

[lelliott19]

The Burden horseshoe bending machine was invented in 1835 and he supplied the Union Army with horseshoes.

Were any Burden horseshoe machines captured by the South in 1861 or later during the war?

Is there anyway to distinguish Union horseshoes from Confederate horseshoes?

What a great thread. I had no idea! and thanks for the additional info @Rhea Cole I have horses myself and I guess I had just never considered how so many horseshoes were made.

 

[Rhea Cole]

What a great thread. I had no idea! and thanks for the additional info @Rhea Cole I have horses myself and I guess I had just never considered how so many horseshoes were made.

I think it was an article in Smithsonian Magazine that first alerted me to Burden's machine.

I am a blacksmith & have had to explain that l couldn't shoe a horse on a bet untold number of times. My mentor, on the other hand, was a master farrier who shod hundred thousand dollar horses.

I have spent a lot of time at the barn while my barrel racing niece taught the cousins how to ride… I have a grounding on everything that doesn't involve actually getting up on the horse.

 

[G Low]

I've never thought about stealing shoes from the horses, couldn't be worse than pulling boots off a person. Rough times …..

 

[lelliott19]

I've never thought about stealing shoes from the horses, couldn't be worse than pulling boots off a person. Rough times …..

In his memoirs, Porter Alexander had this to say about the state of affairs in East Tennessee:

I recall some incidents illustrating how poorly our army was provided with even prime necessaries, although we were in our own country. We were so badly off for horse-shoes that on the advance to Knoxville we stripped the shoes from all the dead horses, and we killed for the purpose all the wounded and broken-down animals, both our own and those left behind by the enemy: During the siege the river brought down to us a number of dead horses and mules, thrown in within the town. We watched for them, took them out, and got the shoes and nails from their feet. Our men were nearly as badly off as the animals-perhaps worse, as they did not have hoofs. I have myself seen bloody stains on frozen ground, left by the barefooted where our infantry had passed. We of the artillery took the shoes off the drivers and gave them to the cannoneers who had to march.

 

[G Low]

In his memoirs, Porter Alexander had this to say about the state of affairs in East Tennessee:

I recall some incidents illustrating how poorly our army was provided with even prime necessaries, although we were in our own country. We were so badly off for horse-shoes that on the advance to Knoxville we stripped the shoes from all the dead horses, and we killed for the purpose all the wounded and broken-down animals, both our own and those left behind by the enemy: During the siege the river brought down to us a number of dead horses and mules, thrown in within the town. We watched for them, took them out, and got the shoes and nails from their feet. Our men were nearly as badly off as the animals-perhaps worse, as they did not have hoofs. I have myself seen bloody stains on frozen ground, left by the barefooted where our infantry had passed. We of the artillery took the shoes off the drivers and gave them to the cannoneers who had to march.

Got the shoes and the nails…. Hard times indeed.

 

[Rhea Cole]

In his memoirs, Porter Alexander had this to say about the state of affairs in East Tennessee:

I recall some incidents illustrating how poorly our army was provided with even prime necessaries, although we were in our own country. We were so badly off for horse-shoes that on the advance to Knoxville we stripped the shoes from all the dead horses, and we killed for the purpose all the wounded and broken-down animals, both our own and those left behind by the enemy: During the siege the river brought down to us a number of dead horses and mules, thrown in within the town. We watched for them, took them out, and got the shoes and nails from their feet. Our men were nearly as badly off as the animals-perhaps worse, as they did not have hoofs. I have myself seen bloody stains on frozen ground, left by the barefooted where our infantry had passed. We of the artillery took the shoes off the drivers and gave them to the cannoneers who had to march.

My goodness, what a vivid citation, well done.

 

[lelliott19]

My goodness, what a vivid citation, well done.

Well I didn't write it. I just quoted it. It's one of those I'll never forget. Imagine - waiting for dead horses to float down the river; snagging the floating carcasses; dragging them out somehow; and pulling the shoes and nails!

 

[JOHN42768]

Great post on a subject one wouldn't give a second thought about. The total consumption must have been staggering.

 

[wausaubob]

Great post on a subject one wouldn't give a second thought about. The total consumption must have been staggering.

Artillery was very expensive in that era because of the horses required to pull the guns and the caissons and the support equipment.