Trostle Barn T&N Combo

Great pics, thanks for sharing!

That's always the one thing that really gets to me with many Civil War Battles. With us being animal suckers & volunteers, learning over the years the high amount of horses & other animals killed during the War itself, others for purpose & survival, some just plain senseless. Then again, those were the times and people had to do what they had to do, but still...always tugs at the heartstrings a little, nevertheless.
 
Great pics, thanks for sharing!

That's always the one thing that really gets to me with many Civil War Battles. With us being animal suckers & volunteers, learning over the years the high amount of horses & other animals killed during the War itself, others for purpose & survival, some just plain senseless. Then again, those were the times and people had to do what they had to do, but still...always tugs at the heartstrings a little, nevertheless.
Especially when you read about the intentional targeting of battery horses. One does have to remember, in a present day context it was the same thing as putting an anti tank missile into the side of an enemy armored vehicle before it could be used on you or other friendlies.
 
Read a confederate account of killing the horses of a battery. Said they slit the throats cutting the along the kneck not across.

At Port Republic, May 9, 1862, the battery horses captured on The Coaling along with their guns had their throats slit by the men of the Louisiana Tiger Battalion led by Maj. Chatham R. Wheat, who was supposedly drenched with their blood afterward. This was done in fear the Union troops would counterattack and retake the battery, which had already happened at least once before.
 
At Port Republic, May 9, 1862, the battery horses captured on The Coaling along with their guns had their throats slit by the men of the Louisiana Tiger Battalion led by Maj. Chatham R. Wheat, who was supposedly drenched with their blood afterward. This was done in fear the Union troops would counterattack and retake the battery, which had already happened at least once before.
At least he couldn't be able to do that again to more horses after Gaines' Mill, but still...always unsettling to hear those accounts during the war, but nevertheless, it's history.
 
James nailed it.
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"The Struggle for the Coaling during the Battle of Port Republic" by Keith Rocco.
 
It is natural to assume that the horses of the battery were all killed during the encounter with the 21st Mississippi, but at least some of them were still alive (and perhaps well) when the 21st withdrew. An excerpt from Maine at Gettysburg, 5th Maine (of the Sixth Corps):

"In the evening [July 2] three companies made a reconnaissance out towards the Emmitsburg road. Colonel Edwards accompanied the detachment. He had noticed from the side of Little Round Top some horses near the Trostle buildings and some portions of a battery [Bigelow's], and had determined to secure the same if possible. Taking two or three trusty men with him, all armed with rifles, they crept out through the fringe of the wood [north of the Wheatfield road] and approached near enough to shoot the horses, so as to prevent their use by the enemy in running off a gun and two limbers which were near by. Finding my further investigation that the Confederates had retreated from the spot, Colonel Edwards ordered a detail from his regiment to run the gun and limbers back to the line."
 
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