The horse played an unparalleled role in the Civil War.  In thousands of photos, paintings and pen and ink drawings a horse or mule is depicted either in the foreground or background.  They may not be the subject of the painting or photo but look closely and you will probably see the horse or his accouterments.

Chaplain S.L. Gracey of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry said in a tribute to the war horse, "A man may ride from Winchester to Petersburg, through rain and mud and cold and get little to eat and sleep and yet not suffer in health very much.  But the horse that carries him on the trip is apt to reach his journey's end in pitiable plight.  Hunger and cold have starved him, pitiless rain has pelted him, deepening mud has mired him and tired him.  His back has been galled with pinching saddle or frozen blanket; he is leg weary and foot sore; decrepitude is in his gait and dejection in his eye; great scars are scalded on his weather-beaten front, and on his ribs and rump famine might hang her banner.  Some indomitable wills bear up through it all, though, and these deserve to be rewarded of their country."

The horse paid a dear price for America's Civil War.  Approximately 3.5 million horses and mules went off to war for both sides, never to return.  Horses and mules died at a rate almost six times the number that both Union and Confederate soldiers were killed.  With an attrition rate that high, it is no wonder that horses and mules were always in short supply.  It is estimated that the Union army alone had 825,000 horses and the Federals spent $124,000,000 acquiring them.  If horses could not be bought they were taken from farmers within the area of the battles.  In some cases, even children's ponies were confiscated.  The battle of Gettysburg was especially deadly to the horse.  The Gettysburg National Park states that both the Union and Confederacy threw approximately 72,243 horses into this one battle alone and that  "the dead horses left on the field were estimated to be between three and five thousand.  After the soldiers were buried, these animals were dragged into piles and burned; an extremely slow and odorous process.  Following the battle, many of the wounded horses were taken to a field near Rock Creek and put out of their misery.  The site was south of Culp's Hill, just east of the Abraham Spangler Farm and along the Baltimore Pike.  The horses were not buried, and for many years the bones lay in a thicket on a run which flowed into Rock Creek.  Although unmarked on today's battlefield, the area is within sight of the Park's Visitor Center".  General Gibbon, while observing the horses of Chushing's Battery, commented,  "One thing which forcibly occurred to me was the perfect quiet with which the horses stood in their places.  Even when a shell, striking in the midst of a team, would knock over one or two of them or hurl one struggling in his death agonies to the ground, the rest would make no effort to struggle or escape but would stand stolidly by as if saying to themselves, 'It is fate, it is useless to try to avoid it'."

Artillery Duty...The cavalry used their horses hard but the artillery was the worst duty for horses.  The artillery used great numbers of horses.  On the move each gun was hooked up behind a limber which was drawn by six horses.  Each gun also had its caisson and limber, carrying three ammunition chests and a spare wheel, also drawn by six horses.  A total of twelve horses per gun.

On May 22 of 1863, U.S. Grant first sought to capture the city of Vicksburg by assault.  Qumby's Brigade was supporting the 83rd Indiana Infantry and Capt. White recalled an incident where "for a week after the assault we slept by our guns occasionally firing through the nights.  For two weeks our horses did not leave their harness off".  When the artillery was in the "action position" during battle, with the horses being the required thirty to forty feet behind the cannon, the horses were exposed to as much danger as the men.  Sketches and photographs of the aftermath of battles show batteries with every horse dead in its traces.

In the history of the 5th Massachusetts Battery Capt. Charles Phillips wrote, "All the time we were there we had to work pretty hard changing harnesses as fast as the horses were killed.  The way we do it is this-- I send to the rear and have spare horses brought up, then as soon as a horse is killed, the driver sets to work, takes off his harness and puts it on a new horse.  This takes some time, as an artillery harness is very heavy, and they generally have to take it all to pieces to get it off a dead horse, and when the enemy's infantry gets within musket range, they can kill horses faster than we can change them".

At Bloody Angle, Spotsylvania, the Battery C, of the 5th U.S. Artillery was brought into action.  After the battle only two men of Battery C survived and all forty-eight horses were killed.  In his memoirs of the battle of Gettysburg Major Osborn wrote of his loss of horses in his 11th Corps artillery.  "I lost in the battle about 100 horses.  The government had no spare horses with the army or anywhere immediately available.  Unless these horses were replaced, I should be compelled to dismount one battery, take its horses for the others and leave it.  This was not advisable."

The Horses Starved To Death...Poor forage, sudden changes of forage and in rare cases overfeeding produced almost as much sickness and physical disability as no forage at all.  On Wilson's expedition through Alabama, with 12,000 horsemen his troopers carried along with their other necessities five days' light rations for themselves and 24 pounds of grain per horse.  This was uncommon as the usual amount of grain for the horses was much less.  The typical grain allotment for the 2nd Iowa (March 1862) at the battle of Pea Ridge Ark was a paltry two ears of corn per day.  The horses of the 19th Pennsylvania Cavalry had almost nothing to eat and became so famished that they devoured each other's tails.  Sidney Davis of the 6th U.S. Cavalry commented about his experience with that same incident.  "I cannot help recall the terrible trials of our poor horses during these historic days.  For two months they had been under the saddle almost constantly, both day and night, marching and counter-marching and picketing, occasionally for days without food, until in their ferocious hunger they bit at food, or clothing, or ate off each others manes and tails."

Union Cavalry trooper John Williams (15th Penn. winter of 1862) wrote in his diary while sitting in his saddle, "There was nothing to eat that was not soaked or sodden.  There was also but little food and less comfort for the horses who pawed impatiently, often neighing piteously, all through the cold drenching night, immersed half way to their knees in water."  Major William Jennens of the 7th Penn cavalry documented the effects of starvation upon his regiment's horses, "From the 16th of May to the 19th horses were without feed, except the leaves and short grass to be found on the hills around Adainsville, Ga.  During this time we traveled thirty-five miles; the last five was traveled at a gallop causing the horses to give out by the dozens.  That night we received the first forage the horses had for three days.  Out of seventy-two hours the horses were under saddle for sixty hours.  On the morning of May 22 the commanding officers of the companies reported a loss of 76 horses, which had died of starvation and were abandoned."

Sherman's cavalry suffered immensely from April 30 to September 13, the 7th Pennsylvania cavalry traveled 902 miles.  Its horses were without feed for 26 days relying totally on what they found along the way and received only scant feed for another 27 days.  Of the 919 horses that the regiment started with, 230 literally starved to death.  Hard service and malnutrition were a great threat to the civil war horse.

Illness, Disease and Intentional Kills.....The horse is a peculiar beast, capable of great feats of endurance on the one hand, and on the other, subject to a bewildering number of ailments.  The biggest equine aliment faced throughout the war by both sides was lameness.  Hoof problems included everything from a stone bruise to what was called hoof rot, grease-heel or the scratches.  This problem was identified by puss being discharged between the top of the hoof and pastern.  This disease can spread rapidly among the horses and was generally caused by improper care, wet conditions, and lack of good food.  More often than not the infected horses had to be destroyed.  A simple bruise to the bottom of the hoof brought on by a stone or misstep could develop into a hoof abscess which spelled certain death for the horse.  "Sore back" was a big problem while on campaign.  One of the first lessons taught to the new trooper was to take better care of his horse than he did of himself.  If a horse was routinely distressed by this problem, the trooper was ordered to walk and lead the disabled animal.  It didn't take long for the trooper to understand the error of his carelessness and he would soon start to make sure the saddle blanket was smooth and dry and that the saddle was removed when possible.

Horses that came up lame or too physically distressed to continue were intentionally killed by the men themselves or a rearguard.  Even those horses who were not mortally ill or wounded were destroyed because there was no time to wait for them to heal.  The Union's Maj. Gen Sheridan's raid (Yellow Tavern late spring 1864) required his men to ride hard for 16 days.  Sheridan wrote, "The horses which failed were shot by the rearguard, as they could have been easily recuperated and made serviceable to the enemy.  I think the actual number would not exceed 300."  As the Confederate cavalry retaliated and chased Sheridan's cavalry back through Trevilian Station all the way to the Pamunkey River, Colonel Z. Davis of the 5th South Carolina counted over two thousand dead horses, with bullet holes in their heads.  Sheridan could not wait for the fatigued horses to recover.  They were shot by the retreating army rather than letting them fall into enemy hands.

When food was scarce, the army again looked to the horse.  Col. Daniel Hand used at least two cavalry horses to feed recovering soldiers in a Union hospital.  Although it has never been proven, it is suspected that horses were eaten by Union troops when Gen. George Morgan's men were cut off after they seized the Cumberland Gap in June 1862.  Civilians probably ate their share of horse meat during sieges like the ones at Petersburg and Vicksburg.

Ridden To Death......The cavalry on the march took up considerable room.  A horse is approximately three yards long and there was a distance of about one yard between the ranks.  A troop of ninety-six men in columns of fours would be ninety-five yards long.  There would, of course, be some distance between units.  Colonel Kidd of the 6th Michigan Cavalry noted that on Sheridan's great march before Yellow Tavern, the huge column of some ten thousand troopers in three divisions and six batteries stretched for thirteen miles.  The cavalry could cover about 35 miles a day without overtaxing the men or horses.  Under normal circumstances a cavalryman could cover four miles in an hour at a walk, at a slow trot, six miles; at a maneuvering trot, eight miles at a alternating trot and walk, five miles at a maneuvering gallop, twelve miles and at a full extended gallop; sixteen miles a hour.

David Shook a citizen living in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, commented about a Confederate wagon train that made its way past his farm, "Many horses, too, gave out here and there and were left.  They suffered greatly from not being shod, their hoofs being worn off to the quick."

On July 18, 1862, Confederate Col. Morgan and 83 horsemen rode south out of Georgetown toward Lexington in an effort to destroy Union communication lines and menace the enemy.  Capt John Castleman (later promoted to General) and nine riders rode north toward Lexington to attack Federal pickets guarding the city.  The patrol not only accomplished its mission but the horsemen of Company D also made the 14 mile round trip in an hour at a full gallop.  Two days later they caught up with the other cavalrymen of Morgan's command  who were antagonizing the Federals to the south.  No horses or men were lost on this mission.

Long range missions are another story.  Long range raids would kill even the fittest horses.  When Stoneman started his ill fated raid to cut Gen. Lee's communication lines with Richmond and destroy the railroad, the Union horses and men were fit and ready.  The raid started with 4,329 men and 4,382 horses.  They left Warrenton Junction in Virginia on April 29 1863.  The raid had little effect on the Confederate railroads and in a ten days, the Union had lost 1,000 horses or 21% of those that began.

Sherman's cavalry participated in five raids that ranged from four to 17 days.  The raids proved to be too much for the horses.  They averaged 30-35 miles a day and Trooper Williamson Ward wrote that the "horses and men were becoming very worn out" and the horses simply collapsed and "could not be got up" and were abandoned.  When they did stop to rest ,the horses were so tired that over 50 collapsed from exhaustion and died on the picket lines.

In an attempt to catch Stuart's cavalry, Union Colonel Percy Wyndham drove his horses and men at a merciless pace.  It is reported that they covered 96 miles in 30 hours.  Colonel George Gray of the 6th Michigan commented about Wyndaham's careless treatment of the horses, "In consequence the brigade has sustained great loss.  Not only were many men and horses compelled to be left behind, but also many horses were left dead by the way.  It will be many days before large numbers of horses which reach camp can be used, and several, I fear, are rendered wholly unfit for future service."

Neither Union or Confederate regulations ever stipulated that a cavalryman could not doze while riding.  Yet by the time the conflict was half over, leaders on both sides took it for granted that a veteran fighting man would sleep about half the time he was in the saddle.  Lt. Haskell, a member of Gen. Gibbon's staff wrote a letter to his brother where in he related this occurrence, "I am weary and sleepy, almost to such an extent as not to be able to sit on my horse.  And my horse can hardly move--the spur will not start him--what can be the reason?  I know that he has been touched by two or three bullets today, but not to wound or lame him."  He goes on to say that try as he might the horse just would not move along at more than a walk.  Lt. Haskell finally came upon an ambulance and borrowed their lantern to look at his horse and see what was wrong.  "With a light I found what was the matter with "Billy".  A bullet had entered his chest just in front of my left leg as I was mounted, and the blood was running down all his side and leg, and the air from his lungs came out of the bullet hole.  I begged his pardon mentally for my cruelty in spurring him, and should have done so in words if he could have understood me".  The Lieutenant's horse died a short time later.

Faithful To The End.....A Captain in the 1st Vermont Cavalry related a story about his horse.  "I may be permitted a remorseful tribute.  I was riding a gentle sorrel, scarred and stiff with long service."  He went on to say, "How he leaped the four walls!  How he cleared Farringington's horse as it rolled over in the rocks!  And how gently he carried me from the field, although blood spurted from his side at every step.  Four better horses passed him in the race, but only to fall or carry their riders to death!  And when I was lifted down into unconsciousness, my last recollection was of his great eyes turned upon me as in sympathy and reproof."

When It Was Over....There were no green pastures of retirement for the faithful horses that survived the war.  Horses were perhaps the most important element of unification between the North and South at the end of the war.  One clause in the surrender terms at Appomattox in 1865 was related directly to the horses.  Every Confederate cavalryman was entitled to take his horse home with him.  This provision, insisted on by Lee, was accepted by Grant and the other Union Commanders followed suit.  The Union realized that once the Confederates returned to civilian life, former soldiers wouldn't be able to plant spring crops without their war horses.  Since the economic prosperity of the Southerners depended more than ever upon the horse this act was a decisive factor in the south's ability to rebound economically after the war.

References:
The Great Invasion
Civil War Reflections
Gettysburg National Park
America's Civil War Magazine
The American Saddlebred Magazine
1863 Turning Point Of The Civil War
Arms And Equipment Of The Civil War
Traveler And Company The Horses Of Gettysburg
Mathew Brady's Illustrated History Of The Civil War
Heavenly Gaits The Complete Guide To Gaited Horse