May Meeting by Travis Fuqua

Gene Armistead

Gene Armistead presented Equines in the Civil War on May 20, 2009. This month’s presentation was about the roles that equines—horses, mules, and donkeys—played in the Civil War from the cavalry charge to the quartermaster’s wagon train. When we think of horses and war, we often think of romantic and daring cavalry charges, but equines played a far more important role in the war. The Civil War, of course, took place in the days before automobiles, trucks, and tanks, and thus everything that could not be moved on the limited railroad network had to be moved by equines. Men had to charge into battle on the backs of horses.

As mentioned before, the most famous image of equines is that of the cavalry. The cavalry in the Civil War was harsh as the horses and the men were constantly in the line of fire. Generals often had more than one horse to ensure that a fresh one was always ready for him. Sometimes, an officer lost a horse in battle and had to find a replacement and sometimes, he could even loose several horses in battle. The life of cavalry horses was very harsh and their survival rate was only about four months. Given this and the number of cavalry regiments, there was a need for almost two and a half million cavalry horses during the war.

Another important use of horses in the war was that of artillery horse. Some artillery horses pulled the artillery pieces to the field of battle and the others pulled the supplies necessary for the field pieces. Artillery horses often found themselves under fire as it was a sure method to cripple the enemy’s artillery by immobilizing it. Artillery horses fared better than their cavalry counterparts and lasted an average of seven and a half months. Given this expectancy and the number of artillery units on both sides, there was a need for almost a half a million artillery horses.

Gene Armistead talking Civil War equines up

Perhaps the most important use of equines in the war was in supplying the army. The quartermaster needed tremendous numbers of mules to supply the armies and the ratio of mules to men varied depending on the roads and the severity of the campaign, but by 1864, the Federal army overall needed one animal for every two men. The horses themselves also had great supply needs for feed and water. Mules were found to be better than horses as they could work better with cheaper and less feed. Horses were also used to pull ambulances and pharmacies and mules were even used to carry wounded soldiers when an ambulance was unavailable or inconvenient. The Civil War created a need for almost four million horses and mules. This is compared to the combined Federal and Confederate army of three and a quarter million men.

Paying for and supplying the animals was another question. Most horses and mules ranged in price form about one hundred dollars to two hundred. Sometimes, wartime inflation and the fame of the horse could drive the price as high as $4,600, which was the appraised price of General Lee’s famous horse, Traveller. By the end of the war, the Federal Army had spent 130 million dollars on horses and mules. Each side always needed more horses than it could ever hope to obtain. There were no specific breeding programs given the sudden nature of the war and neither side was particular about the breed of horse it required, although certain units specified certain colors or types of horses, but mostly for a dramatic effect.

The Federal government set up six horse depots throughout the country to obtain and distribute horses, but there were notorious cases of corruption and incompetence and many horses that were acquired by the Federal government were unusable. When the supply depots could not manage, men often had to scour the countryside and take whatever equines they could find. Confederate forces had even more difficulty given that Confederate officers were supposed to supply their own horses in addition to the general lack of resources in the Confederacy. Whenever Confederate forces were in the north and took northern farm animals, they found that they were better suited for pulling plows rather than riding.

Bill Cooper presenting Appreciation Certificate to Gene Armistead

Many horses and men in the war developed a relationship and other horses became almost as famous as their masters. The aforementioned horse, Traveller, of General Lee began its life before the war named after a Mississippi Congressmen by the name of Jefferson Davis. “Jeff Davis” later ended up with Lee after a series of owners and was renamed Traveller. He died in 1871 and his skeleton was placed on display before being buried in the 1970s. Some other general’s horses from both sides of the war have either been entirely stuffed or have had parts stuffed and are currently on display. One could argue that these stuffed remains are the last survivors of the Civil War. The horses that served in the war were in some ways equally as brave as those who rode them into the field of battle.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 12:15 pm and is filed under June 2009, Minutes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.