I am posting this in the general section too since most of you fellows may not read the Cav section.
In Hardtack and Coffee, Billings described the picket rope used for artillery horses as being 75 feet long and "1-1/2 inches in diameter." (I am pretty sure this is what he said--but I loaned out my copy of the book so this is from memory. Correct me if I'm wrong!) Obviously, this is a huge rope. He may have mis-spoke and meant to say "circumference," but he seems very accurate elsewhere. If he really meant circumference this would translate to a rope about 1/2" in diameter. Also the strain 12 artillery horses can put on a rope if they got panicked is extreme. My opinion is that a properly set picket line should be about as taut and unyielding as steel cable. I have some friends who went on backcountry excursions in Africa and the picket lines were like this--very heavy and very taut. If they do yield, horses can get caught in them more easily. So maybe he was correct about the 1-1/2" diameter.
Does anyone else have on good authority what the correct measurement for picket line rope was?
Thanks!
Ken Morris
10th Regt of Cavalry NYSV
In Hardtack and Coffee, Billings described the picket rope used for artillery horses as being 75 feet long and "1-1/2 inches in diameter." (I am pretty sure this is what he said--but I loaned out my copy of the book so this is from memory. Correct me if I'm wrong!) Obviously, this is a huge rope. He may have mis-spoke and meant to say "circumference," but he seems very accurate elsewhere. If he really meant circumference this would translate to a rope about 1/2" in diameter. Also the strain 12 artillery horses can put on a rope if they got panicked is extreme. My opinion is that a properly set picket line should be about as taut and unyielding as steel cable. I have some friends who went on backcountry excursions in Africa and the picket lines were like this--very heavy and very taut. If they do yield, horses can get caught in them more easily. So maybe he was correct about the 1-1/2" diameter.
Does anyone else have on good authority what the correct measurement for picket line rope was?
Thanks!
Ken Morris
10th Regt of Cavalry NYSV
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