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As a rule I don’t read historical interpretations (or historical novels) but this book by David G Douglas, “A BOOT FULL OF MEMORIES had a bit of a different take so I bought it. It was fortunately, a well written grouping of about 135 wartime letters from Capt Leonard Williams, 2nd S.C. Cavalry, Brooks Troop, Hampton’s Legion to his wife at home in S.C.. The letters were thankfully offered with little editing however, interspersed in between were modern interpretations or views (usually revisionist, often reenactorisms) on other war time activities, places, events and what the editor (Mr. Douglas) thought the author (Capt Williams) might have been thinking, saying, etc. about them. Unfortunate clutter and normally I avoid such contrived uselessness. I love to read the real time reality of contemporary diaries, letters and even post war reminiscences so as such, I therefore tried hard from reading anything on the pages except the actual letters themselves. However, a couple of other contemporary “gems” were included like the one below from Federal cavalryman Charles Adams of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry.
Aside from the historical, the heroism, the honor, glory, pride and spirit we as cavalryman feel about our human cavalry ancestors we also feel a palpable, innate kinship with the equine side our cavalry brethren. That is, the horse. I think many of you on this forum will agree with me when I say that no infantryman (or artilleryman) can ever truly understand the bond or emotional tie to our horses. Its real, its indescribable and, its what makes us cavalry! So it is with no small amount of sorrow that I submit here for your reading this sad letter from Federal Captain Adams to his mother in all its graphic detail and heart wrenching descriptions of the sheer agony no doubt suffered by untold thousands of horses during the war.
“The horse is, in active campaign, saddled on an average of about fifteen hours out of the twenty-four. His feed is nominally ten pounds of grain a day, and, in reality, he averages about eight pounds. He has no hay and only such other feed as he can pick up during halts. The usual water he drinks is brook water, so muddy by the passage of the column as to be the color of chocolate. Of course, sore backs are our greatest trouble. Backs soon get feverish under the saddle and the first day’s march swells them; after a march, no matter how late it may be or tired or hungry I am, if permission is given to unsaddle, I examine all the horses backs myself and see that everything is done for them that can be done, and yet with every care, the marching of the last four weeks disabled ten of my horses....Imagine a horse with his withers swollen to three times the natural size, and with a volcanic, running sores pouring matter down each side, and you have a case with which every cavalry officer is daily called upon to deal, and can you imagine a horse which still has to be ridden until he lays down in sheer suffering under the saddle...The air of Virginia is literally burdened today with the stench of dead horses, Federal and Confederate. You pass them on every road and find them in every field, while from the carrions you can follow the march of every army that moves....We marched over a road made pestilent by the dead horses of the vanished rebels. Poor Brutes! How it would astonish and terrify you and all the others with your sleek, well-fed animals, to see the weak, gaunt, rough animals, with each rib visible and hip bones starting through the flesh, on which these “daring cavalry raids” were executed. it would knock romance out of you.”
And so it does!
Ken R Knopp
Aside from the historical, the heroism, the honor, glory, pride and spirit we as cavalryman feel about our human cavalry ancestors we also feel a palpable, innate kinship with the equine side our cavalry brethren. That is, the horse. I think many of you on this forum will agree with me when I say that no infantryman (or artilleryman) can ever truly understand the bond or emotional tie to our horses. Its real, its indescribable and, its what makes us cavalry! So it is with no small amount of sorrow that I submit here for your reading this sad letter from Federal Captain Adams to his mother in all its graphic detail and heart wrenching descriptions of the sheer agony no doubt suffered by untold thousands of horses during the war.
“The horse is, in active campaign, saddled on an average of about fifteen hours out of the twenty-four. His feed is nominally ten pounds of grain a day, and, in reality, he averages about eight pounds. He has no hay and only such other feed as he can pick up during halts. The usual water he drinks is brook water, so muddy by the passage of the column as to be the color of chocolate. Of course, sore backs are our greatest trouble. Backs soon get feverish under the saddle and the first day’s march swells them; after a march, no matter how late it may be or tired or hungry I am, if permission is given to unsaddle, I examine all the horses backs myself and see that everything is done for them that can be done, and yet with every care, the marching of the last four weeks disabled ten of my horses....Imagine a horse with his withers swollen to three times the natural size, and with a volcanic, running sores pouring matter down each side, and you have a case with which every cavalry officer is daily called upon to deal, and can you imagine a horse which still has to be ridden until he lays down in sheer suffering under the saddle...The air of Virginia is literally burdened today with the stench of dead horses, Federal and Confederate. You pass them on every road and find them in every field, while from the carrions you can follow the march of every army that moves....We marched over a road made pestilent by the dead horses of the vanished rebels. Poor Brutes! How it would astonish and terrify you and all the others with your sleek, well-fed animals, to see the weak, gaunt, rough animals, with each rib visible and hip bones starting through the flesh, on which these “daring cavalry raids” were executed. it would knock romance out of you.”
And so it does!
Ken R Knopp
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