CAYALRY OR MILITARY BIT. 75 



the cavalry horse as a beast of burden, we ordered a man 

 weighing 175 pounds to fit himself out with a full supply 

 of this regulation outfit and rode with him to Adams' 

 express office scales in Martinsburgh, AYest Virginia. We 

 ordered the horse stripped of everything, and the man 

 with his accoutrements and the trappings of his horse 

 put in the scales, which balanced at 280 pounds. Of 

 course the three days' feed and rations for the man and 

 horse became less, daily, till exhausted ; but the weight 

 v/as there to start with, and with the excej)tion of the 

 rations there vv'as no redaction in the weights, except 

 that of the cartridges, in the event of an argument with 

 'the enemy. 



After many serious arguments the campaign resolved 

 itself into a retreat from Lynchburgh to the Ohio River. 

 In passing through the Cumberland Mountains on the 

 way, the horses being overloaded, gave out, and some 

 four troops were shot on the road in one day. The 

 best horses, being unequal to the weight, were the first 

 to fail and be shot. We state these circumstances to 

 show the advantage and the disadvantage of two sys- 

 tems — light and heavy m:irching — and that there is a 

 point at which to stop adding to the articles in a soldier's 

 kit and the horse's equipments. 



