114 27TH REPORT, BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



for the year 1865 the Quartermaster General of the United States 

 Army stated : " The issue of Cavalry horses to the Army of the Shen- 

 andoah actively engaged under Major General Sheridan have been at 

 the rate of three remounts per annum. The service of a Cavalry 

 horse under an enterprising commander has therefore averaged only 

 four months." 



If the 50,000 horses now required by the mounted service of the 

 Regular Cavalry and Militia (excluding those for wagon trains, etc.) 

 were called into active war duty, we could look for a demand of 

 upward of 150,000 horses per annum, basing the estimate on the 

 experience of General Sheridan's army. 



The British Army in South Africa 10 years ago consumed enor- 

 mous numbers of horses, over 100,000 being bought in the United 

 State alone, and, incidentally, it may be remarked that this exporta- 

 tion of horses went a great way toward causing the shortage of 

 horses of the right type for Army purposes which we now observe in 

 the United States and created a situation of which draft-horse 

 breeders were quick to take advantage. It is exceedingly doubtful 

 whether a foreign government could now obtain such a supply in the 

 United States. How, then, could the United States itself mount an 

 army ? If with draft horses, or horses of draft breeding, how could 

 it meet a hostile cavalry properly mounted ? 



THE REMOUNT SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The use of remount stations in the United States as depots where 

 young horses are developed and educated for use in the Army has 

 been inaugurated during the last five years. In a lecture before the 

 Army War College in February, 1907, 1 Major (now Quartermaster 

 General) J. B. Aleshire presented an elaborate plan to improve the 

 conditions under which horses and mules were supplied to the Army, 

 urging the purchase of young horses direct from breeders and de- 

 veloping them at Army stations so that by the time they were mature 

 they would be ready for actual service, undesirable ones would be 

 weeded out, those retained would have been given rational develop- 

 ment and handling, and a much longer period of usefulness could 

 therefore be expected from them than from mature horses purchased 

 under contract. 



In presenting the report of the Quartermaster General for the fiscal 

 year 1907, General Aleshire brought his remount plan directly to the 

 attention of Congress. 2 



He urged the establishment of " three or more remount depots, to be properly 

 organized, located, and equipped, and the same number of remount districts. 

 * * * To each of the three or more remount depots would be assigned a 

 remount district, and each depot and its tributary district would be in charge 



1 Army horses, etc., U. S. War Department, Washington, 1908. 



2 Annual Report, Quartermaster General, War Department, 1907. 



