106 27TH REPORT, BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



ARMY HORSES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Next to Russia, the United States leads the world in the number 

 of horses which it possesses. These horses, as everyone knows, are 

 the descendants of horses brought from the Old World after the dis- 

 covery of America by Columbus, as there were no horses on the 

 American Continent at that time. Prior to the Civil War the horses 

 of the United States were of the light type, with one prominent ex- 

 ception the Conestoga draft horse of Pennsylvania, whose origin 

 has always been shrouded more or less in mystery and whose complete 

 disappearance was a remarkable result of the development of railway 

 transportation. There are also a few minor exceptions. Well- 

 authenticated evidence shows that a few draft horses Avere imported 

 from France in the thirties, and the draft stallion Louis Napoleon, 

 imported from France in 1851, appears often in the pedigrees of 

 Percheron horses in the United States. 



ARMY HORSES OF THE CIVIL, WAR. 



At the time of the Civil War, however, the horses of the United 

 States contained so little cold blood that it was a negligible factor. 

 The Morgans in New England, Standardbreds in New York and the 

 Middle West, Thoroughbreds in Virginia, and saddle horses in Ken- 

 tucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, predominated and made up the bulk 

 of the splendid mounts of the contending armies of that great strug- 

 gle. Even the much-despised plains horse (the mustang, cayuse, or 

 broncho) was the descendant of warm-blooded horses and doubtless 

 contributed his share to remounting the cavalry of both the Northern 

 and Southern forces in the Civil War. The demands of these troops 

 for remounts were enormous, but there does not seem to have been any 

 insurmountable obstacle to the acquisition of these horses. They 

 were in the country, they answered the purpose, and they were ob- 

 tained when needed. 



Unfortunately, the photographs of the cavalry and horse artillery 

 of the Civil War are disappointing to the student desiring informa- 

 tion on the character of horses on which troops were mounted. A 

 careful search of the Brady collection in the War Department fails 

 to show any photographs of mounted cavalry, but there are a few 

 photographs of horse artillery which show fairly well the character 

 of the horses then in service in the Northern Army, two of which are 

 presented herewith (Pis. I and II). The imperfections of photog- 

 raphy in those days made it impossible to catch the motions of ani- 

 mals exactly, but the illustrations are sufficiently clear to show that 

 the mounts of the two batteries shown were horses of light type 

 warm-blooded horses. Draft blood is not apparent. 



