THE TREATMENT OF THE U. S. ARMY HORSE IN THE LATE WAR 589 
and from diseases, for no other reason than an utter absence of 
expert care and authority. Surely, horses in the field, when 
tied to picket-lines or confined in corrals, can no more be 
cared for as in the garrison stable as can the soldier in the tent 
enjoy the comforts of home life. But the ignorance and care¬ 
lessness in handling animals during transportation has been so 
apparent; the negligence as to first principles of feeding and 
caring at camp so gross ; the sanitary supervision so ridiculously 
rudimentary, and the medical treatment of wounds and diseases 
so crude and cruel, that one wonders whether all this could 
happen in a civilized army without more than a passing com¬ 
ment by those in authority who in civil life had seen these mat¬ 
ters attended to on a rational basis. All this has happened, 
too, while the vast majority of these public animals were simply 
retained in camps, and it is not difficult to foretell what would 
have been the result of this lack of expert supervision if these 
many thousands of horses and mules would have been hurled 
into the open battle-fields on foreign soil. 
There has been no attempt by the officers in charge of the 
camps to explain this state of affairs any further than to lay it 
at the door of the Quartermaster-General. But this gentleman 
may have been too busy during the war to have noticed these 
complaints against him, so we will reiterate a few authentic re¬ 
ports for his information : 
N. Y. Sun, Aug. i6, 1898, page \.— With the Expedition to Porto Rico. 
This expedition left Tampa on July 23. It consisted of Tight Batteries 
C and M., Seventh Artillery, Troop B, of Second Cavalry, a pack-train 
of 600 mules, ambulances, etc., all under command of Brigadier- 
General Schwan, U. S. Volunteers. It is no purpose of this letter to 
criticise, but certain defects shotild be mentioned and attention called to 
them in order that they may be avoided in future. So far as the trans¬ 
portation of men is concerned, since they can move about the ship, 
little need be said. But when it comes to the dumb brutes, enough 
cannot be said or written. The horses of Tight Battery C were placed 
between decks and just above the hold of the transport D. H. Miller, 
and it was absolutely pitiable to witness their sufferings. Even the 
passages on either side of the boiler-room were fitted up with stalls in 
which the animals, crowded like sardines, have actually sweated away 
their lives during the past seven days. There can be no economy in 
such proceeding. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 
should certainly have an agent or two at every port from which trans- 
