Tag Archives: horses

An Equine Casualty on the Road to Gettysburg

Posted on June 21, 2019 by Kevin Pawlak

The citizens of the Loudoun Valley awoke on Sunday morning, June 21, 1863, not to the sound of church bells. Instead, the thunder of cannon ripped through the region as the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia sought to … Continue reading →

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The Ballad of Black Bess

Posted on April 24, 2019 by Steve Davis

[Editor’s Note: With all that’s happening about Confederate monuments these days, it’s all right to remember a time when monuments to Confederate heroes became a source of humor.] Robert E. Lee had Traveller and Stonewall Jackson his Little Sorrel. Bedford … Continue reading →

Posted in Civil War in Pop Culture, Memory, Monuments | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

2018 Year in Review: #1

Posted on December 31, 2018 by Emerging Civil War

We’ve reached #1—our most-read post from 2018! 1) Equestrian casualties at Gettysburg by Sarah Kay Bierle (July 11, 2018) “At Gettysburg, the dead and injured horses and mules covered the landscape – left unburied and untreated longer than the soldiers,” … Continue reading →

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Thinking About These Photographs

Posted on February 25, 2018 by Sarah Kay Bierle

Compared to the number of Civil War photographs of soldiers, civilians, camps, and battlefields, posed photos of horses are rare. Clicking through Library of Congress’s online archives, though, I found some real photographic gems in this category. Looking closer at … Continue reading →

Posted in Photography, Slavery | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Stonewall’s Horses

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Sarah Kay Bierle

Early in 1861, John Harman and Thomas J. Jackson inspected a small herd of horses which had been discovered in a captured railroad boxcar. Jackson turned the horses over to the Confederate government and purchased two for his military use.[i] … Continue reading →

Posted in Emerging Civil War, Leadership--Confederate | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Never Mind the Helmet, Here Comes the Cavalry!

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Chris Mackowski

The riding helmet was small for me, so it looked like black puffball mushroom on my head. It was good enough for my purposes, though. I would be taking a couple horseback laps around an indoor ring, going only at … Continue reading →

Posted in Arms & Armaments, Cavalry, Common Soldier, Ties to the War | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

ECW Weekender: The Civil War Horse Memorial

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Chris Mackowski

The old gray mare—she ain’t what she used to be. Or so the old song goes. And such was the case for the millions of equestrians conscripted into service, North and South, during the Civil War. One-point-five million of them … Continue reading →

Posted in ECW Weekender, Monuments, Ties to the War | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment