The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1870-11-17
rnE RIDEaLEss vvAa-aossE,

NJ. Is.
THE 1IDERLESS wAR-noRsEs.
From tie Losdos Spectator. -'..>' .-'.s' '-''
IN almost the last letter written by
Lieutenant Colonel Penberton from the
seat Of war before bis untimely death,
there was a passage which strikes us
as describing one Of the most pathetic of
all the incidents Of war, though the
pathoF Of it relates, not to the human
bei'geraOts, but to their only active al
lies IN the animal world, the horses. A
Prues'au hussar, who had got off bis
horse to carry water to two wounded
aud dying comrades, was killed, with
the poor soldiers he was relieving. by j.
shell, in tho very act Of pouring tholv.-
ter down the throat of one of them. and
JUST tnen MS regiment moved off, his
empty horse following 10 the tanks
whereupon Lieutenant Colonel Pember-
ton remarked :-"Ooly those who have
seen 4 battlefield can form notion of
the extraordinary way in which the
horse, as long as they have a leg to
crawl on, will follow the regiment to
which they belong. I saw what evil
dently had been sergeants' horses keep
irg their position in rear Of their SQUAD
ron, Wheeling with it, aad halting ex-
sct'y as if their riders were on their
backs, and all the time streaming With
blood. Poor creatures they are indeed
to DO pitied, for they have neither
Vaterland, promotion nor the coveted
medal to think Of; whatever may be the
issue and few indeed are there which
have been in action which have not
some honorable scars to show" Again,
the German Port relates, "tbat after
the slaughter At Vionville, on the 18th
Of August, = strange and touching
spectacle was presented. On the even
ing call being sounded by tho 1st Regi-
ment of Dragoons Of the Guard, COZ
riderless horses answered to the sum-
mons, jaded, and in many cases m.im-
ed. TIE noble animals sill retained
their disciplined habits" The image
OF these poor riderless, bleeding crea-
lures going through their dill to the
last with punctillious precision, vithou,
any regard to the absencs OF the only
hands which could have enforced the
duty, aud in utter Inconsistencies that
With the loss of their riders the reason
for their evolutions had disappeared
strikes Us as one Of the most pit,ful
though, of course, far from the most
grievous, of the incidents of tho bat.
tle-6eld. The poor things themselves
Of course, suffered no mo,e-probabl1
rather less-from their works of mill.
taFy eupererogation, that they would
have suffered il, With the same wounds,
they had been bearing abo1t tbei,
proper riders ; and, yet there is some.
thing that touches the heart much
more in this evidence of complete fail
ure to spprehend their part in the
system of things to which they belong.
Cd, in connection with their unreuit.
ting efforts to discharge to the utmost
of their failing powers task the OBJ
ject of which had ceased to exist. I,
excites less degree of the same kind
Of pity which We feel for alienation o.
mind, when the sufferer diligently
makes preparation every day at th'
same hour for the comfort of one VII,
is long dead.
OF course there is IN it none Of tn,
contrast betweeeu undying love ant
dead intellectual power, which make'
scenes Of the latter kind SO profouudI,
pathetic. But then, on tic other hant
there is contrast between the admi
rable fortitude and discipline of which
an animal like the horse is capable
and the entire absence Of any of tbos'
Intellectual or moral roots to tortitud'
and discipline which have fed them ii
human character, going beyond the an
alogy even Of alien alton Of mind. Tha
the implanted lessons given by man
and the new sense Of collective orde
they have conveyed, although they hav'
never carried their own drift and mean
ing with them, should triumph 70 com
pletelJ over tho animal impulses Of 'ai'
and lassitude, aud this, too, when Their
is 10 one left to appeal to the creature
soirit and command its obedience, ell
Us with pity, probably because It give
Us 80 vivid apicture of . creatur
whose Characteristic nature Is far NOR
than touched, absolutely controlled an