Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-08
ABOUT WAR HORSES,
From Bucephalus Down to Stonewa
Jackson's Charger

There is, perhaps, nothing connected with
the romance of war as 10 which the pop
ular imagination INDUCES in more extraya-
CANT flights than the subject of chargers
which once carried great soldiers upon the
field of honor. We know from Plutarch
that, with the exception of Alexander the
Great, no man dared 10 mount Bucephalus,
the noble war steed upon whose head a
black mark resembling an OK was i'm
pressed the rest of his body, like that of
Napoleons favorite charger, being white
IL was represented that Bucephalus always
knelt down when approached bv his mas
ter, and that while the pair were taking
part IN the great engagement which was
fatal to Porus, the Indian monarch, Buce-
phalus received heavy wound. and
dropped dead after carrying the Macedo-
man King out of battle and landing him in
safe SPOT. The horse was said to have
been 80 years old when he died. and as an
afiectionate tribute to his memory, Alex
ander built city called after him upon the
banks of the Hydaspes. Who again that
has read Southey's fascinating Chronicle
OF the Cid" can have forgotten Bavieca. the
charger whom SPANS semi mythical cham
pion bestrode in a hundred battles ? II is
related by Southey that when Roderigo
Ruy DlaZ-commonly called the Cid
from an Arabic word meaning the Chief
or Lord -was taken in his hoykood to
choose horse, he passed over the best
steeds and selected shabby-lOoking colt.
His godfather accordingly called the bow
bavleca, or BOBBY, for making such a
silly choice, and thus the name devoiyed
upon the horse, who survived his
master for two years and half, and
finally was buried at Valencia After the
death OF the Cid no man was permitted to
not tl,.a ID
therefore, be said 10 have died in odor of
sanctity. Scarcely less poetical is the legend
adapted by the great Italian poet Ariosto
IN connection with Bolardo or Bayardo.
the famous steed of Rinaldo, and once the
property of Amads of Gaul
1t is recorded by Ariosto that Bolardo
was discovered in grotto by the wizard
Malagigl, who gave him, and the magic
record Fusberta, which was found in the
same spot, to the wizards cousin. Rinaldo.
Readers of Homer are aware that nearly
every chlettain who fought for or against
Troy had some celebrated horse or horses
which he drove in his chariot, and upon
whom Homer bestowed a name or names.
coming down to our own times what a
wealth of affection has been lavished since
1915 upon Copenhagen, the thoroughbred
chestnut charger bestridden by the Duke of
wellington at the battle of Waterloo. We
know from the Stud Book" that Copen-
hagen was gradson of Eclipse, and that
he was bred by General Grosvenor in 1903.
Alter running unsuccesSfully as race horse
IN 1911 and 1912. Copenhagen was sold by
General Grosvenor to Lord Londonderry.
who took him out to the Peninsula, where,
shortly after the battle of Salamanca, he
was bought from Lord Londonderry blythe
Earl of Wellington-such was then our great
captains title-for 400 guineas.
Copenhagen waS-as the late Sir Tatton
sykes often loved TO remind his hearers-a
little horse, standing about half an inch
over fifteen hands in hight The Duke was
IN the habit of saying that no day was long
enough to tire him, and that no sight or
sound, however unexpected, could make
MN start. 1t would perhaps have been
better If Copenhagen had tired somewhat
on that last and most famous day which
saw him carry the Iron Duke upon bat
tlefeld. II Is related by Colonel Gurwood
that, when the Duke descended from the
saddle which he had occupied for eighteen
consecutive hours, Copenhagen let fly With
both hind legs, and narrowly missed his
masters head and chest The incident oc-
Cured in the little Belgian village from
which the great battle, fought two miles
away upon the plateau of Mont st. Jean
behavior, Copenhagen was brought back to
England. and enjoyed what our transat-
lantlc klnsmau call +" a high old time' be-
tween 1915 and his death in 1926. He was
Z years old when he carried the Duke at
Waterloo, and IL when he died full of
honor at Strathfieldsaye. Whenever the
Duchess was at the country seat in Hamp-
shire, given by this nation to her illustrious
husband, she made point of carrying bit
OF bread every day after luncheon to her
fayorite in the paddock. In addition. she
frequently wore bracelet made of Copen-
hagen's hair, and when the old horse died
he was buried with full military honors.
the Duke and Duchess themselves being
chief mourners.
1t is commonly asserted that veneration
Is everywhere dying out, and that it is ex-
tinguished beyond hope of resurrection in
the great transatlantic republic. A story
which has just reached us from Richmond,
Va, seems to tell very different tale
Twenty-three years have almost eIapsed
since SsOnewall Jackson-one of those x
teptionaliy pure, brave and unselfsh sold
iers to whom, as to Havelock and Gordon.
the whole world pays the glad homage of
admiration ana respect-received his death
wounds at the battle of Charlottesville.
Eight days later he breathed his last in a
little Iarn mouse winch looks down from
the slight eminence which it occupies upon
the railway station at Guiney's. In these
crowded times it might reasonably have
been expected that three-and-twenty years
would suffice to dim, if not obliterate, the
memory of Stonewell Jackson in the gen
Grafton which has sprung up since he died
To indulge in such belief would, appa-
rently, be a great mistake when we read
that strong feeling of grateful recollection
has been excited by the news that the
charger ridden by Stonewall Jackson at
Charlottesville has just expired at the
Confederate Soldiers Home. in Richmond.
where he had lived in clover ever since the
death of his master. Assuming that this
charger was, like Copenhagen at Waterloo,
seven years cid in 1868, il will be evident
that in 1856 he must have been 80. and,
therefore. one of the very last equinine sur
vivors OF the American civil war.
1t is pleasant to hear that the Virginians
have resolved to have cast made of Stone
wall Jackson's old war-horse, and that the