Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1891-08-27
A GREAT CORRAL.
THE IMMENSE CAVALRY DEPOT
BUILT DURING THE WAR.

thousands OF Horses Held There
for the Army-How the Sick and
Disabled Were Treated-A Stam-
pede at Night.
In the spring of 1868 it was determined
to erect near Washington great depot
where Cavalry and artillery horses could
be received and trained for the field and
where, when from any cause they were
unserviceable, they could be cared for
and, if found practicable, doctored and
fed into a serviceable condition, or if not,
condemned and sold.
Few if any of our readers living in
Washington are ignorant of the location
and surroundings of Giesboro Point, but
for those who are not so fortunate it may
be briefly stated that it is located at the
north end of level stretch of land which
skirts the hills ON the Maryland side of
the river, commencing just south of the
confluence of the Anacostia with the Po-
tomac, and is from one to one and half
miles wide, and in length extending some
distance south of Alexandria.
A gentleman by the name of Young
owned fine farm there, on which it was
decided to erect the depot. A large field
OF ripening corn covered portion of the
plain. This was cut and shocked in about
the time it takes to tell it, and engineers
We're ut once at work laying out streets,
marking the sites for the erection of huge
hospitals, for the veterinary stables,
corrals, mess houses, headquarter houses,
commissary, quartermaster store houses,
fnr +bn nIn
full sutler. Agents We're at once dis
patched to Baltimore, Philadelphia and
New York to hire men, and hire them
they did by the thousands. Contracts
were made for large quantities of pine
lumber of all descriptions, to be delivered
at the earliest moment practicable. Great
plans We're drawn and great rows of
structures of nearly every possible de-
sign, under the combined efforts of thou
sands of carpenters, skilled and unskilled,
soon began to struggle into shapes more
or less pretentious, according to the pur-
poses for which they were to be used. At
first the employees outnumbered the horses,
but this condition of affairs did not last
long, although the pay rolls showed
something over 5000 hands of all grades
at one time. Great wharves were built,
and soon fleet of vessels were anchored
adjacent, laden with all descriptions and
varieties of supplies.
The purchase of horses at this depot
for cavalry and artillery purposes was
soon entered upon and board of inspec-
tors, with all the appliances, were soon
busily at work making selections from the
motley throng of beasts which the con-
tractors brought before them.
Active operations for the construction
of the depot began about the 1st of July,
1868, and by the LIST of December of the
same year it is doubtful whether the
owner of Giesboro Point would have
recognized the place as his former home.
No vestige of any old structure remained
except the old homestead, which still
stands as faint reminder to those who
know of the former importance of the
place.
Horses in all stages of disease and
disability soon came pouring in from the
army and the agents previously spoken
of as having been sent to the large cities
of the north to hire men were daily for
warding hundreds of drunken, diseased,
worthless bummers, many of whom were
physically unable and many others un-
willing or too ignorant to lead horse to
water. Bounty jumpers, draft evaders,
thieves, newly-arrived emigrants and
desperadocs of all descriptions were
among the daily arrivals. Many of these,
when they saw the character of the duties
which they were expected to perform,
took the first opportunity to leave, and il
was no infrequent thing to have the num-
ber of such in one night more than equal
the number received the day previous.
The maximum of employees of all grades
was reached in December, when my
requisition for daily rations mounted t.
over 1000 for civil employees.
Stables with separate stalls for eacf
horse were constructed with capacity OF
upward of $4,000 horses. A reservoir
was constructed on the hill south of the
Government Insane Asylum, which was
supplied by hydraulic rams from the
river and in return furnished running
water to every stable and mess house and
hospital at the depot. This is mentioned
as an indication of the completeness with
which the construction was carried out.
In less than II year the total expen-
ditures for construction had mounted to
about two million dollars and Uncle Sam
was the owner of the finest cavalry depot
in the world. All business pertaining tc
the purchase, issue to the army and the
receipt of unserviceable horses came tc
be done with great precision and in the
most approved business manner.
The transactions between field quarter
masters and the depot were at times
simply enormous, thousands of horses be-
ing received and issued almost daily. The
veterinary hospitals were in due time in
good order and in the hands of competent
surgeons, where thousands of horses
found an asylum until again fitted for
active service in the field. AT one time
the number of unserviceable animals far
exceeded the capacity of the stables and
we were compelled to contine between
six and seven thousand of them in q
pasture around which the fence was none
too strong and of very hasty and imper-
feet construction.
1t is fact, the theory for which is but
imperfectly understood even by en-
perienced herdsmen and drovers, that
either horses or cattle get some very
curious ideas in their heads when close
herded or confined within limited boun-
daries by fences. The leading peculiar
ity may be said to be in an extreme of
timidity at night and disposition to
stampede sometimes in a circle and at
other times in a straight direction regard
less of all obstacles. This disposition to
run at night had been noticed as being a
part of the pastime of these very sorry
looking animals, and fears expressed that
they might break through the fence; but