The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1891-11-18
NAPoLEoN's WAR HORSES.
The Skeletons of Several of tn Most Gel
ebrat ed of Them Are stnl Preserved.

The Hon. Francis Lawley. son of
Lord Wenlock, published the other
day in DGily's Magazine an interesting
account of the horses that were mount
ed by Napoleon in his principal cam
paigns. aud the Figaro republished the
article with some comments and cor
rections.
In a conversation between Napoleon
and Barry O'Meara at st. Helena the
great prisoner stated that the closest
shave he ever had in battle was at
Arcola. where his horse. maddened by
wound, ran away with him toward
the Austrian lines. and finally plunged
into marsh, where he came very near
being captured by the enemy.
In all Napoleon had nineteen horses
killed under him from Arcola to
Waterloo. Marshal Blucher claimed
to have lost the same number in his
campaigns, and Gen. Forrest of the
Confederate army, according to Mr..
Lawley, had no less than thirty horses
shot under him during the four years
of the rebellion.
1t appears that nearly all Napoleon's
war horses were either white or gray.
The most famous were Marengo, the
Austerlitz, Marie, Ali and Jaffa. Ma
rengo's skeleton is at present in the
Military Institute of Whitehall, Lon
don. and one of his shoes, made into a
snuff-box, is in the mess-room of the
officers of the guard in St. James Pal
ace. Upon the silver cover of the shoe,
the gift of Col. Angerstein to his COM
rades, is the following inscription:
%6a hot ho~
longed to Napoleon, and mounted by him at
Marengo. Austerlitz, Jena, Wagram, in the
Russian campaign, and at Waterloo.
Around the shoe there is this in
scription:
Marengo was wounded in the left hauneh
when his master rode him at Waterloo on the
sunken road at the outposts
But it appears that he was also
wounded in the preceding battles, and
here the Figaro remarks that if the
above inscription is correct in its state
ments Napoleon must have used that
horse for fifteen years. from Marengo
to Waterloo, which seems very doubt
full. There is no doubt, however. that
Marengo was the horse that Napoleon
rode at Waterloo and that carried him
to Charleroi after the battle. but how
the horse came to end his days in Eng
land has not yet been fully revealed.
The supposition is that he was taken
there along with Jaffa by the French
man, who leased some property at
Glassenburg in Kent and who was
once great friend of Napoleon's, but
whose name is now forgotten. The
greatest care possible was taken of the
old horse, who died in 1929. at the ven
cradle age of 81 years.. In the park
on the Glassen burg property there is a
little column with the following:
Under this stone lies Jaffa, the celebrated
war horse of Napoleon. Aged 81 years.
There is some confusion and proba-
bly, exaggeration in regard to the
names of the horses mounted by Ma
poleon in his different battles. ''But. "
SAYS the Figaro. lit is quite probable
that the two horses, Marengo and Ali.
were ridden by Napoleon the same
day."
According to Nine. de Remusat
Napoleon often tired out four or five
horses day. which perhaps explains
the contradiction of the legend which
gives Marengo the honor of carrying
Napoleon at Austerlitz, in the memoirs
of Gen. Vondamme. which speak of a
steel gray Arab horse as the one that
he rode at that time. and which was
baptized ..Austerlitz' Immediately
after the victory. 1t is certain that
Napoleon had horse of that descrip-
ton. and a portrait of the animal is at
present in the residence of Lord Rose
berry.
AS for Marie, her skeleton is at pres
ent in the old castle of Ivenach, where
the heirs of the Baron Won Plessen
preserve it.