Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-08-01
THE GREAT CORRAL.
Something About the Immense Cav
airy Depot at Giesboro Point.
MILLIONS OF MONEY SPENT.
Thousands Of Horses OF Every Description
Held There for the Army-How the Sick and
Disabled Were Treated-A Stampede at
Night and Its Thrilling Eject
Written for The Evening Star.
IN THE ECONOMY OF HUMAN ACTION


IN THE ECONOMY OF HUMAN ACTION
Il great results usually spring from CORE
spondingiy great facilities for their production,
and probably no period of our national history
is more illustrative of this than that covered
by the late civil war. Ship yards, arsenals, vast
ware houses. railways, telegraph lines and even
waterways came into existence with q rspidity
before unknown. In and around Washington
great depots and work shops were erected. and
many OF them were in full operation for years
after the fighting had ceased. Perhaps no one or
q half dozen of these, In this or any other city,
would equal in the expense Of construction or
IN the immensely of proportions the great cav
airy depot SO called, at Giesboro Point. Nd.
In the spring OF 1868 it was determined to erect
near Washington great depot where cavalry
ana 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
ana TED into serviceable condition or If not
condemned and sold.
Few If any readers Of The STAR 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 1t is located at the north end of q
level stretch of land which skirts the hills on
Just south OF the confluence Of the Anacostia
with the Potomac, and is from one to one and
half miles wide. and in length extending some
distance south of Alexandria.
COMPLETELY CHANGING YouSa's FARM.
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
1t, and engineers were at once at work laying
out streets. marking the sites for the erection
OF huge hospitals. for the veterinary stables,
corrals, mess houses headquarter houses,
commlssary, quartermaster store houses water
works and not forgetting the cheerful sutler.
Agents were at once dispatched to Baltimore
Philadelphia and New York to hire men, and
hire them they did bv the thousands. Contracts
were made Tor large quantities of pine lumber
OF ali descriptions. to be delivered at the earli-
est moment practicable. Great plans were
drawn and great rows Of structures Of nearly
every possible design. under the combined
efforts Of thousands of carpenters, skilled and
unskllled: soon began to struggle into shapes
more or less pretentlous, according to the pur-
poses for which they were to be used. At first
the employees outnumbered the fhorses, but
this condition Of affairs did not last long al
though the pay rolls showed something over
5000 hands of all grades at one time. Great
wbarves were built and soon q feet of vessels
tiOns and varieties of supplies.
The purchase OF horses at this depot for cav
airy and artillery purposes was soon entered
upon and board OF inspectors, with all the ap-
pllances, were soon busily at work making Sc
lections from the motley throng Of beasts which
the contractors brought before them l here
learned that il there were any class of people
connected with the army whom the then Secre-
tary of War; Mr.. Stanton, regarded with es-
pecial disfavor it was the horse contractors and
har rt,ar
fully settled In his mind as fact that this bust
ness developed in a most astonishingly rapit
manner most of the germs of dishonesty in
herent in the human family, and the career of
the new board hese established was Judge no
great surprise to him, as he was soon called
upon to dismiss in disgrace the two civilian
members and order court-martial for the
military member. who was soon dropped from
the rolls Of the army.
Active operations for the construction of the
depot began about the LIST of july 1863. and
by the LIST of December of the same wear il ia
doubtful whether the owner Of Giesboro Point
would have recognized the place as his former
home. No vestige of any old structure re-
manned except the old homestead which still
stands as a faint reminder to those who know
OF the former importance OF the place.
THE HORSE HOSPITAL.
Horses in all stages of disease and disa bility
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 forwarding hundreds of drunken.
diseased worthless bummers many Of whom
were physically unable and many others I'M
willing OF too ignorant to lead horse to water.
Bounty Jumpers, draft evaders. thieves newly
arrived emigrants and desperadoes of all de-
scriptions 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 it WAS
no lnfrequent thing to have the number of
such in one night more than equal the number
received the day previous. The maximum of
employees OF all grades WAS reached December
when my requisition for daily rations mounted
to over 1000 for civil employees.
Stables with separate stalls for each horse
were constructed with a capacity Of upward of
$4,000 horses. reservoir was constructed on
the hill south OF the Government Insane Asy-
lum, which was supplied by hydraulic rams
from the river and in return furnished running
water to every stable and mess house and hos
pital at the depot This is mentioned as an
indication OF the completeness with which the
construction was carried out.
Many amusing episodes occurred to mark the
progress Of our work. Some of us had a good
ear for music and the drama, and, incidentally,
pretty glrl-and l remember one night about
the middle of January four of us had en-
gagements with as many pretty young ladies
in Washington. The weather was very cold
and there was good covering Of ice on the
river, but strong government transport had
broken road through to the foot Of 7th street
in the afternoon and the captain of our tug
thought he would have no difficulty in follow
ing. About 7 o'clock, when we were lust below
the arsenal and off the mouth of the Anacostia
river, the ice became too strong for our small
steamer and we were compelled to STOP An
effort to return was futile and we were com.
PEELED to remain fast in the ice all night. By
morning the ice was strong enough to make
the walking back to the depot safe much safer
in fact than it probably would have been for
any one Of us in the immediate vicinity Of the
before mentioned young ladies' 1t took Wig
orous explanations to calm the troubled minds
of the disappointed maidens.
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS EXPENDED.
In less than year the total expenditures for
construction had mounted to about two mil
lion dollars and Uncle Sam was the owner Of
the finest cavalry depot in the world. All bust
ness pertaining to the purchase, issue to the
army and the receipt of unserviceable horses
came to 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 being received
and issued almost daily. The veterinary hos
pitfalls 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
m, Had 70 <ttxxA hak-r -.