Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1896-12-17
Loss os HORSES IN Wac.
II Is Far Heavier in Proportion Than
That of Men.

/ in many engagements. Wellington re-
treated from Salamanca mainly, if not
{ solely. owing to the death of large
prcrortior of his horses, and the in
efficiency through want and exhaus-
ton. of the remainder. When Napo-
I Icons horses were dying at the rate Of
some thousands a day in the terrible
Russian winter he only made light of
it. remarlling that he wished them
i happy journey. But his campaign
might have terminated differently if
the horses had not died The loss OF
horses is much greater than the loss of
men, and by far the greater proportion
are destroyed by starvation and dis
ease.
The horse labors under the disadvan-
tage of Offering a greater target area
than the man. When. therefore, charg-
ing cavalry have to cover a good deal of
ground before reaching the enemy,
more horses than men are likely TO be
killed by the enemy's artillery and by
small arms. At Fontenoy, where the
British cavalry were exposed to heavy
fire from the French artillery, the
killed, wounded and missing men num-
bered 81, 199, and 25, respectively; the
killed, wounded and missing horses,
337.259, and 39-or totals of 81 men
and 635 horses. In the Balaklava bat
tie the Light brigade lost $50 out of
eco men, and $50 out of eco horses.
In the battle of Waterloo the French
fire is said to have been heavy, giving
the result in the cavalry of nearly twice
as many horses as men being killed.
nearly twice as many men as horses
wounded. Among the British artil
lery engaged there were six times as
many horses as men killed and half as
many horses as men wounded The
Franco-German war furnishes trust
worthy evidence of what we may ex-
pect in the future. But, as the French
lave given no statistics on this subject
to the world, we are unable to make the
comparison between the victorious and
defeated armies. One Of the fiercest
battles ever fought was that of Won
vile. in which the German cavalry lost
] 400 men and 1000 horses. and their ar
tillery 730 men and over ,000 horses.
Summing up all the instances on rec
ord, military authority finds the fol-
lowing results: During the century
1901 to 1899, the loss and disablement
of horses was $50 for each 100 men
From 1900 to 1865, the proportion was.
IN cavalry, 100 horses to 100 men; and in
artillery, 1873 horses to 100 men; while
from 1866 to 1871 the relative numbers
were, for cavalry, 40 horses to 100 men
and, for artillery, 1873 horses to 100 men.
BY emitting the disastrous Austrian re
treat of 1866, the average would work
out at 112 horses to 100 men. And this
IS the proportion likely to obtain in the
future.
But loss of horses under fire is small
compared with loss from other causes.
Want of food-an incident of every
great campaign-and overwork, with
their natural accompaniment, disease,
are, the great destroyers of both char
gers and draught horses. At the be-
ginning of the siege of Plevna the Rus
slams had 10000 draught horses bring
ing up supplies from Sistova, and at the
end of it they had only $4,000, the cnor-
nous number of $4,000 having died
from hard work The difficulty Of pro-
yiding food is naturally very great. and
horses feel the deprivation, as well as
want of rest, far more than men. They
have very little reserve of fat to draw
upon, and they have not the moral
stimulus of the soldiers Half the
hores that we landed in the Crimea
never returned, and most Of them owed
their death to exhaustion and starva~
ton Five hundred artillery horses
were killed under fire; 1900 died of
want and disease. They fed on each
others tails, and ate the bottoms of
carts and the spokes of wheels. Dur
ing Wellington's arduous retreat from
Salamanca the only food of the horses
was twigs and the bark of trees. In
our Afghan war OF 1898, owing to the
scarcity Of food, 5000 camels and 80 per
cent Of the cavalry horses were lost il
three months. Napoleon crossed the
Niemen on his way to the assault on
Russia with 10000 cavalry, and re-
crossed it six months later with 600.
OF tie 5000 horses that we landed IN
Egypt in 15G2, over $500 came under
veterinary treatment, and 600 were
killed SO only being slain in action.
4 Mercer in his DIARY Of the Waterloo
Campaign says; Ine be man never
THINKS Of himself until his horse is pro-
vided for; the Englishmaa looks on his
horse as q nuisance and source Of per-
petual 1rudgery." This gentleman, in
deed. goes 50 far as to assert that, while
the German would sell his clothes to
feed his horse, the Englishman would
sen his horse 70 buy spirits and tobacco.
There are other avoidable causes Of
great loss. Sore backs, from ill-ftted
saddles and too heavy burdens, were
80 frequent that at Waterloo there
were squadrons which did not possess
n single sound horse in the ranks. De-
fectiYe shoeing is another great and
generally ayoidable evil. Armies have
been paralyzed from this cause Me
+ Clellan says that in the American civil
war The horses feet were ia deplor.