Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1896-12-18
Loss OF HORSES IN War.
L, Is Far Heavier In Proportion Than
That OF Men.

That OF Men.
We bear very little about the loss of
horses in war. Yet not only is it pro-
digious. but it's influence has been fatal
in many engagements. Wellington re-
treated from Salamanca mainly, Il not
solely, owing to the death of a large
proportion of his horses, and the in
efficiency through want and exhaus-
ton, of the remainder. When Napo-
Icons horses were dying at the rate of
come thousands day in the terrible
Russinn winter he only made light of
1t. remarking that he wished Them
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
ere destroyed by starvation and dis
case.
The horse labors under the disadvan-
tnge of Offering greater target area
than the man. When, therefore, churg-
ing cavalry have to cover.a good deal of
ground before reaching the enemy,
more horses thnn men are likely to he
killed by the enemy's artillery and by
British cavalry were exposed TO heavy
fire from the French artillery. the
killed, wounded and missing men nun.
bered 81, 100, and IS, respectively; the
killed. wounded and missing horses,
337.250. and 39-or totals of 31i men
and 6:'5 horses. In the Balaklava bat
tie the Light brigade lost ESQ out of
SEQ men. and 800 out Of geo horses.
In the battle of Waterloo the French
fire is said to have been heavy. giving
the result in the cavalry of nearly twice
! MS many horses as men being killed,
nearly twice MS many men ns horses
wounded. Among the British artil.
lcry engaged there were six times M
many horses MS men killed and half as
many horses as men wounded. The
Franco-German war furnishes trust
| worthy evidence of what we may ex-
rect in the future. But, us the French
have given no statistics on this subject
10 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 600 horses, and their ar
tiilcry 73o men and over 900 horses.
Summing up all the instances on rec
ord, military authority finds the fol-
lowing results: During the century
l6o1 to 1900. the loss and disabIement
of horses was $50 for each 100 men.
From 1900 to 1868, the proportion was.
in cavalry, 100 horses to 100 mon; and in
artillery. l33 horses to 100 men; while
from IN
were, for cavalry, 40 horses to 100 men.
end. for artillery, 1913 horses to 100 men.
I'y emitting the disastrous Austrian re-.
treat of 1866. the average would work
out Mt ll2 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
Sims had G6,000 draught horses bring.
ing up supplies from Sistova, and at the
end of il they had only $4,000, the enor-
nous number of $4,000 having died
from hard work. The difficulty of pro-
viding food is naturally very great, and
horses feel the deprivation, rs we'll 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 starvn-
ton. Five hundred artillery horses
were killed under fire; 1000 died Of
want and disease. They fed on each
others tails, and ate the bottoms of
carts and the spolses of wheels. Dur
ing Wellington's artluous 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 so per
cent. of the cavalry horses were lost in
three months. Napoleon crossed the
Niemen on his way to the assault Oil
Russia with 60,000 cavalry, and re-
crossed it six months later with 600.
OF the 5000 horses that we landed in
Egypt in 1882, over $500 came under
'>'N' y 'iNHaihOiits OUO were
killed, SO only being slain in action.
Mercer in his "Diary of the Waterloo
Campaign" says: THE German never
thinks of himself until his horse is pro-
vided for; the Englishman looks on his
horse rs u nuisance and source of per-
petual drudgery." This gentleman, in
deed, goes so far MS to assert that, while
the German would sell his clothes to
feed bis horse, the Englishman would
sell his horse to buy spirits and tobacco.
There are other avoidable causes of
great loss. Sore backs, from ilI-fitted
saddles and too heavy burdens. were
so frequent that at Waterloo there
were squadrons which did not possess
n single sound horse in the ranks. De-
fective shooting is another great and
generally nvoidable evil. Armies have
been paralyzed from this cause. Nc
Clcllan says that in the American civil
war the horses feet were in a deplor-
able state. and soldiers were often seen
Icnninar lin,