Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1896-12-18
Loss OF HORSES IN wAR.
Il Il Far Heavier In Proportion Thai
That OF Mea.

We hear very little about the loss OF
horses In war. Yet not only is IL 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 Nap0-
Icons horses were dying at the rate of
some thousands a day in the terrible
Russian winter be only made light of
IL. remarking that he wished Them ~
happy journey. But his campaign
might have terminated differently III
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, charg-
ing cavalry have TO cover q good deal Of
ground before reaching the enemy,
more horses than men are likely to he
killed by the enemy's artillery and by
small arms. At Fontenoy, where the
British cavalry were exposed to heavy
Are from the French artillery, the
killed. wounded and missing men num-
bered 81. 100. 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 ESQ out of
500 men. and 800 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
: ms many horses as men being killed,
nearly twice rs many men as horses
wounded. Among the British artil
lcry engaged there were six times ns
many horses us men killed and half AZ
many horses as men wounded The
! Franco-Cierman war furnishes trust
worthy evidence of what we may ex-
rect in the future. But, as the French
have 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 100 men and over 900 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 disabIement
of horses was $50 for each 100 men.
From 1900 to 1868, 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.
J end. for artillery, 1913 horses to 100 men.
Hy emitting the disastrous Austrian re
treat Of 1866, the average would work
out at 1l2 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 G6,0o0 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
viding food is naturally very great, and
horses feel the deprivation, as 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 starva-
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 spokes of wheels. Dur
ing Wellington's arluous retreat from
Salamanca the only food of the horses
was twigs and the bark of trees. In
our Afghan war of 1888, 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 6o.COO cavalry, and re-
crossed it six months later with 1000.
Of the 5000 horses that we landed in
Egypt in 1882, over $500 came under
veterinary treatment, and GOO 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 as a nuisance and source of per-
.petual drudgery." This gentleman, in
deed, goes so far as to assert that, while
the German would sell his clothes to
feed bis horse, the Englishman would
sell his horse to buy spirits and toba eco.
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
single sound horse in the ranks De-
fective shoeing is another great and
generally avoidable evil. Armies have
been paralyzed from this cause. Nc
Clellan says that in the American civil
war the horses feet were in a deplor-
able state. and soldiers were often seen
leading limping horses, with the feet
Of dead horse hanging from the sad
dle-cut off for the sake of the shoes
In the EraOeO-Garvoop ooxroDoirv 41,o