El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-03-22
HORSES FOR
WAR TIME
Greater Demand For Mounted
Fighting Men.
EXPERIENCES TEACHINGS
Enormous Consumption OF Horses
And Mules When Nations Fight
Each Other.

Ltnc1!n'5 cabinet, says the LonuO[
Field, gives some faint conception o
the enormous consumption OF horses
and mules entailed by active hostilitie!
on q large scale during sach a Titanic
war as tn at between the northern snd
southern states of the American union
which lasted from April, 1861, to May
1865. The report in question is dated
Washington March l, 1865, and contain.
the following striking passage:
THE supply of horses aud mules Il
our army has long been at the rate O.
500 per day, which is also the average
rate of their destruction. The cavalry
of the army of the Potomac was twice
remouuted during the first eight month:
of 1854. The of supply
in this country were able to ear tbs
immense drain upon its horses and
mules. and judging from current prices
tas stock shows no sym oto ms OF exhau5-
ton or d~iminutiOn. An army in the field
well equipped with artillery, cavalry
n trains, requires one horse or one
mule to every two men. The number
of horses aud mules in our armies are
nearly equal"
Mr.. Stanton omits. however, to
state that but for Canada, from which
the Washington government drew vast
numbers Of the horses that Its armies
needed there would have been a great
augmentation in the price OF the
animals purchased. The Dominion of
Canada was not only able to contribute
aneveriailiug supply of horses to its
gigantic southern neighbor during the
last two years Of the civil war, but it
was found by practical experience in
the field that the Canadian horses were
more hardy than those which came
from the northern states. The same
proud boast may be made about the
Australian Waier5, without which our
Indian armies would nave been
utterly unable to face the drain OF
war exacted by frequent campaigns
and by the demands of our military
establishment in time of peace.
II there il one lesson more impressive
than all tae others taught by the war
raging between Great Britain and
the two South African republics 1t IS
that mounted infantry, to which our enc
mics o We their marvellous mobility, will
ply G far more conspicuous psrt in
the future Organization of armies than
has hitherto bsen the case. In a strtk-
ing letter contributed last Tuesday by
Mr.. j. B. Robinson, one Of the wealth.
est OF the Tra1svaal m~illionaires to the
Daily News, he urges Is not to forget
that "the system upon which the Beers
fehti Is entirely new in modern warfare.
WHIST u troops require is a thorough
course of instruction in accurate shoot
IIR. III 6l5O GH1s UdO me Sl1OGAo z
come expert riders. One hundred
thousand men SO taught and properly
trained would equal in efficiency
four hundred thousand troops trained
on the ordinary European system. The
same lesson was strongly incuicated
oy the American civil war, in which
many OF the cavalry regiments on both
sides we're practically mounted in
fantry. General Longstrees. one of
the hardest fighters a1d best soldiers
the confederate side, never forgot
oae experience gained by him during
his retreat from Knoxville, Tenn, to |
Virginia, in January, 1864. His sup
oily trains and army wagons were o
ing slowly along a road banked by
airy regiment, 800 or 900 strong,
emerged from the forest ard attem pied
to capture some wagons Three OF the
attacking troopers dismounted and
b anded their horses to a fourth, who
never left the saddle. The dis
mounted men were armed with
Spencer repeating rifles, and kept
al incessant fire upon an infantry
regiment OF about equal strength. To
General Longstreet's astonishment, his
OWN men, armed with muzzle-loaders,
began to fall quickly, while producing
little effect upon their Quick-fring as
Before long, one of Long 3
finest brigades, about 5000 /
was engaged, and it took them {
hours to drive off their puny foe. +
TO one OF the staff officers by
ais eide, Lougstreet remarked: This
'ystem Of fighting with ~dismounted
armed with quick-6ring wea-
oons, will shortly revolutionize the
Whole art Of war all over the world "
II the calculation Of Mr.. Stanton, the
American secretary of war in 1855, be !
orrect, 100, 900 British troops o en- I
ragged in fighting the Beers would
iced so 1000 horses and mules to keep {
hem going. Where would 1t bs pos :
ible for Great Britsin, even with it's |
world wide empire behind it, TO collect |
UGH a number of quadrupeds in three :
months? In spite OF the stupendous ,
forts nov put forward by the var de- g.,
'actment, it Is doubtful whether there .
al this moment 1900 four-footed l
Roberts, and the supplies needed TO re-
their waning numbers must,
re fear. be wholly inadequate. We ;
reminded of the frequent letters ;
by the late Mr.. Edmund
7a.tersall to the Times and other
ewspapers Oh the subject of Cur !
deficiency in native bred
horses. Every year these .,
ere secured by agents from l
rance, Germany and Russia, who buy S
p all the likely-looking young mares ?
-hich seem capable of producing colts
{ what Sir w. Gibley aptly calls "the Y
epersl utility stamp Yet nothing y
more certain than that the increased g
emsnd for mounted infantry, which C
i'll be one of the inevitable results of Q
MS war, cannot fail to make it more c
ificul5 than ever to supply horses to q
led it. We do not believe in the re-
orts of royal commissions or of special
which are swiftly forgot