The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-09-28
THE MORGAN in THE CIVIL WAR
How Celebrated Breed Distinguished
Itself as Cavalry Mounts

club at White River Junction Ihurs-
day. September %:
At Pierpont, New Hampshire, lives
George Austin, now seyenty-three
years of age. an admirer of the Nor
gan horse. His knowledge of the
breed is derived from an experience
such as few men now living have
shared.
He was employed in 1861 by Quar-
termaster G. S. Blodgett, U. S. A., to
assist in the selection and purchase
of one thousand horses for the First
Vermont Cavalry. The horses were
purchased in the northeast section of
Vermont with few from the New
Hampshire towns in the Connecticut
River valley. The secretary of war
who knew the reputation of Vermont
horses, was anxious that a Vermont
Cavalry Regiment should immediate
ly take the field and in forty-two days
from tAe date of the order for rails
ing the regiment, the regiment was in
camp in Burlington, the uniforms pro-
vided and the horses on the ground
This was October l6, 1861 Mr.. Aus
tin says that the horses were all Nor
gans, that they were the best cavalry
mounts in the entire Union army and
that tney outworked and outlasted the
horses of any other regiment. As Mr.
Austin was soldier in that regiment
from its organization TO the close of
the war, he does not speak from
hearsay.
1t is worth while to see what the
records have to say of the First Yer
mont Regiment,-the First Cavalry
Regiment to go from the New Eng
land states in the War of 1861 and
TO see how far they support Mr.. Aus
tins opinion of the character of the
mount. The Newark, New Jersey
Advertiser" of December II, 1861,
in describing the march of the First
Vermont Cavalry through Newark
on the way to Washington, said. The
Green Mountain Boys arrived about
four o'clock and marched up Market
street amid the liveliest tokens of en-
tnusiasm. The horses are
small, compact and sinewy and evil
IDENTITY capable of great endurance. 1t
was the general remark that so splen-
did a body of animals had never been
seen together in this city"
The regiment reached Washington
December 20, and the Washington cor
respondent of the Boston Journal
reported to his paper that it was the
best cavalry mount that has been
seen at the Capitol"
General Stoneman. in compliment
ing Colonel Plat on the raising of
the regiment, wrote: ALLOW me to
express the wish that your success
through life may equal your success
in raising, mounting and bringing in.
to service one of the very best regi-
ments of cavalry that has been
brought to my notice"
The regiment lived up to its fine ap-
pearance. In seventyfive battles and
skirmshes, among them some of the
great and bloody battles of tne war.
the regiment was engaged and often
with conspicuous distinction. It was
at Gettysburg Cedar Creek. Cold Har-
Dor in the Wilderness campaign, in
the Shenandoah Valley and finally at
AppomattoX court house II was un-
der such generals as Merritt. Farms
worth, Custer. Fitzpatrick and Sheri-
dan. Both Farnsworth and Custer
led II personally. The rapidity of it's
movements and it's endurance in Gov
ering distances brought it promptly
TO the places where it was needed and
resulted in its often being placed in
the advance for the attack
The records of the war department
show the facts.
In a desperate charge ordered by
Fitzpatrick at Gettysburg, General
Farnsworth led the First Vermont
Cavalry in person, riding by the side
of Major Wells at the head of the
second battalion. They were support
ed by Colonel Preston with the first
and third battalions The regiment
encountered not less tnan five regi-
ments of Confederate infantry,-the
First Texas the Seventh and ninth
Georgia, the Fourth and Fifteenth AL
abama-and two batteries. General
Farnsworth was killed in this charge.
and writer says that any consider
able number of the men who charged
with Farnsworth survived so desper--
ate duty is eXplainable only by tne
fact that they were in constant and
rapid notion
BY public order on September II.
1868 General Fitzpatrick expressed his
thanks to Colonel Sawyer of the First
Vermont Cavalry for its prompt and
gallant manner in repulsing the en-
envy the day before at Raccoon Ford
On October IS, 1863, at Gainesville,
General Custer wrote: The First Yer
mont Cavalry, under Colonel Sawyer,
deserves great credit for the rapidity
with which they forced the enemy to
retire"
General Wilson, in reporting the
battle of Craig's Meeting House wrote
BY eight a. m, tne Second Brigade
with the First Vermont Cavalry, Col
onel Preston commanding, in advance
had arrived at Craig's Meeting House.
Just beyond, they encountered the en-
emy's cavalry, Rosser's Brigade and
after a very sharp fight and several
charges, drove it rapidly
back a distance of two miles" Col
onel Chapman, brigade commander,
reporting the engagement at Hanover
court house wrote: The service of
he First Vermont Cavalry this day
was arduous and severe and its loss
was neavy The command is worthy
If the highest praise" Three days
later at Cold Harbor, the Regiment
lost its brilliant leader, Colonel Pres
ton, of whom General Custer then
said: There lies the best fighting col
onel i'm the Cavalry Corps"
Clusters report of Cedar Creek
bears eloquent testimony to the worth
of both mar and horse in the First
Vermont cavalry. This is what he
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