Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-05-26
SOUTHERN WAR HORSES.
StonewalI Jackson's Favorite Mount
Was Little SorreI.

StonewalI Jackson's Favorite Mount
Was Little Sorrel.
Among the many horses ridden dur
ing the civil war by Stonewall Jackson.
according to the Bulletin of the Soci-
ETY. for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals, his favorite was a charger
affectionately named Little Sorrel by
the Second Corps of the Army of Vir-
ginia.
The horse was about fifteen hands in
height and strongly resembled, except
in color, President Zachary Taylor's
Old Whitley of the Mexican war. Jack
son rode him Mt Bull Run, Winchester,
Cedar Mountain. Manassas, Antietam.
on many other battlefields.
He mounted Little Sorrel for the
last time at Charlottesville, May 2,
1868, and in the battle was mortally
week later. Gen. Bradley T. Johnson
Of Maryland, in letter to Gen. James
Grant Wilson remarks:
jackson was an ungainly horse
man, and when he rode by the troops
Little Sorrel would strike off on a run.
The general would pull off his cap and
ride bareheaded at full speed past miles
of shouting Confederates. The saying
was, when you heard that yell before
or behind you on the march. There
goes old Jack on rabbit'!"
Little Sorrel died at the Soldiers
Home near Richmond, at the age Of
SO years, and is now to be seen, like
Sheridan's Winchester, carefully pre-
served in a glass case, after being pre-
pared by a taXidermist, at Lexington,
Va.
Before the battle of Antietam Stone
wall Jackson was stunned by the rear
ing and falling back of a large gray
mare which had been presented to
him by an enthusiastic admirer and
was compelled for a short period to
ride in an ambulance.
When the engagement began he
again mounted the bay mare, and she
appears to have behaved in a satisfac-
tory manner, for during a lull in the
fighting the general was found under
an apple tree, with one leg over the
pummel Of his saddle, eating apples.
In this same battle General Lee was
compelled to ride in an ambulance
when he was not on foot, for both
arms and hands had been injured be-
fore leaving Virginia, from his being
thrown to the ground, his favorite
charger, Traveller, making a sudden
jump when his master was standing by
Il. cil 40 HI ta
right arm.
Gen. Wade Hampton's four charg-
ers were all stations, his favorite be-
ing Beauregard, magnificent chest
nut sorrel of great boldness and spirit
sixteen and a half hands in height
and as the South Carolinian believed,
the grandest horse in the southern ar
mics. But a few months before the
generals death in April, 1902, he wrote
to General Wilson:
"Beauregard was wounded at Get
tysburg at the same time that l was.
When l was taken to the hospital
Beauregard, after being unsaddled,
followed me there, lay down outside
and died within an hour"
Hampton was much interested in
similar touching incident of an Eng
lish colonel's declining years, which
favorite charger, which had borne him
through several campaigns in India,
and whose stanchness had on one oc-
casion saved his life in a desperate en-
counter with Sikhs, had been pension
ed and enjoyed many years Of idle
ness.
One morning he broke away from
his head and heel ropes, ran up to the
window of the bungalow at Hauser,
where Colonel Skinner was seated,
neighed loudly and dropped dead. as
much as to say: my end Is near; l
have come to take last farewell"
Two of the generals thoroughbreds
were killed during the civil war and
when his house in Columbia was de-
stroyed by fire in May, 1899. his own
and his ancestors swords were saved.
but unfortunately his saddle was lost,
which he had used on Beauregard and
his other horses in the war.
Twenty thousand people were pres
ent at Hampton's funeral at Colum-
bia, including many survivors Of the
Hampton Legion, carrying their orig
inal Confederate flags; also the flag
used by the generals grandfather In
the Revolutionary. war. In the same
city a noble equestrian statue Of
Hampton seated on Beauregard was
uHNelleu Ill 4NONGIllDCl, LOW.
While the general was member OF
the United States senate he said to
friend in Washington: Il rode the
black stallion at the first Bull Run
battle, where l commanded the Hamp-
ton Legion, composed Of cavalry, in
fantry and artillery. At the famous
fight at Brandy Station, where Stuart
got the best of Pleasanton. / rode the
dark chestnut. He was hard horse
to control in a charge and twice that
day he nearly carried me into your
lines.
Lastly l rode the light chestnut
Beauregard at the cavalry fight in the
rear of Meade's army at Gettysburg
and came near meeting the same fate
that / escaped at Brandy Station. My
experience with thoroughbreds in time
of war is that they are better to get
away from the enemy on than when
you are chasing them.
But when 1t comes to endurance
one thoroughbred will kill three cold
blooded half breeds. They will go
farther on less food, travel twice as
fast and show more courage in the
face of danger. l have ridden all my
stations into Federal batteries and
none of them ever flinched. Each was
wounded several times