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] . , , , | , . ] . : , HORSES STILL NEEDED FOR WAR PURPOSES. "Then i- many a war horse that is mora entitled to Immortality than the man who rides * him." General Robert B, Lee. So far as it can be estimated from Official sources, seven months of the worlds war now in pn . used up one million hones through death, wounds sickness and in some instances the killing of horses that, they might not fall into the hands of the enemy. The war horse has taken a tremendous parr in iiii- great war. although tbe nobi" animal has been superseded in a large measure by the automobile. Washington, Wellington. Napoleon, Grant, Lee. Sherman, Sheridan, to name the famous generals of a century, wont to war on the war horse: the modern general of today goes in a taxied. i! the romance; all tint ;os to make tlie picture* oe, seemingly is inking in these day-, when an tights wiih an enemy unseen. In a lurire measure the four lodged atet i supplanted by the throbbing motor. If yo want :■ see picturesque i ivalry charges, go to the museums when the war is over and look at the masterpieces of the oilier days. Grant and Lee saw each other but once in the famous campaign thai ended at Appomattox, and then at a great distance. ti recognised Lees Gray horse, but not bis rider. Going to war in taxicabs ami motor cars ami antes, the generals on opposite sides never see each other. It only requires Thomas Buchanan Heads lines 4 Sheridans Hide" to recall what changes fifty years of progress have made in Ihe method of going io war. No Riensl "will save Ihe day" in Ihis war. lor the war horse carrying generals into lights mi longer is able to stand the competition of the motor steed. An officer connected with the remount department of the British army saya that the life of a e in this war is ten day-, so ureal is tlie Unexampled wantage. In our Civil War a cavalry horse, under an active commander, lasted four months H his been estimated thai in the first seven mouths of the war. 3.000,000 horses wen- used, lor the complete mobilization of its army Ihe German Imperial - v eminent required 800.000 horses. The French cava ry alone required 230,000 horses, other figures for other branches of tie service not being available. For the British arm] in Prance ami Belgium there has been transported 200,000 horses, lor tin- cavalry, artillery and for the transport service, because of lack of railways, Russia is using 1,000,000 horses. Austria pur 290,000 horses into service, and lMith Belgium and Servia contributed horses: also Turkey. Phe life ,,f ,, vvar horse lasts only ten days, yet war horses of famous generals sometimes lived for years. When Washington was a colonel under General Braddock he took with him three war horses. Washington lOSt two of the three. One if Hum was replaced by Braddock. After the war this imrse later followed foxhounds for years. Washington carried five horses to the Revolutionary War. and. according to General James Grant Wilson, acquired by gift or purchase seven additional chargers. Sev-erel of them lived after ihe war was over. Wellington rode Copenhagen at Waterloo for IS hours. The Marquis of DouTO, eldest son of the Duke of Wellington, erected two monuments en the grounds of Strathfieldsaye, one to bis father and one to his horse. This brave borse was buried with military honors. A simple marble tombstone says: Here lies Copenhagen, the charger ridden by the Duke of Wellington the entire day of the Rattle of Waterloo. Born lsus. died 1836. ■■ Gods humbler Instrument ot meaner day, Should share the glory of that glorious day." " Twenty-eight years of life, one day Iron, before situ tip to after sundown in one of the sixteen decisive battles of the world up to the present wan. and yet the horse now in the wars average one thirl of twenty-eight day-. Napoleons Marengo lived for thirty-six years and was wounded seven times in the battle of Moid Si. .Ran. Grant rode six h..rs,.s. ihe ■ st valuable being Cimiiinatiis. for which be was offered 0,000. This was the horse that Lincoln rode when he visited Grant at City Point just before the close of the war. Cincinnatns lived for nine years following i m close of the war. General Robert B. Lees Traveler was bora in 1857 and came into Lees possession seven year- later. Traveler died years after Lee. the horse dying ill 1872. Sam came into possession of Sherman at Shilob and marched with Sherman on his way back from Viek-burg to Washington via Atlanta, Savannah. Columbia and Richmond. Sheridans Rcinzi was presented to him in 1862 and carried the brilliant general "from Winchester —twenty miles away." Keinzi lived until thirteen years after the close of the war. Practically every famous general has bad bOTOI -shot under him. but in these days when death v:dt-ti motor car no such luck as life perchea on iis hood. Because of the armor protection, bullets are dodged, but whin a b nib hits close enoug gles everything in its pathway. When the war broke out practically all the nations *l at war requisitioned every hone that wa- of i.-. le-s it was to the detriment of th" country, as ii case of stud horses. But racehorses, thorougbb ■ all of them were put to practical use. Hewletts famous horses were seined for the French army, and even Hennessys Grand Prix winner was requisitioned sktng with other blooded racers. The racetracks were turned inio huge cow pastures at Auti nil ami Longchamps. liven the famous Llberfeld thinking horses were the victims of war. being taken for duty in the Get man artillery a month or two after a reprieve was granted upon their first seizure. It is reported the horses died in the Flanders campaign. The "think-to* horses" did such wonderful stunts that various scientists investigated their abilities. Tin- astonish lag things that these horses did attracted attention for years all over Germany, France and Italy. II ward Pull.. ugh. of Cambridge Dniversit] ami Or V. .1. Wooiey looked into the abilities claimed for Hi •• "thinking bones" and reported to tlie S eietj of Psychical Research that they were not in any |M-i Hon Io uive any definite solution of the problem. These are the horses that Maurice Maeterlinck wrote of last spring. One of the homes could give the cube root of numbers running into several figures and spell out words and names All of this in such a way that .Maelerlim-k Bald after days of investigation: "1 could not have 1 n more astounded if I heard the dead speak. On- felt ashamed of the long injustice toward animals by human beings." Rut such are the wastes of war when "thinking ho-es" .no ii-, d to haul the guns. Richard Harding Davis, who was in Brussels when one division of the Herman army took three davs io pass through, followed the various armies, in gpeak-Inj of the appalling waste of horses ii,. nay a: "Thane thai first entered Brussels with the Her man army had been bred and trained for the purposes of war. and they were magnificent specimens. Everyone who saw them exclaimed ungrudgingl in admiration. But by the lime the army leached Ihe approaches of Paris the forced marches had so depleted tin- stock of horses that for remounts the Germans wire seizing all they met. Those that could not keep up were shot. For miles along the road from Me.nix to Soi-sons to RheintS their bodies tainted the air. "Tiny bad served their purpose, and after six W I Of campaigning the same animals that in time id peace would have proved faithful servants for many years were destroyed that they might not fall into the hands of the French. .lust as an artilleryman spikes his ulin. the Germans on their retreat from Ihe Ai-ne river left in their wake no borse that might assist in their pursuit. s they withdrew they searched each stable yard and killed Ihe horses. In village a rter village I Saw horses lying in ihe t nil- or iu ihe fields, still wearing the harness of ihe plow, or in groups of three or four in the yard of a barn, each with a bullet hob- iu its temple. They were killed for tear they illicit be useful." The war in Europe was far more destructive in its tirst sjN incntlis on horseflesh than year- of fighting in the Civil War. Vet look at th! appalling Bg-an - of Ihe ivil War. In in vcar the federal government purchased i-v,!s horses and captured 20.388 more. This shows that tin- federal- were using up 300 horses a day. and. as the confederates were just as busy as the federals, they probably used up as many. But. lic.-aring the confederates using too horses a day, thai would show a loss of 1,000 horses a day. When Sheridan wa- in Shenandoah Valbv he had a fresh nnppl] of 130 horses a day. New Vork Press.
