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REGARD OF SOLDIER FOR HIS HORSE Great Little Colonel Who Reprimanded Soldier for Humanitarian Act Taken to Task A London weekly had this paragraph among its war stories storiesA A sergeant tells the following story of his men While out with his Imttery the man with tears streaming down his face as the result of the German use of lachrymatory shells saw that his horse was similarly affected Pulling down his mask to save himself he proceeded to cut up his smoke helmet to protect his horse and was thereupon taken before the colonel to answer for destroying government property Asked for an explanation of his action the man replied that he loved his horse The ser ¬ geant was asked by the colonel if ho thought the man really had such affection for the animal and replied that he could quite believe the mans story as he once saw him crying for half an hour beside his dead horse The man was let off with a cau ¬ tion The indignant protest made by Henry Benson a veteran of the turf in the London press was i spirited reminder of the regard which soldiers always hold for their faithful servants Mr Benson wrote from a bed of illness so serious that phy ¬ sicians were visiting him twice daily Firstly dailyFirstly let me say that I am confident that I am expressing the opinion of every lover of horses when I state that I am proud that the Britisli army possesses such a splendid humanitarian as the sol ¬ dier referred to and I blush with shame when the story reveals that it embraces such a colonel colonelApart Apart altogether from the Godmade law of duty of man to his beast this soldier was actually from the sordid pecuniary point of view serving the na ¬ tion faithfully since nobody will question the com ¬ parative value of a trained army horse and a smoke helmet And yet forsooth my little great lord the colonel with all that insolence which office and brief authority too often bring in their wake ac ¬ tually dismisses him with a caution whereas he ought to have paraded the regiment and pointed the trooper to his fellows as the model of what an English horseman sportsman or soldier should be beAnd And for the benefit of that colonel and his kid ¬ ney if any there be in the British army may I sir give a few examples of the treatment meted out by the greatest soldiers in the worlds history to their steeds Without exception they never failed to remember that their noble and faithful servants had been transported from comfortable stables to the battle plains to share the sufferings that they and their men were called upon to endure and that a sacred bond of obligation was thereby placed upon their riders ridersWAR WAR STEEDS IMMORTALIZED IMMORTALIZEDIndeed Indeed many war steeds have been immortalized and in the English mind the most prominent is Wel ¬ lingtons Copenhagen The famous charger was a full rich chestnut grandson of the mighty Eclipse standing barely 15 hands high and purchased by the duke for 400 pounds But his powers of endurance were wonderful 4I rode him said Wellington at the battle of Waterloo from four in the morning until midnight If be fed it was in the standing corn and as I sat in the saddle At the end I per ¬ sonally saw that lie was fed and attended to before I touched my dispatches Mark that my little great lord colonel In Spain he carried his master hundreds of miles and in addition to Waterloo he was present at Vittoria and Toulouse He died at Strathfieldsnye in 1835 at the ripe old age of 27 And now my little great lord colonel I am going to give you a terrible shock He was buried with military honors and the duke yes the Iron Duke God bless his memory caused the following inscrip ¬ tion to be placed over his resting place Gods humble instrument though meaner clay Should share the glories of that glorious day dayScarcely Scarcely less famous was Napoleons love for his white stallion Marengo whose skeleton I believe may be seen at the Royal United Service Institute while no man had greater regard and affection for a horse than the late Earl Kitchener Indeed every officer and gentleman the two terms were for ¬ merly synonymous in tiie British army has a pecu ¬ liar love for his charger and probably there are few distinguished soldiers who have not in their possession mounted hoofs as mementos of their de ¬ parted favorites Copenhagen and Marengo to say nothing of Lord Kitcheners Democrat by no means end the roll of honor and compiling it short list from memory what romance attaches to Caligulas Incitatus King Arthurs Spurnador Alexanders Bucephalus whom nobody but his master could mount Raymonds Aquiline Richard IIs Roan Barbary to which Shakespeare refers my little great lord colonel Kithard IIIs White Surrey also immortalized by the Bard of Avon Lord Marmines Bevis William IIIs Sorrel whose stumble in a mole hole brought about his masters dentil Lord Cardigans Ronald which he rode in the Bulnklava Charge and Earl Roberts favorite charger which Queen Victoria decorated with the South African medal To that list let me add just one other Among the many war documents which I have read since August 1914 none im ¬ pressed me more than a letter sent by a private in the Dragoon Guards to his mother which con ¬ tained the following passage They shot my greatest friends from under me my horse Minnie the most faithful animal in the world God forgive them for that I never will And now my little great lord colonel I dismiss you with a caution
