Horses used on the Escape Route

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Horses used on the Escape Route - BettyO - 03-10-2014 06:03 AM

As an animal lover and equestrienne, I find information on the horses associated with the escape route fascinating. Found this article regarding an interview with Nailor (by which time the article was written Fletcher was deceased.)

Herold's roan pacer was named "Charley" according to Fletcher's testimony at the Surratt Trial in 1867 and the animal is described in great detail as being a red roan with black mane, tail and stockings. A roan horse can look gray in certain light; particularly at night. Fletcher also goes into great detail describing the tack (Saddle, bridle, etc.) used by Herold that night. We know what Powell's saddle and bridle looked like as it's on display at Ford's. Although Powell used the tack, it originally belonged to Atzerodt.

Unfortunately, we don't know the name of Powell's dark bay gelding nor Booth's spirited bay mare. Mr. Hall once told me that he knew the name of Powell's one eyed nag, but he never could remember just what it's name was.

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - RJNorton - 03-10-2014 07:30 AM

Fascinating article, Betty! If I am reading that correctly could this be the earliest published mention of Herold being with Powell at Seward's?

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - BettyO - 03-10-2014 07:54 AM

I caught that, too Roger.

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - Eva Elisabeth - 03-10-2014 05:21 PM

Thanks, Betty, for posting this (I agree) FASCINATING article. And thanks for the info that Powell's saddle and bridle are on display at Ford's. I'm curious what bridle he used. And would love to read Fletcher's testimony - may I ask where I could find this?
As for what happened to the horses - Ed Steers in "Blood on the Moon" writes it's not known whether the horses were killed or not.
May I ask - what are the forum members' opinions?
(Dave, I sure hope you are not going to try to find this out by experiment during your camping trip!)

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - L Verge - 03-10-2014 06:05 PM

I spent my whole life in Southern Maryland listening to the old-timers snicker about how the horses lived to ripe old ages on some Charles County farm - and I agree with them. Horses were valuable property. Also, the soldiers were looking for two-legged fugitives, not four-legged ones. Smart soldiers would have figured out that fugitives take to the cover of ground instead of perched on horses.

Shots would have reverberated through the fields and alerted the swarms of Union soldiers in the area. The shot to the first horse would have spooked the second one so badly that it would have been difficult to control it. Some have suggested that their throats were slit. Again, the smell of blood would have instantly sent the second horse into panic. The circling of buzzards would have alerted the troops, and the Zekiah is not known to have quicksand nor muck deep enough to suck a horse's carcass under.

Finally, Bill Richter and Rick Smith did an excellent article for the Surratt Courier several years ago on horse faking - the art of disguising a horse in a natural manner so that it is unrecognizable as the original one. Of course, Jones, Cox, and Herold would testify that the horses were disposed of -- they didn't want to tattle on any of their friends and cohorts that they had to live out the rest of their lives with.

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - Wesley Harris - 03-10-2014 06:09 PM

(03-10-2014 07:30 AM)RJNorton Wrote: Fascinating article, Betty! If I am reading that correctly could this be the earliest published mention of Herold being with Powell at Seward's?

Twenty years after the event but that's the best evidence we've seen so far. Herold's presence at Seward's has been mentioned in dozens of books but never with a citation as to the story's source.

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - BettyO - 03-10-2014 07:01 PM

Quote:I'm curious what bridle he used. And would love to read Fletcher's testimony - may I ask where I could find this?

Powell used a double reined pelham bridle and bit. He was reputed to have been a good rider, so this is understandable. You have to be a good equestrian to handle double reins. It's not easy to do - and I've only done it once! It gives you a lot of control over the horse.

[attachment=472]

Fletcher's testimony is in the 1867 Surratt Trial Transcript; Volume I, Page 228 and Volume II, p. 1049. You can find a copy of the trial transcript here:

https://archive.org/details/trialjohnhsurra00surrgoog

Laurie - you are also correct. I've heard Mr. Hall say more than once that he believed that those horses "lived out their lives on some farm somewhere." He never believed the story of the animals being killed. They were too valuable, he used to say.

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - BettyO - 03-11-2014 12:59 PM

Here is a photo of the tack which was used by Powell on the night of April 14, 1865.

This image is from 1904.

[attachment=474]

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - Eva Elisabeth - 03-11-2014 03:05 PM

Many thanks for all the comments on the horses' whereabouts, and also, Betty, for the link and the pictures. Looks like an English saddle with "western" stirrups? (Betty, pelhams are maybe not so common here, what is the difference as for the effect/purpose compared to a curb? Or better - what is the advantage?)
Laurie, may I ask, would a copy of that horse-disguising article still be available? This sounds very interesting!

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - BettyO - 03-11-2014 03:32 PM

Quote:Looks like an English saddle with "western" stirrups? (Betty, pelhams are maybe not so common here, what is the difference as for the effect/purpose compared to a curb? Or better - what is the advantage?)

Powell was a cavalryman in the latter period of his service with the Confederate army, so he had a familiarity with horses (also due to the fact that his dad was also a blacksmith.) Some cavalrymen used double reins; Powell may have as well. Keep in mind as well that Private James Toffey said in statement that when he found Powell's horse, that he was "excitable and hard to control." This may have necessitated the use of the double bit, or it could have been that being blind in one eye, the old horse was easily spooked and needed extra control.

The double reins gives the rider more control over the animal and the bit is jointed in the middle like a snaffle. Curb bits are not jointed in the middle (I've never seen a jointed one!) and rely on a high port (middle of the bit's shank with a "U" shape.) The higher the port, the more control, as the port pushes up into the roof of the horse's mouth as opposed to the jointed snaffle or pelham where it will pinch the horse's tongue for control. This sounds cruel, but it's not, as a good rider doesn't exert much pressure on the horse's mouth.

Powell's saddle is a standard 19th Century English saddle. The seat is padded, as were most during the Victorian era. The stirrups are wooden like those of a cavalry saddle. Powell, used to cavalry equipment, probably preferred this. It was recorded by Fletcher that Herold chose steel stirrups on the saddle he used with his roan rent-a-horse!

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - Wild Bill - 03-11-2014 04:25 PM

For Eva and anyone else who is interested, see J. E. “Rick” Smith, III, “What Is Horse-Faking?” Surratt Courier, 33 (No. 4, April 2008), 4-6; “More on the Fate of the Horses,” ibid., 33 (No. 5, May 2008), 4-5. Smith was inspired by a Sherlock Holmes Story, "Silver Blaze." see, e.g., William S. Baring-Gould (ed.), The Annotated Sherlock Holmes (2 vols., New York: Clarkson N Potter, Inc., Publisher, 1967), II, 261-81. For a story of "horse-faking" in action during the American Civil War, from the Yankee side, see Benjamin W. Crowninshield, A History of the First Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1891), 291-92.

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - Eva Elisabeth - 03-11-2014 06:22 PM

Betty and Bill, GREAT info, many thanks!!! I wonder what kind of stirrup JWB had to cope with regarding his broken leg.

I found "A History of the First Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers" here:
https://archive.org/details/historyoffirstre00crowuoft
This book looks at all interesting in order to find out more about horses in the CW, so it's on the "reading pile" (rather a tower) now. Nevertheless, I would appreciate any hint or answer to (one of) these questions:
- How many horses "served" in the CW?
- Where did all the horses - and the equipment - come from? Was a certain breed prefered?

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - BettyO - 03-11-2014 07:11 PM

Eva - most historians speculate that more han 1,000,000 horses and mules were killed during the war alone. Here is a great site regarding animals in the war:

http://www.reillysbattery.org/Newsleter/Jul00/deborah_grace.htm

Most horses were of various breeds. For instance, General Lee's Traveller was a "walking horse"; more or less a Tennessee Walker, an American breed known for it's gentle gait. Lee had another lesser known war horse, Lucy Long, who was somewhat gun shy so he didn't ride her much. Mosby had a Thoroughbred, Coquette. General Grant likewise had Cincinnati, also a Throughbred. Tad Lincoln's "Little Jeff" was a small pacer - and had previously been owned by Mrs. Jefferson Davis. Lew Powell's favorite mare when he rode with Mosby was a Thoroughbred. Unfortunately, we don't know her name, other than that she was "blood bay" in color. Most of the southern horses were Walkers or American Saddlebreds while in the North, the Morgan breed was popular.

The beautiful statue of the "War Horse" is at the Virginia Historical Society (it's their logo) and is a memorial to all the animals killed and wounded in the war.

[attachment=475]

Thanks for the info, Bill! The article you wrote is wonderful - and yes, there is a good bet that the Booth horses did wind up as "horses of another color", living out their lives on some Southern Maryland farm - or so Mr. Hall believed....

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - Wild Bill - 03-11-2014 07:43 PM

Hundreds of thousands of horses and mules served. Wagons, caissons and artillery used six horses when possible but the Confederates later settled for four. Drivers of wagons usually rode the nearside wheel animal. In the artillery, each team was guided by a man mounted on the nearside animal. Horse artillery had every gunner mounted to keep up with the cavalry. Otherwise the gunners walked or rode on the caissons--a practice frowned on in the regulations but common on the road. Lack of hoses and mules were common in battlefield States like Virginia and Tennessee. Once in Sept 1862 after the Battle of Antietam the Yankees took such poor care of their mounts that the whole horse herd of the Army of the Potomac foundered and had to be destroyed--about 10,000 animals.

The Yankee Cavalry preferred Morgans, but every breed was used, and southerners were generally expected to provide their own mount. Officers liked to ride something special often. At the beginning both sides liked to match horses in each company (later called troop) 100 men. battle casualties changed that to whatever horse available would do. In the South the border stated and upper South raised the most horseflesh. Missouri and Tennessee had the best mules, those states plus Kentucky and Virginia provided horses. The Morgan was started in New England. It took the Yankees about 2-3 years to catch up to the Southerners in riding ability, because of the lack of riding in the North and its predominance in the South. The Yankees introduced repeating carbines in 1863 which negated much of the South's initial advantage.

The equipment was manufactured in the North and Europe, but he South captured much equipment in the first years of the war. Union Gen Nathaniel Banks gave up so much equipment that the Southerners called him "Commissary Banks."

Most of this is off the top of my head--I did my master's thesis on cavalry in the Gettysburg Campaign. One side note to those who are going into Mosby Country on Sunday. Aldie is where Major DHL Gleason was sabered and caused him to retire to the War Department where he became the boss of Louis Weichmann. Have fun!

RE: Horses used on the Escape Route - L Verge - 03-11-2014 07:52 PM

Speaking of Mosby country - I may have heard this before and forgotten it, but I had someone tell me the other day that Mosby captured Boston Corbett in a stone barn in Fairfax, Virginia???