Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1896 — LOSS OF HORSES IN WAR. [ARTICLE]

LOSS OF HORSES IN WAR.

Napoleon Entered Russia with GO,* 000 and Returned with I,GOO. During the Prussian campaign In Bohemia the killed and wounded amounted to less than SKX), while 1,400 died of exhaustion and disease, and over 1,700 were east after the campaign. At the beginning of the siege of Plevna the Russia us had 60,000 draught horses bringing up supplies from Sistova, and at the end of it they had only 44,000, the enormous number of 22,000 having died from hard work. The difficulty of providing food Is naturally very great, and horses feel the deprivation, as well as want of rest, far more than men. They have very little reserve of fat to draw upon, and they have not the moral stimulus of the soldiers. When Murat reproached Nansouty for the spiritlessness of his cavalry charges, that general wittily replied that it was due to the horses’ waut of patriotism. The men might tight without bread, but the horses would not work without oats. So excessive Is the exhaustion sometimes that toward the close of the day at Borodino the French charged at a slow I trot. Half the horses that we landed In the Crimea never returned, and most of them owed their death to exhaustion and starvation. Five hundred artillery horses were killed under fire, 2.0Q0 died of want and disease. They fed on each other's tails, and ate the bottoms of carts and the spokes of wheels. During Wellington's arduous retreat from Salamanca the only food of the horses was twigs and the bark of trees. In our Afghan war of 1838, owing to the scarcity of food, 3,000 camels and 50 per cent of the cavalry horses were lost In three months. Napoleon crossed the Nleraen on his way to the assault on Russia with 60,000 cavalry, and recrossed it, six months later, with .1,600! He attributed his losses to the cold, but starvation had more to do with them. One can imagine the great warmaker crying, “Oh, for an automotor that does not require “oats!” Starvation and fatigue are especially destructive lu retreats. Even if there is food to give there is no time to give it. While retreating from Portugal, Messena lost more horses from starvation and fatigue in ten days than he had lost in the preceding five months’ campaign. Disease disables at least 12 per cent of the horses engaged In a campaign, and sometimes much more. As many as 40 per cent were invalided at one time in the Crimea. Of the 5,000 horses that we landed in Egypt In 1882, over 2,500 enme under veterinary treatment, and 600 were killed, 53 only being slain in action. Oue regiment is said to have had 200 horses on the sick list simultaneously—Pall Mall Gazette. According to trustworthy intelligence tlie shah of Persia has decided to visit Europe in the early spring of next year. Hj will first visit St. Petersburg, then Paris and London, and possibly also Berlin. Tile object of the , tour is merely one of pleasure.