Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1898 — FAMOUS WAR HORSES. [ARTICLE]

FAMOUS WAR HORSES.

Gallant Chargers that Carried Their Masters Through Great Battles. Out of the many thousands of horses that have carried their riders through battle the number of those whose names are known to fame is comparatively few. One war horse that made a splendid record for himself, and now has his virtues, name and noble deeds engraved on a fitting tombstone, was the little chestnut the great Duke of Wellington rode at the battle of Waterloo. Copenhagen, named after the capital of Denmark, from which country and city he came, was a spirited thououghbred, standing thirteen hands high, and $2,000 was the price paid for him by_the duke. Copenhagen served under Wellington during the Spanish war, and for eighteen hours he carried his master at Waterloo. After this he was sent to the duke’s home, Strathfieldsaye, in England, to take his ease. He received great attention and was honored by a monument at his death by the duke himself. The monument is still to be seen. Nine years after Emperor Napoleon died at St. Helena an old white horse perished of old age and pneumonia in England. The skeleton of this animal is set up In the Royal United Service Institution in Whitehall yard, London, and to all visitors it Is pointed out as Marengo, the charger Napoleon rode at the battle of Waterloo. Marengo came originally from Egypt, and was left to wander on the dismal battlefield when the Emperor was forced to fly for his life. An English officer found and took lilm, and he was sold to an English general. In English pastures, cared for by reverent grooms, this noble white beast passed the latter years of his life far more peacefully and happily than his great and unfortunate master. Gen. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Ulysses S. 'Grant, Gen. Stonewall Jackson and Gen. Sheridan all brought their favorite chargers safely through many bloody battles, and both Lee and Jackson were outlived by their war horses. Cincinnati, Gen. Grant’s most famous stud, was presented to him by a man also named Grant, but no relation of the fA.it commander. Cincinnati weatheWd the perils of war and died as sineerely, lamented as he had lived respected.

A sober brown horse, the one Washington rode at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, was hung with elaborate mourning robes and led by a groom, ami followed quietly behind the coffin of his dead master. It was on the back of Sorrel that Stonewall Jackson received his death wound, and the plucky little horse then passed into the keeping of his master’s father-in-law, a clergyman. In 1886 he died a death natural to venerable horseflesh after having seen many terrible battles, and his -body, very skillfully mounted, now stands in a glass case, in the library of the Soldiers’ Home, Virginia.

There are very few American children who do not know that Gen. Sheridan’s most noted black warhorse was called Winchester. He, too, outlived all the perils of war, not dying until IS7G, when his body was mounted and now can be seen in the museum of Governor’s Islernd in New York hiv.