Horses and mules served during the Civil War in greater number and suffered more casualties than the men of the Union and Confederate armies combined. Using firsthand accounts, this history addresses the many uses of equines during the war, the methods by which they were obtained, their costs, their suffering on the battlefields and roads, their consumption by soldiers, and such topics as racing and mounted music. The book is supplemented by accounts of the “Lightning Mule Brigade,” the “Charge of the Mule Brigade,” five appendices and 37 illustrations. More than 700 Civil War equines are identified and described with incidental information and identification of their masters.

The late Gene C. Armistead was a veteran Marine officer of the Vietnam War and the author of several articles, essays and two books about the Civil War.

Gene C. Armistead
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 256
Bibliographic Info: 35 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7363-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0237-0
Imprint: McFarland

Preface and Acknowledgments  1
Introduction  3
1. For Want of a Horse (or Mule)  5
2. Recruiting the Equines  14
3. Costs, Preferences, Transportation and Training  26
4. Lost on the Field of Battle  39
5. Lack of Feed, Bad Roads and Poor Care  49
6. Runaways, Stampedes and Wauhatchie  67
7. The Lightning Mule Brigade  72
8. Hippophagy  82
9. Equines and Morale  87
10. War’s End and Remembrance  95
11. The Naming of Civil War Equines  103
12. Roster of Civil War Equine Veterans  107
Appendices
A. Equine Colors and Marks  187
B. “Charge of the Mule Brigade” 189
C. “General Sheridan’s Horse” by Bill Nye  190
D. “Here’s Your Mule” 192
E. Locations of Civil War Equine Artifacts  194
Chapter Notes  196
Bibliography  217
Index  236

• “Meticulously sourced and nicely illustrated…an eye-opener for all Civil War history buffs…highly recommended”—Library Journal
• “Valuable…highly recommended”—Civil War News
• “A very interesting and useful work”—Civil War Talk
• “This is a very useful work for anyone with an interest in the Civil War or the management of horseflesh in warfare”—The NYMAS Review.