Civil War horses at Crown Point
I have written and spoken several times over the years about Pink, Billy and Jeff, the Civil War cavalry horses that are memorialized on monuments at Crown Point.
In my research today, I read about the fate of many a horse that died in battle in the Civil War that have no graves.
A human soldier had one life to give for his country.
An equine soldier often sacrificed its body and flesh, once its life was taken.
“The popular idea is that when Rosinate yields up the ghost, he is buried in some field, or left to moulder into Mother Earth in the woods somewhere,” The Glen’s Falls Republican reported on April 5, 1864. “Not so. He has made his last charge and knawed his last fence rail, but there is from $20 to $40 left in the old fellow yet.”
The federal government had just awarded an annual contract to the highest bidder to pay $1.76 per dead horse — the equivalent of $28.78 in 2019 dollars — that the Army of the Potomac delivered to the factory.
The contract was expected to net the federal government $100,000 — the equivalent of $1.63 million in 2019 dollars.
Simply by removing and selling the hoofs, at the going rate of $2 a set, the contractor could make a profit.
Virtually every part of the horse was reused or re-purposed — the horseshoes, tail, hide and any tallow.
The shin bones were sold as an alternative material to ivory in making cane heads and knife handles.
“Hereafter, kind reader, when you see a dead horse, don’t turn up your nose at him, but regard him thoughtfully, as a foundation for a large fortune in a single year.”
A more altruistic notion would be to think of the horse as akin to the humans that donate their bodies for medical education and organ transplants.
When visiting Crown Point, it is good to pause and ponder the military service of Pink, Billy and Jeff.
It also is good to ponder the cavalry horses that have no graves to be marked.
