Existing comment:
Some horses that were sent to rear camps or infirmaries did recover. The Richmond Daily Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia, described the care given to sick and fatigued horses at an infirmary in Laurens County, Georgia in an article dated February 3, 1864. Horses that became diseased, worn down, or otherwise disabled in the public service in South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee were sent to this 3,000-acre facility.
The Dispatch described the care as follows:
Each animal is curried and rubbed daily, his legs and feet washed, and his particular malady or hurt carefully attended to. Indeed, all the diseases to which the horse is subject are here thoroughly treated by experienced and practical veterinary surgeons and farriers whose zeal is highly commendable and whose success has been remarkable.
Of the whole number of diseased and disabled animals thus far sent to the infirmary, nearly eighty-five percent has been saved.
Previous to the establishment of this infirmary, horses worn out or disabled in the service were turned out to perish around the camps, or left behind on the march; whilst all animals having glanders, heretofore considered incurable, were taken out and shot.
Without the horse, we can neither grow provisions for the army, nor move its supplies, nor keep proper watch upon the enemy. What further motive does a sagacious and patriotic Government require? |