SADDLERS IN THE CIVIL WAR
Soldiers on both sides of the conflict rode horses of saddler conformation and breeding. Thanks to the photography of Mathew Brady and others, we have an excellent idea of what they looked like. Some were famous, some obscure, but all possessed comfortable “travelling”—that is to say, ambling—gaits.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee aboard his gelding Traveller 1857, by Grey Eagle 1835, out of the Morgan mare Flora sired by Blue Jeans—who sired many horses now considered to be Saddlebreds. Grey Eagle, a Thoroughbred, is by Woodpecker and traces in sire-line to Sir Archy; in tail female he goes back to *Morton’s Traveller. Lee was not stingy in praising Traveller’s goodmindedness, courage, steadiness and willingness, as well as his easy gaits and physical endurance.
Officers on both sides of the conflict rode horses with “saddler” conformation and breeding. The most famous of these on the Union side is General Philip Sheridan’s mount Rienzi (later renamed Winchester). Sometimes said to be a son of the original Black Hawk 1833, this is problematic because Rienzi was foaled in 1859—whereas Black Hawk died in 1856. Rienzi’s dam is unknown. Sheridan was given the 16-hand black in Mississippi in 1862 by the officers of the 2nd Michigan cavalry who had “conscripted” him from a local farm. This, along with the gelding’s size, makes it likely that Rienzi’s dam was an American Thoroughbred, i.e. a daughter or granddaughter of something like *Morton’s Traveller, Grey Eagle or Old Potomac. Conformationally, there is certainly a resemblance to Lee’s and Jackson’s horses, but with a little more apparent Morgan influence. The famous poem “Sheridan’s Ride,” penned by Thomas Buchanan Read, glorifies Rienzi’s goodmindedness and soundness: “Here is the steed that saved the day/By carrying Sheridan into the fight/From Winchester twenty miles away”—but the 1864 cavalry charge against Jubal Early’s men at Harper’s Ferry that the poem commemorates was by no means the only time the pair rode into battle, for the general was aboard Rienzi through some 45 engagements of which 19 were pitched battles. Rienzi was wounded several times, recovered, and lived to be almost 20 years old. My painting of the horse has been done directly from a photograph taken just after the end of the war in 1866.
Just as Jeff Davis is a much smaller and more compact animal than Lee’s Traveller, this gelding is noticeably taller and rangier. The mount of Confederate Major John W. Woodfin of the 2nd Regiment of the North Carolina Cavalry, this horse’s name is “Prince Hal”— which I take to be a pretty good indication that this horse came of the Tom
Hal bloodline. However, the animal’s long legs and rather narrow body belie the Thoroughbred influence typical of Southern saddler breeding; in conformation he is very much like many modern Saddlebreds, Kentucky Mountain pleasure horses and Spotted Saddlers. My painting has been done directly from a photograph taken early in the war, probably in 1861.
Overlay a tracing of Lee’s Traveller with Stonewall Jackson’s Little Sorrel and discover nearly identical conformation. While Traveller was foaled in Kentucky, Little Sorrel was bred in Connecticut. Sired by Ben Butler by American Traveler by *Morton’s Traveller, he is out of a mare by Napoleon by Sir Archy, and thus represents an exact inversion of Traveller’s pedigree.
Another very famous Civil War saddler was Jeff Davis, foaled in the mid-1850’s. Like Rienzi, this was a horse bred on a Mississippi plantation; he got his name after Union soldiers took him, during the Vicksburg Campaign, from the home of Jefferson Davis’ brother. Much smaller than Grant’s primary charger Cincinnati, a Thoroughbred, Jeff Davis nonetheless proved useful for the all-night reconnoitering that was Grant’s constant practice during the war. Easy-gaited and very sure-footed, he was much more headstrong than Cincinnati, and he was a positive terror to grooms during the Civil
War and during Grant’s White
House years because he was an aggressive biter. Grant himself was a remarkable horseman and horse empath, and does not seem to have had trouble on that account. Jeff Davis’ sire and dam are unknown, but my guess is that unlike Rienzi, he had no Morgan in him and not much Thoroughbred, but instead came primarily of the old Hiatoga breeding. My painting has been done directly from the Mathew Brady photo taken in 1864.