As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
A war horse is a unique animal, as much as a hunter or a cattle horse. They are of the same trait in the good ones, in simply coming alive like a hunting dog when allowed to be liberated to what they were born for.
General Philip Sheridan in the northern Mississippi campaign of the Civil War had presented to him a three year old colt named Rienzi. This horse was the property of Captain Archibald P. Campbell of the Union forces.
Rienzi was an interestingly spirited animal, that Campbell was frightened to ride in he deemed the horse vicious and a probable danger.
Campbell never rode horses until the war, and the horse was just too much for him.
This horse was unique in being of Morgan lines. He was 16 hands high, powerfully built and with great endurance. He was jet black with three white socks, and in the etching of him appeared to possess a wavey coat.
Rienzi came out of Michigan apparently and was in the care of a farrier named John Ashley. Even after the horse was gifted to Sherman, Campbell would come to camp and visit the horse he loved.
Sheridan was given the horse as he had ridden him several times without incident.
The horse was extremely high strung for a gelding and I assume like my first horse that his cords were cut a bit long. For those unfamiliar with such events, when a horse is castrated, if he cords for the testicles are left longer, the geld will develop a more "piss and vinegar" energy than if his cords are cut shorter.
Rienzi had a great deal of life in him, and he never settled down, as he was always switching his tail and being nervous constantly.
General Sheridan rose this horse constantly throughout the war and the horse never lost his energy. Rienzi was tried on a few occassions in long marches and lack of fodder, but this horse served Sheridan immensely well, and the reality is a good commander was of little use unless they had a horse which was constantly available and not down with fatigue.
Buffalo Bill Cody, the great scout had two horses which could outrun any horse and do 50 miles in an Indian chase if need be. General Custer in his stock likewise had animals who could produce a 100 mile march in a day.
General Sheridan had such a horse.
Rienzi was wounded serveral times in battle, but escaped death in the Civil War and lived to the year 1878 in a well cared for old age of 17 years old, which was very old in an era when horses were glue by the time they were 8 years old in being worked or ridden to death.
His lines were of thoroughbred English steeplechase in being long and not rounded as American throughbred, with a hint of Morgan, but this horse was taller than the average Morgan.
He was written of by the poet T. Buchanan Read in the epic ride General Sheridan took from Cedar Creek to Winchester, but few remember this horse, who deserves such honor in being one of the fine horses of history, so he is featured here.
"Eighty of the horses of Houghtaling's battery having been killed, an attempt was made to bring his guns back by hand over the rocky ground, but it could not be done, and we had to abandon them. Hescock also had lost most of his horses, but all his guns were saved."
Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, General, United States Army
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