Several generations of Americans remember My Weekly Reader as a source of news in the schools.

The goal of the four- to eight-page weekly paper, which was distributed via the classroom, was to bring awareness to children of what was happening in the world. Educators hoped that this type of publication would improve young people’s knowledge of the time in which they lived, while also making them lifelong newspaper readers.

Schools purchased the publication in bulk. A nominal fee (about $2 in the 1950’s) was collected from parents to offset district charges. (Schools generally had money for those who could not afford it.)

The newspaper was distributed on Friday afternoons. This must have offered a welcome relief to teachers who were ready for something interesting to fill the final afternoon before the weekend. 

The First Issue of My Weekly Reader

The first issue of the newspaper was published September 21, 1928, and was primarily aimed at fourth graders. The lead story was about the childhoods of the two candidates running for president in the 1928 election. Al Smith was the Democratic candidate and Herbert Hoover represented the Republicans. The headline read: “Two Poor Boys Who Made Good Are Now Running for the Highest Office in the World!” 

As the publication evolved, the newspaper included a lead story and a regular column on innovations. Discussion questions about the lead story appeared were a part of each issue. Teachers sometimes used those for quizzes or as homework.

During the 1930s, a geography column was added. “Uncle Ben” traveled the world and sent letters home describing the country he just visited. The newspaper also contained captioned photographs, cartoons, and puzzles and games that were tied into current events in some way.

The company knew it had a hit on its hands during the first year. The circulation that year reached 100,000.

The Idea for My Weekly Reader

There are three people who need to be mentioned when it comes to the creation of My Weekly Reader.  Harrison Sayre was a salesman for American Education Press, which distributed school publications including Current Events, a weekly newspaper for high school students. In a “Letter to the Editor” in The New York Times (11-4-1987), Sayre’s son writes that his father may have picked up the idea from a teacher or school administrator in Indiana as he traveled the country for AEP.

Sayre submitted the idea to his company. In 1928, he obtained funding from AEP’s owner to start a newspaper for elementary school children. He became the managing editor and hired children’s author, Martha Fulton, as editor. Fulton put together the first few issues.

The third person involved, Eleanor M. Johnson 1892-1987), was head of elementary education curriculum in York, Pennsylvania. After the first few issues, Fulton hired Johnson as a freelancer to experiment with what would work on the back page.

Johnson continued to maintain her job in Pennsylvania while freelancing for My Weekly Reader. She was hired to work full-time in 1934 and served as editor-in-chief. She retired in 1966 but continued to work as a consultant to the company.

Johnson is the name most strongly associated with My Weekly Reader because of her longevity.

Success Continued

By the end of the 1930s, first through sixth graders each had their own edition of My Weekly Reader.  The newspaper’s circulation grew to a high of 13 million in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. There were also curriculum-specific magazines for middle and high school students, including areas such as health, science, careers, reading, and writing.

It is estimated that two-thirds of American adults grew up reading My Weekly Reader. 

Viewpoint Closely Monitored

My Weekly Reader was sometimes criticized for its narrow perspective on the world.  World War II was described to young readers as a time when “thousands of American men [in the Army] are learning to cook and sew.” The publication also touted one of the benefits of war being the development of many inventions that were being created in response to the needs of the time (butter that would not spoil, dishes that did not break if dropped, etc.)

Later, the Civil Rights movement was all but ignored, and while the Korean War was written about to some extent, the Vietnam War was not.  Clearly, controversy was avoided.

Positive Philosophy of Optimism

The Los Angeles Times quoted from a speech given by Eleanor Johnson in 1942 where she described the publication’s philosophy: “…We promise to do our share in guarding America’s children from the hazards of fear, tensions, and frustration and to contribute to emotional stability through the inspiration and reassurance that the carefully selected current content of My Weekly Reader brings to children. Ours shall be a positive philosophy of optimism.”

Publication Continued

With Eleanor Johnson at the helm, Harrison Sayre became a board member of American Education Press. He eventually served as president of the company.  Sayre always gave a great deal of credit for the creation of the publication to Martha Fulton.

In 2007, Weekly Reader Corporation became part of The Readers Digest Association. That company tried to create a viable online version but was unsuccessful.  In February 2012, Weekly Reader was acquired by its competitor, Scholastic. 

Six months after acquiring the publication, Scholastic chose to shut down My Weekly Reader. The company said that the need to transition to a digital format and the drop in subscribing schools usher in the end. Today Scholastic still publishes a news magazines, but it no longer uses the My Weekly Reader name.

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Many readers write to me looking for copies of My Weekly Reader. Scholastic never digitized it, and they did not seem to save sample copies of the previously published newspaper. I remain convinced that there are still long-forgotten copies in America’s basements or attics. Every now and then I check eBay, and there will be some copies for sale. Keep watching! In the meantime, if you would like to share your memories of Weekly Reader, I would be delighted. Please use the comments section.

Mar-a-Lago, owned by former president Donald Trump, was built by Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887-1973) in the 1920s. The cereal heiress wanted a winter retreat for herself and her second husband, Edward F. Hutton. She was said to have climbed through the jungle-like undergrowth with a real estate agent in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1924. They were in search of a piece of solid ground large enough to anchor the mansion she envisioned.

Post was already independently wealthy by this time. When she was only 27 (in 1914), her chronically ill father took his own life. With his death, she inherited the very successful Postum Cereal Company. Marjorie Post had been exposed to the business end of the company so she stepped in and proved to be a good manager. But after marrying financier Edward Francis Hutton in 1920, she ceded the chairmanship to him in 1923.

This gave her time for planning their winter retreat.

Building Mar-a-Lago

In 1924, Post purchased 17 acres on the island of Palm Beach and hired architect Marion Sims Wyeth. Wyeth was a Princeton-educated architect who trained in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts before joining the well-known U.S. architectural firm, Carrère & Hastings.

During her earlier years, Marjorie Post traveled extensively in Europe. The mansion she wanted to build would bring together Spanish, Moorish, and Venetian architectural elements and would be reminiscent of the grand villas along the Mediterranean.

Wyeth knew the home needed to be stunningly beautiful but also strong enough to withstand hurricanes. He and Post began gathering ideas and materials for what was to become a 55,700 square-foot house.

Wyeth imported vast amounts of Dorian stone from Italy, while Marjorie Post tracked down a collection of Old Spanish tiles—some dating to the 15^th century–that had belonged to Mrs. Horace Havemeyer (the Havemeyer fortune came from sugar refining). Today these Mar-a-Lago tiles are thought to be the largest collection of their kind in the world.

From a distance, the focal point of the mansion is a 75-foot tower from which Post and her guests could enjoy magnificent water views. Because the home was situated between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Worth, the tower affords 360-degree land- and seascapes. This location also inspired the villa’s name: Mar-a-Lago, Spanish for sea-to-lake.

Mar-a-Lago Interior

To work with her on the interior of the house, Post wanted a unique talent, and she sought out Joseph Urban, a theatrical designer. They would be planning design and decoration for vast public rooms—indoor and out—as well as 58 bedrooms and 33 bathrooms. Urban had designed sets for the opera house in Boston before being lured to New York to work for the opera company there. In this position, he was spotted by Flo Ziegfeld who hired him to design for the Ziegfeld Follies. This theatrical approach and large scale was exactly the look that Post wanted.

Room-by-room, Post and Urban worked to make each space feel special by adding unique architectural details. The gold leaf ceiling in the living room is a copy of the “Thousand-Wing Ceiling” in the Academia in Venice (the former school is now a museum).  At Post’s request, religious symbols featured in the original ceiling were replaced with sunbursts and secular coats of arms. There was no economizing on the overall look, however. The gold leaf required for the living room completely exhausted the country’s stock of gold leaf.

The living room faces east toward the Atlantic Ocean, and an over-sized arched window highlights the ocean view. Post wanted one single, beautiful pane of glass to look through. The window was so large that special travel arrangements had to be made. The glass was specially manufactured at a factory in Pittsburgh, and then a protective crate was built around it. The route to Florida via freight car had to be carefully calculated to take into account the height of certain bridges and the dimensions of some tunnels. If the fit was tight, the train had to be re-routed to go another way.

All went well with the transport, and the glass arrived safely.  But while installing the pane into the window frame carved with gryphons, the glass shattered. The entire process was repeated a second time, this time with more success.  (To read more about the design details of Mar-a-Lago, visit Historic Details.com.)

Marjorie Merriweather Post and E.F. Hutton

After the Huttons married, they took on more traditional marital roles. Marjorie gave birth to their only daughter, Nedenia, who grew up to become actress and philanthropist Dina Merrill (1923-  ). After the birth of her daughter, Post devoted herself to plans for the house.

Hutton assumed the chairmanship of the board of the Postum Cereal Company. Under his guidance, Postum acquired other companies, including the Jell-O Company, Log Cabin products, the Swans Down Flour Company, and the Minute Tapioca Company, among other businesses. In 1929, Postum bought Birdseye Frozen Foods, by then known as General Foods. With that acquisition, Postum took on what was by now the more appropriate name–General Foods.

Active Winter Life at Mar-a-Lago

Mar-a-Lago was completed in 1927, and during the next ten years or so, Mar-a-Lago and the Huttons’s social activities were frequently described in the society pages of newspapers, including The New York Times.

One such article (The New York Times, March 12, 1929) described a multi-day party featuring the “greatest show on earth.”  The Ringling circus wintered in Florida, and so Marjorie Post arranged for a good number of the performers to come to Mar-a-Lago to put on a circus. Several performances were given for friends, and a special benefit performance was given for the Animal Rescue League.

The private circus opened with a grand parade featuring clowns, trained dogs, high-stepping Arabian horses, trapeze artists, and a miscellaneous group of other artists including “seven French midgets, all of whom speak at least seven languages,” as well as Spark Plug, the world’s smallest mule.  John Ringling also sent over a slightly smaller version of the circus band.

The New York Times listed some of the “freaks” in the circus side show: a living skeleton, an armless wonder, the mysterious sword-box, a clairvoyant, a Scotch piper, a sword dancer, and a magician.

Audiences were provided with hot dogs, bags of peanuts and popcorn, and refreshing glasses of pink lemonade. To see a short video of the circus, click here and scroll down. (The video makes it clear that the weather was not ideal for the event.)

Mar-a-Lago in Later Years

Post and Hutton divorced in 1935, but Post continued to spend some of her time at Mar-a-Lago.  When Marjorie Post died in 1973, she left her 128-room home to the U.S. government to serve as a winter White House.

But after evaluating the property, the administration of President Jimmy Carter returned it to the Post Foundation. Administrators were daunted by the cost of the upkeep, and there was also the issue of security. The property lies just a couple of miles from the main runway of the West Palm Beach airport.

Looking Like a White Elephant

Despite sitting vacant, people knew the community had an architectural gem. An application to list it as a national historic landmark was approved in 1980.

A few years later, businessman Donald Trump made an offer of $28 million for the property to develop it as one of his clubs. Because the zoning was for residential use only, the sale didn’t go through.

That left Trump to practice the art of the deal. Working through a third party, Trump bought a beachfront property directly beside Mar-a-Lago. He then threatened to build an over-sized home that would block Mar-a-Lago’s ocean view.

Of course, he pointed out to the town and to the Foundation, he would not build the planned-for monstrosity next to Mar-a-Lago if the mansion were sold to him. They soon saw the wisdom of his plan.

In 1985 Trump had his deal. Trump paid a little under $10 million for the house including many of the lavish furnishings and antiques within. This was much less than or original offer.

Mar-a-Lago: A Club

The club permits took a number of years to go through. In April 1995, The Mar-a-Lago Club opened as an exclusive but racially- and religiously-inclusive club. Today the initiation fee is $100,000; annual dues are $14,000.

Over the years Trump has added a swimming pool, a beach club, beauty salon, spa, five red clay tennis courts, and a croquet court.  A ballroom completed in 2005 added 20,000 square feet to the mansion.

Mar-A-Lago: Also a Private Home

And of course, part of the house is sectioned off to serve as a private part-time residence for the presidential candidate and his current wife, Melania, and Barron, the couple’s ten-year-old son.

The problem with the airport remained.  Trump launched several lawsuits asking traffic to be re-routed, but the best settlement he got pre-presidency was an agreement that the airport will make an effort at noise mitigation.

Since Donald Trump has now become President Trump, the Secret Service will now have final say over the air approaches to the nearby Palm Beach airport.

For a lovely photo essay of Mar-a-Lago, visit the Palm Beach Post.

Gordon Parks, best-remembered as a gifted photojournalist, was also an author, composer and film director, achieving remarkable success in each field. His journalistic platform in Life magazine permitted him to affect the world he covered—from gang life in Harlem to poverty in Brazil. Parks’ coverage of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s provided Life readers with a unique and important perspective on the struggle against racism.

Gordon Parks: Early Life

Gordon Parks (1912-2006) was the 15th child of a tenant farmer, Andrew Jackson Parks, and his second wife, Sarah, who worked as a maid and cared for their 15 children. Sarah and her husband deeply loved their family, and family strength may have been what gave Gordon the ability to obtain for himself more than what society offered him.  

All the Parks children attended a segregated grade school in Fort Scott, Kansas, but since there was only one high school, it was integrated. However, black students were banned from sports and discouraged from taking college prep courses. In A Hungry Heart: A Memoir, Parks writes of one teacher advising black students against setting their sights on college. They were, after all, destined to become railroad porters and maids.

Gordon’s mother died when he was 15, but before she died she left her husband specific instructions: Gordon was to go live with his married sister in St. Paul, Minnesota. Before sending him north, Gordon’s father told him: “It won’t be easy for you up there. It’s a strange cold country and you’re bound to meet some hard times. But you’re not to worry, son. Your heart will tell your feet which roads to take.”

Gordon needed that advice. His brother-in-law soon kicked him out of the house, and Gordon was left to make his own way in the world, never having the chance to finish high school.

Parks: Making His Own Way

Parks taught himself to play the piano and an early job was playing piano at a brothel, while also working as a hotel busboy. His musical talent gave him another boost when he joined a band and they began traveling. When the band broke up, he returned to St. Paul where he married an early love, Sally Alvis, in 1934. To support his new wife, Parks took a job as a porter and waiter with the railroad, working on the North Coast Limited.

The job brought about a life-changing moment: a passenger left behind a magazine that contained photos taken by several of the U.S. Farm Security Administration photographers, Dorothea Lange’s among them. Parks was very moved by the honest stories told by the Depression-era photographs, and he purchased his first camera, a Voigtlander Brilliant, at a Seattle pawn shop for $12.50.

In St. Paul, Parks approached the owners of a small boutique, volunteering to take some fashion photographs. The store liked his work, and the photography caught the eye of Marva Louis, wife of champion boxer Joe Louis, and she encouraged him to move to Chicago where she could help him get work.

Parks moved to Chicago without his family and continued with fashion photography, but spent his spare time photographing the slums of Chicago. This work earned him a fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, and he used that backing to move his family to Washington where he applied for a job with the Farm Security Administration.

Getting Hired by the FSA

Roy Stryker was head of the FSA in 1942, and his first instinct was that a black photographer would be incapable of maneuvering around Washington, D.C, a city with a very southern mentality. On Parks’ first day Stryker sent him off without his camera to make a purchase at a department store, go to a movie, and eat at a coffee shop. Parks quickly saw what he was up against, and he came back to the office boiling mad. As he and Stryker talked, Stryker pointed to Emma Watson, the black cleaning lady taking care of the building. “Spend time with her. See what she has to say about life.”

Parks did so, and the first photo he took of Watson was what we now know as Gordon Parks’ “American Gothic.”

When the Farm Security Administration disbanded, Parks moved with Stryker to the Office of War Information but when the WIO decided not to send a reporter to cover the Tuskegee Airmen, he left the WIO and moved to New York City.

At Harper’s Bazaar, Parks was told they could not hire him because of his skin color, but Alexander Liberman at Condé Nast agreed to see him and hired him for freelance assignments for Glamour and Vogue.

Parks traveled for work a great deal, but David Parks (1944-  ), youngest son of Gordon Parks, recalls that his father relished having people at their house in Westchester, N.Y.—that the children’s friends were always welcome. Because the neighborhood was filled with musicians, it was not uncommon for them to gather at someone’s house, often the Parks, and play together.

Gordon Parks at Life Magazine

Parks had his sights set on working for Life magazine. One day he stopped by the office with his portfolio and talked his way in to see photo editor Wilson Hicks. Hicks was annoyed at first, but then saw the pictures. Hicks asked Parks what he would like to try; Parks suggested a story on the gangs in Harlem.

Hicks agreed this was a good test. Parks’ skin color gave him access to the gang, and his easy-going personality helped him get the story. He soon was put on staff as a full-time photographer. Parks was Life‘s first black photographer, covering subjects as wide-ranging as fashion in New York and poverty in Brazil.

Parks’ coverage of the Civil Rights movement gave Life access to important stories of the era. From the shooting of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the speeches of Malcolm X, Parks gave Life readers a front-row seat. “Success among whites never made Parks lose touch with black reality,” wrote Malcolm X of Parks in his own autobiography.

In the late 1940’s, Life sent Gordon Parks and his family to Paris on assignment. Mrs. Parks apprenticed to be a hat designer, and the children loved being in schools where skin color wasn’t an issue. Parks photographed fashion and news and enjoyed connecting with all who passed through Paris. Richard Wright, (1908-1960), author of Native Son, was among those with whom Parks crossed paths in Paris. Wright coached Parks: “You have to write cold and hard about Black life in America—and not allow Whites to face the words with the consolation of a few tears.”

Parks’ Other Achievements

In 1968 Parks decided to undertake film-making, working first on The Learning Tree, a memoir of his youth. In 1971 he became the first African-American to direct a major Hollywood production, directing Shaft, one of the first hip black action films. In addition Parks directed other films, authored several other books about his life, wrote original musical compositions, and created a ballet about Martin Luther King, Jr.

Though Parks never received a high school diploma, he was presented with over 50 honorary degrees, and in 1988 he received the National Medal of Arts.

Personal Life

Parks was married and divorced three times. For many years, Parks also had an ongoing relationship with Gloria Vanderbilt. He first met her in 1954, when he photographed her for Life. The two eventually went on record about their relationship, sitting for an interview with The New York Times in 2000. Marriage for the two of them may have been unthinkable initially because of Gordon’s skin color, but it also seemed that the class difference was perhaps the bigger hurdle.

In 2012 Anderson Cooper, Vanderbilt’s son, spoke at a fundraiser for the Gordon Parks Foundation and attested to Parks’ presence in his life. Cooper noted that his choice of career was influenced by Parks. “He was the first journalist I knew….He gave voice to those whose voices had been silenced by poverty and injustice.”

Gordon Parks: In the End

When it was clear that Gordon was dying, he told son David, “I want to go home to be buried.” David said, “Westchester?” Gordon replied: “No, I want to be buried in Kansas.” He was buried in Fort Scott, the place where his amazing life began.

To read more about the Gordon Parks’ family life and his home in Westchester, New York, click here for my original article on Parks.

Sometimes we lose in order to win.

This was very much the case with the Battle of Monocacy, fought just outside Frederick, Maryland on July 9, 1864. The Union soldiers went down in defeat, but they accomplished a bigger goal — they saved Washington.

In all the stories of the Civil War, the Battle of Monocacy has been less frequently told. The final decision to preserve the battlefield and to open it to the public so the Monocacy story could be shared was not realized until July of 1991, a full 127 years after the battle.

What happened at Monocacy and why was it only later remembered?

In June of 1864 the Union had pulled troops from other areas to move South, and in the process they had temporarily stalled the Confederate troops in the areas around Richmond and Petersburg. General Robert E. Lee was looking for the next move for the Confederate Army when his spies informed him that the Union capital was essentially undefended, with only 9,000 Union soldiers, most of them reservists, guarding Washington, D.C.

Lee’s plan was to send General Jubal Early north with about 14,000 soldiers to strike the Union’s capital. As Early’s men moved north, they encountered some 6,500 Union soldiers in the area around Frederick, Maryland under the guidance of General Lew Wallace; the Battle of Monocacy (named after the river the Confederates crossed) took place.

The Battle of Monocacy ended in heavy Union losses and eventual retreat, but these Union soldiers delayed Early’s advance by a day, providing General Ulysses S. Grant with the opportunity to move men back into Washington to defend the capital.

The timing was such that when Early first arrived near Rockville, Maryland on the evening of July 10, his initial reports were that Washington was still lightly defended. However, the 25th New York Cavalry and two divisions of the Sixth Corps arrived under cover of darkness, and by the morning of July 12 when Early planned to attack, he saw that the parapets were now lined with seasoned troops. President Abraham Lincoln also made an appearance at the battlefield in a show of force for the Union.

With these new developments, Early abandoned plans to capture Washington; he intended to keep his men there for a fight, but shortly the Confederates were beaten back in a full retreat.
General Grant was to say of Monocacy, “General Wallace contributed on this occasion, by the defeat of the troops under him, a greater benefit to the cause than often falls to the lot of a commander of equal force to render by means of a victory.”

For many years, not much was said about the Battle of Monocacy. The battlefield was not preserved, and the storytelling about those days involved talking about Early’s decision to abandon his plans to attack Washington.

However, one fellow knew this was an injustice. Though he had been only age six at the time, Glenn H. Worthington remembered watching the brutal fighting from the cellar of his family home on what had become the Monocacy battlefield. Confederate troops had crossed the Monocacy River, onto the Worthington Farm, initiating three attacks from the fields of his family farm.

Cathy Beeler, Chief of Resource Education and Visitor Services at Monocacy National Battlefield, explains that it was Glenn Worthington’s lifelong interest that eventually led to the preservation of the battlefield.

Though General Lew Wallace had campaigned for a monument to his men and had suggested preservation of the battlefield, nothing had been done. Finally in 1928 a Congressional bill was passed providing $50,000 to acquire the battlefield land, but as the Depression deepened, Congress reduced the amount to just $5,000.

Angered when the funds were reduced so severely, Worthington who had grown up, attended law school and become a circuit judge but who pursued the study of Monocacy as a hobby, began to actively campaign to save the battlefield.

In 1932 his book about the battle, Fighting for Time, was published, and in 1934, the battlefield was established by an Act of Congress. However, no funds were set aside for land purchase and much of the battlefield remained in private hands.

Finally in 1974 Congressman Goodloe E. Byron (1929-78) introduced a bill to authorize the National Park Service to acquire more of the battlefield land, including the Worthington Farm. On July 13, 1991 this important battlefield opened to the public with one park ranger and one volunteer to greet interested comers.

Since that time, the Monocacy Battlefield has grown and changed. In 2007 a new Visitors Center opened its doors, and since that time, many letters and documents pertaining to the local battle have helped fill in details.

Without it, an important American story — that of sometimes losing in order to win — would not be told.

A reprint of the 1932 edition of Fighting for Time is still available.

Journey through Hallowed Ground

Heart of the Civil War

Animal care during the Civil Was was vital but far from simple.

Horses, mules, and oxen were the main forms of transportation during the Civil War. In addition to carrying riders, these animals pulled supply wagons, ambulances, artillery pieces, and anything else that needed to be moved.

“Extraordinary care should be taken of the horses upon which everything depends,” General William T. Sherman was known to have said.

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Horses on the Battlefield

At the start of the war, the North had about 3.4 million horses; the Confederacy had about 1.7 million. The horses in the North were primarily farm animals and were better suited for moving equipment. Those in the South were bred for riding and racing, so the Confederacy had better animals for building a cavalry.

Horses on the battlefield were important to soldiers for both attacking and escaping. Those horses that were trained for battle were taught to lie down and stay down on command. This lessened the chances of them being hit. The men also sometimes used them for cover though they tried not to position the horses in harm’s way.

If the time came when a regiment needed to retreat, horses were vital for helping to salvage what equipment and supplies they could.

Military Faced Many Challenges

The feeding, maintenance, and care of these animals required monumental work and forethought in maintaining supplies for them. Enormous amounts of food were required for feeding the animals, and time had to be set aside for things like repairing a thrown shoe or taking the animals to water if troops were stopped in a dry area.

Just as human casualties during the War were high, so, too, were animal fatalities. Like their human counterparts, battle wounds were only part of the problem. Lack of food, illness, and actual war injuries all contributed to the death toll of the animals.

More than one million horses and mules died during the course of the war.

Veterinary Medicine In Its Infancy

In the mid-19^th century, veterinary medicine was in its infancy. There were thought to be fifty veterinarians in the U.S. at the start of the Civil War. Only six veterinarians were in the military.

“Most of the animal care was either performed by the soldiers themselves or by farriers who provided everything from horseshoes to whatever medical care they learned from working around animals,” says Walter Heiss, author of the book, Veterinary Service during the American Civil War.

In theory, the military would have welcomed the expertise of more veterinarians, in actual practice, the officers often didn’t want to know what the proper thing to do was. It often involved pulling an animal out of service, and that could be devastating for a regiment.

Generally, horses were simply ridden until they could go no farther. 

Feeding the Animals

Today’s military would marvel at the thought of how much food was necessary to feed the horses and mules. Horses needed 14 pounds of hay and 12 pounds of grain each day.

Because very little of that could be carried with them, the troops were instructed to spend any “down” time, cutting grass, or locating wheat or oats that they could buy (or take).  As General Sherman noted: “If soldiers were halted for a time, it provided more opportunity to gather food for the animals.”

The truth was that the armies frequently picked an area clean, to the point that the food just wasn’t there. By 1864, Union artillery horses in some locations were living on only five pounds of grain per day.

Something as simple as providing water for the animals also took planning. If there was no source of water nearby, the soldiers would take half the horses to a river or stream, leaving the other half available to help move the army in case of a surprise attack.

Battlefield Injuries

At the start of any skirmish, horses were often targeted first. Both armies understood that picking off horses left the opposing cavalry mount-less. And if the pack animals were targets and could be taken out, this prevented opposing forces from moving artillery and supplies in retreat.

At Ream’s Station (Virginia) in August 1864, the Tenth Massachusetts Battery had positioned themselves behind a temporary barricade, but they left their thirty horses exposed. Within moments, only two of these horses were still standing.

New ammunition in the form of the minié ball was being used. These soft lead bullets were very damaging to the human body. They traveled with enough velocity that they easily penetrated the skin. Once in the body, they shattered bone and ripped through tissue.

To bring down a horse with a minié ball required more power. Horses offered a bigger target, but 5-7 shots were generally necessary to kill a horse. As the men soon saw, however, even one shot could still inflict serious harm.

Horse Care

“Both North and South built reserve camps for the horses behind their lines, and these served as infirmaries,” says Robert A. Burton, former director of education at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. Though the animals could be fed and become rested there, the dearth of veterinarians and the lack of medical knowledge of farriers and soldiers meant that there was not much that could do be done for horses with serious wounds.

A viral illness known as glanders spread through the horse population. Symptoms involved an increase in mucus and swelling of the glands. The disease was highly contagious, so once one horse was sick, it was a real problem for the army. The infected animals needed to be destroyed as the disease was terminal. With the war ongoing, that was the best way to reduce exposure.

The Confederate Quartermaster at Lynchburg was concerned about the spread of glanders. He asked two physicians to investigate. John Jay Terrell and John R. Page established a stable where the horses could be separated—healthy from those that were ailing. As a result of their work, the two doctors saw that good ventilation, proper diet, and clean water made a difference in a horse’s ability to resist disease. These were advanced concepts for a time when little was fully understood about the spread of any type of illness.

Tragedy for Both Man and Beast

In a discussion with Robert Burton at the museum, Burton cited a letter written by Massachusetts soldier Charles Francis Adams to his mother on May 12, 1863. It describes the magnitude of what was happening to the animals:

“The air of Virginia is literally burdened today with the stench of dead horses, federal and confederate. You pass them on every road and find them in every field, while from their carrions you can follow the march of every army that moves.”

While the care we lavish on our house pets today may be excessive, the “work horses” of 150 years ago deserved much better care than they got.

For other stories about the Civil War, see Elizabeth Thorn: Six Months Pregnant and Burying the Dead or The Little-Known Story of the Gettysburg Address.

Today I was at work on a blog about political cartoonist Thomas Nast when my 21-year-old daughter sent me a link to a story she wrote after interviewing John Filo, the photographer who, at age 20, took the iconic photograph of the Kent State shooting that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1971.

For those who lived through the era, you know just the photo I mean.

I can’t get the thoughts and feelings the story generated out of my mind, and for once, “writer’s discipline” eludes me. I can think of no better political blog for today than to link out to her story published at Neon Tommy: “For One Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographer, Some Days Are Never Forgotten.”

I’ll post later in the week, or you can check in at www.americacomesalive.com

In the meantime, click through and read her story and be transported back in time to what Kent State student John Filo was going through at that time.