And finally on this Veteran's Day, let us not forget the millions of horses that have bravely served the military in war and in peace. Were it not for the horses, human civilization would look quite different.

1. Casualties of War:
1.5 million in Civil War
8 million in World War I
2.7 million in World War II

2. Forgotten War Heroes
Artillery horse mired in the mud. A total of 8 million horses died in
service of the allied forces during World War I. At the peak of the war,
over 50,000 per month were being lost to combat and disease.

3. Humans and horses were issued gas masks during World War I.

4. Reckless
Reckless was a war horse hero of the Korean War. She carried munitions
from the supply point to the gunners, under fire and often alone. In
recognition of her service, the Marines promoted her to Sargent, personally
paid her way back to the US and pensioned her at Camp Pendleton.

5. Recoilless Rifle mounted on a mule.
The last U.S. Miltary pack animals were decommissioned and the U.S. Army Remount
Service was deactivated after the Korean conflict. The 322 mules left to the Army were sold
or transferred to other Government agencies, including the Forest Service of the
Department of Agriculture and the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior.

6. US Special Forces ride horseback working with members of the Northern Alliance,
Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan, November 12, 2001

7. Mounted field artillery horses

8. Union Cavalryman, 1863

9. Dismounted: The Fourth Trooper Moving the Led Horses
Frederic Remington

10. Battery M, 2nd U.S. Horse Artillery, Fair Oaks,
Virginia, June 1862

11. Loading a machine-gun on a packhorse by members of the New Jersey
National Guard, June 1941

12. Ride to War
French Cuirassiers leave Paris for the front, August, 1914

13. Unloading horses and mules by sling during World War II (left) and the Boer War (right)

14. Such Was the Power of the Horse
Mongols were the greatest horsemen in the world and Genghis Khan was the most famous
of the brutal Mongol leaders. Mongol boys rode before they could walk;
on forced marches they would never dismount their horses – there they ate and slept. Their
horsemanship and brutality allowed the Mongols to take a huge swath of China, India and
Eastern Europe; a massive kingdom 4 times as big as the empire of Alexander the Great.

15. Traveller
General Robert E. Lee’s beloved Civil War horse. Traveller was reported to be
difficult in nature; he reared and threw Lee shortly after the Second Battle of
Manassas. His hands badly damaged in the fall, Lee was unable to mount up again
until the day of the Battle of Sharpsburg. Traveller walked behind the hearse at
Lee's funeral in 1870 and died of tetanus in June 1871. His remains are buried in
front of Lee Chapel in Lexington.

16. Comanche
Wrongly known as the only US cavalry survivor of Custer’s battle of the
Little Big Horn (roughly 100 horses survived). US soldiers found Comanche
near death two days after the battle, with at least 7 gunshot wounds. He
was nursed back to health and kept by the Army until his death at age 29.
He was one of only two horses ever buried with full military honors.

17. Buchephalus
The great black stallion that no one could tame but young Alexander the
Great carried Alexander into many battles. The team formed a cult legend.
Following Buchephalus’ death in battle, Alexander erected a city in his honor.

18. Theodore Roosevelt
As Roughrider Colonel and U.S. President

19. General George Washington at the Crossing of the Delaware River, 1776
Washington was known as one of the finest horsemen of his time. His favorite war
horse was Nelson. After the Revolution, he kept Nelson in comfort at his farm in
Mt Vernon until his death at the ripe old age of 27.

20. During a national celebration held at the end of the Civil War, General George A.
Custer’s horse, Don Juan, bolted forward near the review stand. The out-of-control
horse took the spotlight momentarily off President Andrew Johnson, General-in-Chief
Ulysses S. Grant and onto Custer. Custer attributed the incident to the horse being
spooked by a young girl as she attempted to lay a wreath around its neck. Others
claim it was a calculated move by the excellent horseman to garner attention.

21. Marengo
Despite practice from thousands of miles in the saddle, Napoleon was not an
accomplished equestrian. He slid so much that he wore holes in his breeches and fell
often. The Emperor’s favorite horse, Marengo is a true legend, since no record of a
horse by that name exists. Likely an Arabian captured in his Egyptian campaign,
Napoleon rode Marengo in all of his famous campaigns to the final battle at Waterloo.

22. General George S. Patton rides a Lipizzaner stallion once owned by King Ferdinand of
Austria. An accomplished horseman, Patton competed in the first Olympic modern
pentathlon event in the 1912 Stockholm Olympic games – coming in fifth.

23. Chariots were first used to transport troops to the battlefield and were
abandoned there while the warriors fought on foot. Later, improved
chariot models allowed for fighting “on the run”.

24. World War I German Cavalryman, 1917

25. Armorer’s Art
Medieval knight and horse
geared for battle. A
knight’s armor was so
heavy that it made
mounting unassisted
impossible. Some knights
needed a mechanical hoist
to place them in the
saddle.

26. The Roman Cavalryman

27. Ancient Abyssinian mounted warrior

28. Most knights owned four horses; the charger (above) was only ridden in exhibitions and
jousts and wore flowing robes instead of armor. The palfrey was a knight’s regular riding
horse and not used in combat. The courser, speediest and most agile of his horses, was
the knight’s war horse. It was often trained in the art of dressage, making it a form of
weaponry itself. The battle horse was no more than a knight’s pack horse.