This is my portion of a chapter to the book, Hounds of Arуas, that is being edited and published by my coauthor.

James will Discuss Three.

WC may discuss others from or from beyond the list.

[ ] The Horses of Achilles? I’d like WC to cover this as he has recently read Xenophon’s horsemanship manual.

Please consider the illustration of Gustophus Adolphus, circa 1630, on the back of a plunging stallion He was called The Lion of the North, the King of Sweden, who lead the first truly modern army into combat during the Thirty Years War.

Chetak, Maharana Pratap, the King of Rajputs of North India

Bucephalus, [Ox-Head] the horse of Alexander of Macedon, an untamable brute, served in Harold Lamb’s Alexander as the perfect exposition for Alexander’s Arete [arête being the quintessential Arуan concept of the warrior as a man of excellence and striving in one, not simply seeking perfection in orgami for instance, but pathological expression as well.] Ox-head, Alexander discovered, was afraid of shadows, and he used that to master him. Alexander would conquer beyond the margins of the known world on that horse’s back and would not long outlive Bucephalus.

Traveler, Robert E. Lee, was the calm, light-colored horse of the beloved father-figure of the Army of Northern Virginia, arguably the best infantry army of human history. The horse was so symbolic of its calm rider that when Lee would expose himself to enemy fire it was axiomatic that random private infantrymen of the lowest rank would take hold of the reigns and demand that their leader go back a safe distance from the combat.

King Phillip, Nathan Bedford Forrest had thirty or so horses shot out from underneath of him and consoled himself with the fact that he had personally laid more Yankees than that dead on the field of battle by his own hand. His most famous and last battle horse was King Phillip, who hated Yankees so much that he attempted to attack a union captain and his staff who came to visit Forrest after the war, causing the Union captain [one of whose men had been injured by the rampaging war horse] to remark, as Forests’ faithful negro farm hand threatened the blue coats to stay away from the General’s Horse, “General, now I know how to account for your success. Your Negroes fight for you and so do your horses. “

In fact Forest had freed his slaves who served with him in combat afterwards and most of whom looked to him for leadership after general emancipation as his code of honor was considered impeccable, in large part reflected in his respectful treatment of beasts that were at his utter mercy. Hounds and horses stand at the epicenter of the ideal of Chivalry exclusive to the Christian-Aryan West, which seems to be an evenly balanced ethos in terms of Christian and Arуan extraction of values into its often unobserved canon, an ethos hat does not hold up in the absence of men of action and must then certainly fail under extended civilizing times.

The best story about King Phillip was that he was drawing a family carriage shopping in town when a platoon of uniformed police cadets dressed in blue and formed up and the old war horns played in the back of the beast’s mind, his ears went back and his tail shot up, “he snorted with hate” and he charged down his lifelong enemies, panicking the entire town.

Forest Sources: Brian Steel Wills: A Battle from the Start and Samuel W. Mitcham, JR., Bust Hell Wide Open

Other horses of Note

Kasztanka, Polish war hero Marshal Jozef Pilsudski

Marengo, Napoleon

Palomo, Simon Bolivar

Copenhagen, horse of Lord Arthur Wellesly, the Duke of Wellington

Cincinnati, one of the three famous war horses owned by American Civil war general and later President Ulysses S. Grant. He was the son of Lexington, one of the fastest horses in America that time. A gift to Grant from an admirer

Comanche was a famous war horse owned by the US Army, known for being the survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn. The horse was bought by the army in 1868 and it was ridden by Captain Myles Keogh of 7th Cavalry. He was named for his bravery and loyalty in the fight against Comanche, where he carried Keogh even after he was wounded. Comanche carried Keogh in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, in which none of the soldiers survived. Comanche was cited as the lone survivor, though many other horses were found to have survived. He was made a honorary Second Commanding Officer’ of the 7th Cavalry in 1887. Comanche died in 1891. He was given a military funeral, one of the only two horses to receive it.

1. Sergeant Reckless

Reckless a horse of Mongolian breed, owned by US military. She was bought in 1952 and trained by the United States Marine Corps. The horse was used to carry supplies and weapons and evacuate wounded soldiers during the Korean War. She was known for her intelligence and ability to take solo trips. During the Battle for Outpost Vegas in 1953, she made 51 solo trips in a single day. She was made a sergeant in 1954 and retired. Reckless was once selected as one of the 100 All-time American Heroes by Life Magazine. She died in 1968.