I hope the title pegged your curiosity meter. I first watched the John Wayne classic movie El Dorado when I was twelve and may have watched it seventy-five times since then. Given the opportunity, I will watch El Dorado back-to-back in the same afternoon. In addition to Wayne, the movie stars include Robert Mitchum, James Caan, Arthur Hunnicut and Paul Fix. Much of the dialogue is burned into my memory, even as my bandwidth seems to diminish with age.

One scene tops the rest, the efforts of Wayne, Caan and Hunnicutt to sober up Mitchum, with a concoction remembered by Caan. At twelve, I doubt I was familiar with any of the ingredients except gunpowder. Over time, I became familiar with all except croton oil. Even as I write this, I had to look up croton oil. But I easily remember Hunnicutt exclaiming “Croton Oil! I’ll be a suck egg mule!” When they pour gunpowder into the concoction, which looks like hot tar, Wayne declares, “I hope you don’t blow him up!” You will find the scene here. Whether you watch or not, I expect you may be wondering what any of this has to do with the cavalry in the Civil War.

I hope I have made clear over the years that I have no real knowledge of horses or horse ailments. Nor do I intend to offer any in-depth explanation of horse ailments here. What I hope to do at this point is to try and tie together the movie scene to the horses in the Army of the Potomac in the last months of 1862.

In late-October, President Lincoln, exasperated with a lack of movement by General McClellan, and more specifically, a recent embarrassing Southern cavalry raid, asked McClellan, “Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?” Since then, Lincoln’s comment has been used so often to denigrate the Union cavalry and the Quartermaster Department as to have lost all impact for me and become a trite cliché to be ignored. Often missed, however, is the President’s preceding comment, referring to “sore-tongued and fatigued horses.” McClellan had, the same day, passed to Gen. Henry Halleck, in Washington, a report, in which a subordinate claimed that he could not leave camp due to his horses being afflicted with “sore-tongue, grease, and subsequent lameness, and sore backs.” Having provided some brief background, let me try to tie the two ideas together.

I recently found several reports from Union artillery battery commanders, responding to an order to examine their horses and determine the extent to which ‘sore-tongue and grease’ had spread through the commands and limited their ability to take the field. All of the reports are dated either November 8 or 9.

As I read the reports, several things struck me – the first being the apparent lack of a uniform understanding of horse ailments or of a standard accepted treatment. The men appear to have been entirely on their own. All of the batteries involved are field artillery batteries rather than horse artillery batteries. Assuming that each of the batteries had the standard six guns and two caissons per gun, each commander needed 120 horses, plus as many as ten spare horses to keep his guns in the field.

The first is from Capt. George Gerrish, commander of the batteries attached to the 1^st Division of the 1^st Army Corps.

“…I forward the following report of an inspection made this afternoon of all the horses of the artillery of this division.

“Battery B, 4^th US Artillery left Maryland in fine condition, having received 50 new horses since the battle of Antietam. In this battery I found 36 horses, many of them new ones, rendered entirely unserviceable from the new disease

“In Battery L, 1^st NY Artillery 16 horses were found to be unserviceable from the same disease, and quite a large number appeared to have it, in its incipient stages.

“In two sections of the [1^st] RI Battery, I found 34 horses, rendered unserviceable from the same cause.

“The 1^st NH Battery has 67 horses entirely unfit for service, about 50 of which have the disease mentioned, and most of them in the most aggressive form.

“The disease mentioned appears to be contagious and does not confine itself entirely to the heels and tongues, but has, in quite a number of instances extended to different parts of the body. The instances in which the tongue is affected are much smaller than those of the greased or cracked heel [emphasis in original].

“From all the information I can gather, the disease did not make its appearance until the army entered Maryland, and the cases were comparatively few then. At present, it is making great progress, and comes on very suddenly, even in a few hours. The parts affected are much swollen before becoming running sores.

“The remedies … used effectually last winter in cases of the greased heel or, as it was sometimes called, the ‘mud itch,’ seem to fail in the treatment of this disease. ‘Mustang’ liniment – ‘tar’ and ‘salt pork’ have been freely used in many cases but without success.

“I have directed the commanders of batteries to separate the diseased horses from the others, but new cases appear every day.

“You will see by the foregoing statement that 155 horses are now affected and that one battery (the 1^st NH) is not in condition to move…”

Grease, Greased Heel or Cracked Heel all refer to a disease identified by General William Carter of the 6^th US Cavalry (West Point, Class of 1868) in his book, Horses, Saddles and Bridles, as “A disease of the heels usually associated with a parasitic fungus and offensives discharges.” The image below is also from Carter’s book.

Lt. Frank Amsden, Battery G, 1^st PA Artillery, identified the outbreak of Grease and Black Tongue as beginning five days prior.  

“Two of my train horses showed symptoms of what my Farrier pronounces ‘Greasy heels,’ on Monday last (3^rd) the flesh seemed separated from the hoof at the ‘thrush.’ This has opened at the present time, till the quick of the hoof is exposed in both these cases. The horses cannot touch any part of the hoof to the ground except the toe. They have been able to do duty in the team until yesterday (7^th) when neither one could hardly touch their affected foot to the ground. My report at 3pm this date stated the number of horses affected as 15. Since going to water my Farrier reports 22. I do not know whether … wetting the horse’s feet and then the exposure to the keen wind has anything to do with bringing this disease on. Nothing has been seen of it in this Battery until this cold wet weather has come upon us. The horses have invariably been watered in runs immediately after going into camp at night. After a long march, certainly the horse’s feet would be heated or feverish and the sudden immersion in very cold water may [emphasis in original] have something to do with the present condition of them.

“This ‘Black tongue’ I know little about. Four cases are reported to me this evening, as noticed for the first time. There is a disease incident to this section I believe called the ‘Sore tongue.’ The surface of the tongue becomes raw and then shrivels up. Nothing hard can be fed to them. Some one or two of their feet becomes affected similar to the way ours are now. This disease always makes its appearance in the fall. The course of treatment is to feed soft feed and turn the horses out to grass. It is considered contagious. There has been no chance to treat this ‘Greasy heels’ in my Battery before this morning.

“My Farrier has used a preparation composed of burnt-leather, powder, lard and turpentine [emphasis in original] during the day. Those affected do not seem any worse this evening. Nothing has yet been done for the Black tongue…”

General Carter defines the thrush, as “Disease of the frog of the foot characterized by excessive secretion of unhealthy matter,” which seems a little confusing. Lt. Amsden makes mention of both ailments and gives us another remedy.

After enumerating the number of horses afflicted with either of the diseases, Capt. James H. Cooper, Battery B, PA Light Artillery, offers his treatment for Grease as “an application of a compound of Neat’s Foot Oil, Powder and Blue Stone. This seems to check the disease but does not heal the [sore]. The treatment for the tongue diseases has been burnt Alum blown into the mouth but this has affected no permanent cure. The hoof disease is so malignant a form as to render the horses unable to travel.”

Three officers have given us three different remedies for Grease and our first remedy for Sore Tongue.

Capt. Dunbar Ransom, a member of the 3^rd US Artillery, commanding Battery C, 5^th US Artillery, said briefly “…this disease known as ‘Greased or cracked heels’ and ‘Black tongue’ have, with two or three exceptions, made their appearance since the last march. There are now fifteen cases of the first and one of the latter in Battery C. The animals have had none but the simplest treatment, as I have no medicines.”

And now we start to tie the ingredients for the hangover remedy in El Dorado with the cavalry and artillery horses in the Civil War.

Capt. George F. Leppien, 5^th Maine Artillery, inspected four batteries, and counted 96 horses afflicted with one or the other disease. He described “the remedies applied after washing with Castile Soap were Blue Hone, Lard and Gun Powder, Neat’s Foot Oil, dry Calomel and human manure all without effecting a cure, but on account of marching with these horses the medicines could not take proper effect.” Gun Powder and human manure? And you probably thought I was making some of this up.

For the final connection, I rely on Lt. John Simpson, Battery A, 1^st Pennsylvania.

“…The ‘Epidemic’ for it has assumed that form, originated from the bad effects of moldy corn, light oats, and the absence of hay, which produced an excessive … purging in the animals while at camp near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

“In this condition they were fed with good forage of all kinds a few days previous to marching into Virginia, which appeared to produce good results, but the fatigues of labor and irregular feeding which attends all marches of artillery has painfully demonstrated the fact that their whole system is in a state of consumption and disorganization which now finds an outlet in the form of ‘Black Tongue’ and ‘Grease or Rotten Heel.’

“‘Black Tongue’ which afflicts some of the horses, arises from diseased blood, produced by bad food, which when overheated by exertion of an excessive character easily affects the mucus membrane of the throat and its secretions and finally results in an accumulation of matter at the root of the tongue which gradually spreads itself through it, producing a Black and Rotten appearance [emphasis in original].

“The first indication of its appearance is a disinclination for food or water, accompanied by slobbering at the mouth, dullness of the eye, and inactivity of the whole system. The skin becomes scurfy or scabby to the touch, very tender, and finally the animal becomes quite offensive to the sight and smell.

“No remedy has as yet been found for this disease in camp, consequently there has been no treatment, although in my opinion if a counter irritant, say of ‘Croton oil’ was applied on the outside of the throat and neck, good results might follow (I will admit to chuckling nearly out loud when I first read this).

‘Greased Heel’ or ‘Rotten Heel’ as it is sometimes called, is synonymous with Black Tongue in its nature; the only difference is that it affects the fleshy part of the leg at the hoof, causing a separation of the parts, producing large quantities of puss and is very painful to the animals.

“The system is affected in the same manner, as produced by ‘Black Tongue,’ and I would state that if good purging medicines were given to clear and cool the blood; removing all its impurities, substituting also mashed bran food for the present forage and washing the heels well with Castile soap, applying afterwards salve of hog’s lard and pulverized Gunpowder it might possibly remove all the disease.

“This would require time and great care, consequently all activity on the part of the batteries where these diseases exist, would necessarily have to cease, yet it is my intention to try these remedies and see what the results may be.

“There is at present in this Battery 9 horses afflicted with ‘Black Tongue’ and 19 with ‘Grease or Rotten Heel,’ which renders me at this present moment almost unable to obey the call to march, unless a marked and early improvement takes place with the treatment I have herein indicated to be used. I would add that the disease is apparently spreading.”

There we are, Croton Oil, Gunpowder and Human Manure to name just a few of the suggested remedies. Each of the officers seems to have his own idea of a cure. There appears to be little understanding of the underlying causes, and nothing suggests that the army had adopted a standard treatment. More importantly, the number of afflicted horses cited here, expanded across the entire army indicates, at least to me, that the situation facing the army was much more dire than Lincoln’s rather snide comment suggests and all who simply copy and paste the comment do nothing to expand our understanding of the problem facing the army.

Lastly, what is croton oil? If curious enough, you might want to do your own research. But Sydney Ringer in A Handbook of Therapeutics, published in 1880, writes, in part, “Croton oil irritates the skin, produces redness, vesication (an entire dictionary of unpleasant terms pop up when looking for a definition), and, with a strong application, even pustulation, followed by scars.” Well, I’ll be a suck egg mule!

Sources:

Documents at the National Archives

The Official Records

William Carter, Horses, Saddles and Bridles

Jack Coggins, Arms and Equipment of the Civil War

---