Orignally aired on September 01, 1995 - In part 53 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson tells us that every major war commander had a favorite horse, including Stonewall Jackson. In this installment, we hear a loving tale between a man and his beloved animal, Little Sorrel.
#53 – A General’s Horse
As we gaze at equestrian statues of Civil War military figures, few of us give much if any attention to their horses. The mounts ae an assumed piece of equipment, just as an officer’s sword or hat. Nevertheless, every major Civil War commander had a favorite horse.
General George McClellan’s swaggering black steed, “Daniel Webster”, and Robert Lee’s beloved gray stallion, “Traveler”, were the epitome of stately animals worthy of their station. At the other end of the spectrum was the horse of General “Stonewall” Jackson. In a phrase, that animal was as unique and unimposing as his master.
When Jackson took command of the Harper’s Ferry post in April, 1861, he found among the captured stores a large shipment of horses. Jackson purchased two of the animals. The smaller one, who as at least ten years old at the time, he called “Fancy”. Jackson intended to give it to his wife. That lasted until he rode the animal. An immediate bond developed between the horse and rider. “Fancy thereafter was known as “Little Sorrel”, and he became the most preferred of the four mounts that Jackson had.
Sculptors and artists ever since have refused to accept the simple fact that “Little Sorrel” was little. He was barely fourteen hands high, which translates into something more than fifty inches tall. Reddish-brown in color, well-formed, compactly built, the horse was still so small in stature that when Jackson’s legs extended from the saddle, the General’s huge feet were but inches from the ground.
The animal was incapable of fatigue. He usually did a mile in less than two minutes and forty seconds – a feat that left Jackson’s mounted aides lagging far behind. Once, when the animal became momentarily lost, the staff cheered. Nevertheless, the horse’s gait was – in the words of the General – “as easy as the rocking of a cradle”.
In battle, “Little Sorrel’s” normally soft eyes blazed like his master’s. Yet when the army went into bivouac late in the day, the horse had the peculiar habit of laying down like a dog – sometimes on his back. The normally stern Jackson made a pet of the animal, and often fed it apples when he thought no one was looking.
Only once in the Civil War did the horse bolt in combat. That came when Jackson was mortally wounded by gunfire from his own men in the darkened woods of Chancellorsville.
For a long time thereafter, the horse lived with Mrs. Jackson in North Carolina. There he held high status as a family pet. “Little Sorrel” spent his last years at the Virginia Military Institute. Faculty and students imbued with the Jackson legend accorded the animal every manner of respect and affection.
One cadet remembered that whenever artillery practice began, the aging horse “would come running stiff-legged onto the parade ground, sniffing the air and snorting loudly, head and tail up, limping up and down in from of the line, enjoying the noise and smoke, a comical and pathetic sight, though heart-appealing in the extreme.”
“Little Sorrel” died in 1886 and the flags at VMI went to half-mast. The horse had lived thirty-six years, only three years less than General Jackson.
Today the stuffed remains of the animal are at the VMI Museum in Lexington. He stands straight, determined, prepared for whatever ordered to do. Those attributes, not surprisingly, were characteristics of Jackson himself.
“Old Jack” and “Little Sorrel” were more than a man and his horse. They imparted to each other care, service, and dependability. The little horse also gave something else: pure love, and he had the satisfaction of knowing always that he got the same thing in return.
