Animals and the Military (Military History)

Introduction

Any sustained reading of military history quickly reveals how a general human assumption of dominion over all other forms of life has ensured that warfare, besides its obvious association with human suffering, ought to be linked also to the deliberate exploitation of, and systemic cruelty toward, animals. The examples are legion: the overburdened, underfed horses, mules, oxen, and camels, those “beasts of burden” under the lash of riders and drivers, that sustained military mobility and logistics through the first half of the 20th century; the sensitive and intelligent elephant used as an instrument of slaughter or of the faithful and amenable dog utilized as a means of delivering explosives on the battlefield. Thus, whatever specific debates may have developed around the role of a particular animal in a particular time and place, it would not be inappropriate if the theme of “exploitation” was considered the underlying and unifying motif of the study of animals and the military. Yet, in many ways, this would be an oversimplification, for animals have not merely been the passive objects of exploitation; their physical and behavioral characteristics have shaped military activity just as they have shaped human agriculture, economics, social structure, and culture. They have thus demonstrated the potential to effect powerful changes on human societies. One need only think of the meteoric rise of the nomadic, equestrian cultures of the Great Plains of North America, following the reintroduction of the horse to the continent, to grasp this point. Furthermore, human attitudes toward animals are historically contingent. Transformations in those human attitudes, especially those concerning the moral obligations of humans toward other species, have fascinating implications for the relationship between soldier and animal; in modern Botswana the military is the protector, not the exploiter, of the elephant. Scholarly understanding, too, of the relationship between humans and animals has, happily, progressed far beyond opinions of those such as René Descartes (b. 1596–d. 1650), who dismissed the latter as mere “beast-machines,” automatons without mind or agency beyond the blind dictates of instinct. It is not merely the growing awareness of moral obligation toward animals but also the influence of social and economic history that has catalyzed a serious historical interest in the role of animals in past societies, an interest encompassing both their exploitation and their socioeconomic significance.

Introductory Works

The work of Keith Thomas (Thomas 1983) is indicative of the recent trend to consider human attitudes toward the natural world as a proper subject for historical investigation and his writings demonstrate the maturity of a now well-established historiographical tradition of challenging the anthropocentric nature of the discipline. More recently, a call has been issued for a “sensory history,” one that tries to comprehend the perspective of the animals and to consider their agency not simply at a macro level but also in the nature of individual relationships between human and animal. Swart 2010 is a provocative example that should particularly commend itself to military historians, since it takes the Second South African War as a case study. On the whole, however, military history, as a subdiscipline, has been little affected by the changing status of animals within the broader historiography. However, by taking an interdisciplinary approach—one that embraces not just history but also anthropology, archaeology, and even experiment psychology—it is possible to identify an extensive corpus of literature that provides a foundation of knowledge upon which it should prove possible to write animals into military history. Inevitably, some works included here relate to the more conventional concerns of the military historian, namely, operations, tactics, and campaign and unit histories, particularly those involving the cavalry arm. Yet, such texts have been included only if the animal in question is central to the analysis, such as in a study of remount services or if a specific debate exists about the battlefield use of animals, such as that concerning horse cavalry in the ancient world or in the 20th century. Other than that, an inclusive approach has been taken to do justice to a subject of great, if often overlooked, significance: as “beasts of burden” or as mounts for warriors, animals have been essential to the building of empires, and, as conveyors of invaders or even as vectors of disease in wartime, they have brought them crashing down, too. The military exploitation of animals, especially the horse, beyond its role in political state formation, has affected whole societies in shaping social hierarchies; transforming economic activities; and profoundly influencing ritual, symbolic, and cultural values. Where relevant, this bibliography has addressed this wider context for a fuller understanding of the relationship between animals and human military activity.

Swart, Sandra. “‘The World the Horses Made’: A South African Case Study of Writing Animals into Social History.” International Review of Social History 55 (2010): 241–263.
DOI: 10.1017/S0020859010000192Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This essay challenges historians to engage with the lives of animals, not only by chronicling their exploitation but also by recognizing their agency in shaping human history. It draws on examples primarily from the Second South African War (1899–1902).
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Thomas, Keith. Man and the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England, 1500–1800. London: Allen Lane, 1983.
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In this seminal study, Thomas charts how some came to question the anthropocentric attitudes that had underpinned humankind’s assumption of untrammelled mastery over the natural world.
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Overviews and Surveys

For the most part, it has been popular historians who have attempted the daunting task of writing overviews of the history of animals and the military. Cooper 1983 and Gardiner 2006 were written to accompany exhibitions at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) highlighting the role of animals in conflict, and both were involved in the ultimately successful campaign for a formal memorial to animal suffering in war that can now be seen in Hyde Park, London. Thus, the work of the IWM, the writings of these popular authors, and the public memorialization of animals in war serve as manifestations of the increasingly theriophilic attitude that has characterized modern Western society. In some popular works of history, of which le Chêne 1994 is a good example, this tendency can incline toward sentimentality; nevertheless, academic historians should not be wholly dismissive of this approach. Van Emden 2010, a work on World War I, shows clearly that the relationship between animals and soldiers can itself be a profoundly sentimental one and to ignore the emotional, one might say psychological, dimensions of the human–animal bond would be to impoverish historical understanding. The other two works considered in this section, Harfield 1989 and Lubow 1977, are essentially technical studies, coldly objective in considering the utility of animals in war, and thus they fit within an altogether older tradition of seeing man as the unquestioned master of the natural world.

Cooper, Jilly. Animals in War. London: William Heinemann, 1983.
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An ambitious foray into military history by the journalist and novelist Jilly Cooper, this work is aimed squarely at a popular audience. The bulk of the book is primarily concerned with animals in the service of the British Empire during the conflicts of the 20th century.
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Gardiner, Juliet. The Animals’ War: Animals in Wartime from the First World War to the Present Day. London: Portrait, in association with the Imperial War Museum, 2006.
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Gardiner, an academic, writer, and broadcaster, took a very similar approach, producing an accessible work of popular history, drawn from published sources, and concentrating, for the most part, on the experience of animals in the service of the British Empire and the United States.
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Harfield, Alan. Pigeon to Packhorse: The Illustrated Story of Animals in Army Communications. Chippenham, UK: Picton, 1989.
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This slim volume provides a useful narrative account of the use of animals by the British and Indian armies in supporting military communications following the switch from visual signaling to the electric telegraph in 1854.
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le Chêne, Evelyn. Silent Heroes: The Bravery and Devotion of Animals in War. London: Souvenir, 1994.
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This work is included here as an example of a particular genre of writing about animals and the military: anthropomorphic accounts of animal “heroics” intended for a popular audience.
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Lubow, Robert E. The War Animals: The Training and Use of Animals as Weapons of War. New York: Doubleday, 1977.
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This is a technical study of the exploitation of animals for military purposes by an experimental psychologist who pioneered modern techniques of animal behavior modification. It includes a brief survey of the historical use of animals but is primarily concerned with post–World War II developments.
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van Emden, Richard. Tommy’s Ark: Soldiers and Their Animals in the Great War. London: Bloomsbury, 2010.
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The popular historian van Emden has written a strikingly original book that highlights not only the strong emotional bond formed between soldiers and working animals, pets, and mascots, but also the soldiers’ fascination with the natural world around them.
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Journals

Two categories of journal are considered here: the professional journals of the cavalry, artillery, and veterinary arms, whose contributors, up until the outbreak of World War II at least, were directly involved in the military service of animals and, second, those academic journals that have welcomed scholarly analysis of the topic. The most valuable of the professional journals are the Cavalry Journal (US), the Cavalry Journal (UK), the Journal of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, and the Journal of the Royal Artillery. A number of scholarly, peer-reviewed journals have welcomed articles concerning animals and the military, with a broad spectrum of approaches, from conventional operational histories of particular campaigns to essays drawing more on cultural, economic, and social history. Historians of conflict are particularly fortunate to have three first-rate academic journals specializing in their field: Journal of Military History, War in History, and War and Society. All offer a wide spectrum of coverage, in terms of geography, chronology, and methodology. The British Journal for the Society of Army Historical Research has a more narrow focus on the British and Commonwealth experience from the 16th century onward. Animals and Society is the foremost journal for the academic study of human–animal relations.

Animals and Society.
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This is an interdisciplinary journal attracting authors from backgrounds in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, history, philosophy, and literary criticism. It is at the forefront of academic study of human–animal interaction. Launched in 1993, it has published a number of articles addressing the animal experience of war, including work on horses and dogs.
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Cavalry Journal (US).
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Begun in 1888, the professional journal of the United States cavalry provides invaluable contemporary articles on the tactics of mounted warfare, including translations of foreign works. It also offers much material on horse mastery, breeding, and remount services. The post–World War I volumes offer some detailed analysis of the role of the horse and horse cavalry in the recent conflict.
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Cavalry Journal (UK).
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Founded in 1906 at a time when the army was under sustained criticism, the journal had an explicit agenda: to defend the place of the mounted service in a modern army. It also included articles about various off-duty activities, such as hunting and field sports, that give interesting insights into the attitudes of the officer corps, at least, to the natural world.
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Journal of Military History.
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Previously titled Military Affairs, this is the quarterly journal of the US Society for Military History and has been publishing scholarly articles on all aspects of military history since 1937. Since the 1990s, in particular, the journal has consistently demonstrated its commitment to “military history” broadly defined and is notable for the quality of its articles as well as for its comprehensive review section.
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Journal of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps.
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Besides technical and scientific articles concerning military veterinary practice, the early volumes of this journal, which began publishing in 1929, include some fascinating memoirs by British army veterinarians of service in colonial campaigns in Asia and Africa and in all theaters during World War I.
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Journal of the Royal Artillery.
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Launched in 1860, many articles in this journal reflect the central importance of draft animals to gunnery well into the 20th century. The interwar volumes have some particularly interesting material on the difficulty of drawing sufficient recruits from an increasingly mechanized economy who are qualified to care for horses.
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Journal of the Society of Army Historical Research.
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Although primarily devoting attention to the armed forces of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, this journal, which began publication in 1921, achieves a good balance between very specialist articles, such as those dealing with the minutiae of regimental uniforms, and broader, scholarly work, including a number of excellent recent studies of the development and work of military veterinary services.
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War in History.
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This journal too, is committed to a broad approach to the study of war, publishing articles since 1994 that examine economic, social, and cultural aspects of conflict, as well as institutional and operational studies, without restriction as to era or geography. This journal has a track record of publishing articles that challenge conventional wisdom and that foster debate.
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War and Society.
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Although usually focusing on articles dealing with the broader relations between warfare and society, this journal, which was founded in 1983, has also published some excellent operational and strategic studies. Again, it has demonstrated an admirable willingness to consider material from a wide chronological and geographic scope and an openness to innovative methodological approaches.
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The Military Horse in the Prehistoric and Ancient World

Two particularly important debates concern the military use of the horse in the ancient world: dating the emergence of effective horse riding and assessing the role of cavalry on the ancient battlefield. The author of Anthony 2007 is a leading proponent of the idea that effective riding was possible as early as the 4th millennium BCE, while Drews 2004 offers a forceful rebuttal, suggesting that, while horses may occasionally have been ridden before c. 900 BCE, it was only around that date that soldiers could actually fight from horseback. In regard to cavalry’s tactical capabilities, a long-standing tendency among scholars of ancient, and particularly Greek and Roman, warfare was to be slightly dismissive of the cavalry arm, seeing it primarily as a mere auxiliary to infantry. A number of fine technical studies, such as Gaebel 2002 and Dixon 1992, have done much to correct this notion in recognizing horse-mounted units as essential to operational success. The study of Greek cavalry in Spence 1995 is particularly worthy of note for the careful attention paid to the political and social implications of maintaining an effective cavalry force and the consequent impact that having done so had on the cavalry arm’s battlefield deployment. McCall 2001 offers a similarly potent synthesis of military and social history in the author’s discussion of the decline of the cavalry arm in the Roman Republic. Ann Hyland is a prolific writer on the horse in history and has much of interest to say in Hyland 1990 about both military and civilian use of the riding horse and on equestrianism and breeding. The horse’s other military function, as a draft animal drawing chariots, is less contentious, but the dissemination of the chariot itself is still a mysterious process; Moorey 1986 offers a plausible scenario.

Anthony, David W. The Horse, the Wheel and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.
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This is a dense anthropological work written by the foremost advocate of the early domestication of the horse. Those interested in the military use of the horse should note Anthony’s controversial evidence for early horse riding: alleged bit wear on ancient horse teeth dating from as early as 3700–4000 BCE.
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Dixon, Karen R., and Pat Southern. The Roman Cavalry. London: Batsford, 1992.
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The author draws on both archaeological and literary sources in this very useful work of scholarship, examining both the horses and men of the Roman cavalry and their training, organization, and equipment. Separate chapters are devoted to both cavalry mounts and baggage animals.
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Drews, Robert. Early Riders: The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe. New York: Routledge, 2004.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203389928Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Polemical, provocative, and absolutely essential reading; Drews is dismissive of the evidence for effective horse riding as early as 4000 BCE and argues forcefully that mounted warfare was possible only from about 900 BCE onward.
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Gaebel, Robert. Cavalry Operations in the Ancient World. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.
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Paying careful attention to the characteristics of the ancient horse, its stable management and its care, as well as to its battlefield utility, Gaebel challenges conventional wisdom that cavalry played a rather peripheral role in Greek warfare.
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Hyland, Ann. Equus: The Horse in the Roman World. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.
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Hyland is at her strongest when drawing on her considerable personal knowledge of horses and riding but, as a historian, her contribution is a bit restricted by her reliance on English translations of primary sources and a sometimes limited familiarity with the relevant scholarly literature.
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McCall, Jeremiah B. The Cavalry of the Roman Republic. London: Routledge, 2001.
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In seeking to explain the disappearance of citizens’ cavalry from the army of the Roman Republic, McCall suggests that it was not inefficiency that caused the arm to disband, but rather that the elite turned to performance in the law courts as the means by which to demonstrate their status.
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Moorey, P. R. S. “The Emergence of the Light, Horse-Drawn Chariot in the Near-East c. 2000–1500 B.C.” World Archaeology 18 (1986): 196–215.
DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1986.9979998Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In a systematic and thorough examination, Moorey argues that the introduction of the light chariot and its specialist horse teams in the late Bronze Age should be associated with a high-status social caste whose position rested largely on its mastery of the military use of horse and chariot. Available online by subscription.
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Spence, I. G. The Cavalry of Classical Greece: A Social and Military History with Particular Reference to Athens. Oxford: Clarendon, 1995.
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A carefully considered and convincing analysis of the creditable battlefield performance of the aristocratic (and thus politically suspect) cavalry of ancient Greece, Spence’s book was important in redressing the overemphasis on infantry warfare in conventional accounts of military activity in classical Greece.
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The Military Horse from the Medieval to the Early Modern Period

The complex and highly significant relationship between horse breeding, social status, and war making in medieval Europe is explored in three essential works, Ayton 1994, Davis 1989, and Gladitz 1997. The survey of the military use of the horse in the early Middle Ages in Hyland 1994 is characteristic in its broad scope, covering Byzantium, western Europe, Islamic armies, and the horses of the Mongols. The debate on the putative “military revolution” in the early modern era has paid insufficient attention to the horse because of its focus on western Europe and its stress on the impact of gunpowder technology on infantry warfare and military architecture. Thus, Edwards 1995 and Robinson 2008 are particularly welcome in exploring the central roles of saddle and draft horses to European warfare in this period. Furthermore, Adshead 1978, a work on China, and Gommans 2007, a study on India, should counter any notions that western Europe enjoyed a monopoly on profound military innovation, and its associated impact on political and administrative institutions, in this period.

Adshead, S. A. M. “Horse Administration under the Ch’ing: An Introduction.” Papers on Far Eastern History 17 (1978): 71–79.
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The author contrasts the response of the Ming and Ch’ing dynasties to dealing with the challenge of the superior mobility of the steppe cavalry armies threatening China. Adshead considers the organization and achievements of the Imperial Stud of the Ch’ing dynasty (1440–1776) to have been worthy of much credit.
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Alofs, Eduard. “Studies on Mounted Warfare in Asia I: Continuity and Change in Middle Eastern Warfare, c. CE 550–1350.” War in History 21 (2014): 423–444.
DOI: 10.1177/0968344513517664Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Arguing for the essential continuity of patterns of horse-mobile warfare in Asia extending over centuries, the author explores what he sees as two long-standing and dominant military traditions: the “Turanian” tradition of the pastoral nomads of Inner Asia and the “Iranian” tradition of sedentary populations under the nomad influence. The article continues as “Studies on Mounted Warfare in Asia II: The Iranian Tradition—The Armoured Horse Archer in the Middle East, c. CE 550–1350,” pp. 4–27 (2005, volume 22).
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Ayton, Andrew. Knights and Warhorses: Military Service and the English Aristocracy under Edward III. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 1994.
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A highly regarded scholarly examination of English men-at-arms and the horses they rode to war during the later Middle Ages. Ayton uses the appraisals of the values of horses as an indicator of the status of the riders and, when charting such data over time, traces the development of individual careers.
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Barnes, Cameron. “Rehorsing the Huns.” War and Society 34 (2015): 1–22.
DOI: 10.1179/0729247314Z.00000000044Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article is a response to recent interpretations that have argued that Hun armies of the 5th century had largely abandoned their nomadic, mounted heritage because of the shortage of suitable grazing land in Pannonia. Barnes puts the horse back into the picture and portrays the Huns as a genuinely nomadic people.
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Davis, R. H. C. The Medieval Warhorse: Origin, Development and Redevelopment. London: Thames and Hudson, 1989.
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In this seminal work, Davis demonstrates the centrality of organized horse breeding to the emergence and maintenance of “chivalric” society. He opens by surveying how mounted warfare developed during the Middle Ages before examining contemporary practices of selective breeding in western Europe, particularly England.
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Edwards, Peter. “The Supply of Horses to the Parliamentarian and Royalist Armies in the English Civil War.” Historical Research 68 (1995): 49–66.
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In this study, Edwards demonstrates the significance of horse procurement as a major factor in determining the outcome of early modern wars. The horse was important for both tactical and logistical reasons and both Royalists and Parliamentarians were frequently preoccupied by the pressing need to secure remounts and draft animals.
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Gladitz, Charles. Horse Breeding in the Medieval World. Dublin: Four Courts, 1997.
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Gladitz is ambitious in his scope, both geographically and chronologically, in his coverage from Turkistan and China to western Europe and from prehistory to the late medieval period. Coverage of Asia is, perhaps, sometimes superficial compared to Europe, largely because of the paucity of source materials, but this is, overall, an invaluable survey.
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Gommans, Jos. “Warhorses and Post-Nomadic Empire in Asia, c. 1000–1800.” Journal of Global History 2 (2007): 1–21.
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Gommons explains why the horse remained central to the military and political organization of the empires that bordered central Eurasia until the 19th century, and the continued significance of the ability to mobilize powerful cavalry armies.
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Hyland, Ann. The Medieval Warhorse from Byzantium to the Crusades. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 1994.
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Careful attention is paid to horse breeding and the physical characteristics of medieval mounts. Hyland does not argue for abrupt changes from one equestrian culture to another over time or place but points rather to interrelated developments that made the horse indispensable to the militaries of both East and West.
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Robinson, Gavin. “Horse Supply and the Development of the New Model Army, 1642–1646.” War in History 15 (2008): 121–140.
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In a detailed comparison of the supply of horses and tack to the armies of Essex, Manchester, Waller, and Fairfax, Robinson notes significant changes in supply systems in 1645, but also argues forcefully for much continuity between the practices of Essex’s army and those of the New Model Army.
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Warfare and the “Horse Cultures” of the Americas

Few would dispute that the horse has profoundly shaped the history of the Americas since its reintroduction to the two continents by the Spanish during the initial phase of European colonization. Indeed, the Spanish warhorse has often been credited with being the very instrument of conquest, an overexaggeration to which Abbass 1986 provides a sensible rejoinder. Nevertheless, horses did profoundly affect those indigenous societies that acquired them. Early anthropological work, such as that by Clarke Wissler, tended to assume that Native American societies were static and unchanging and that the acquisition of the horse merely reinforced existing cultural practices, including the extent and nature of warfare, an interpretation sometimes echoed by more recent historians, such as Gregson in his work on South America (Gregson 1969). Yet, a later generation of anthropologists, particularly in Ewers 1955, Mishkin 1940, and Secoy 1992, demonstrated how dynamic the equestrian cultures of the Great Plains really had been and that the switch to nomadism was a recent phenomenon with implications for social hierarchy, gender relations, commercial activities, and the pursuit of warfare. These factors were all intertwined; those seeking to explain the success of the horse cultures of the Great Plains need to look beyond their military prowess and consider, for example, how a nomadic life style organized around the horse led to better nutrition and to a dispersal of population that limited the impact of disease. Thus, until recently, the arrival of the horse was seen to be an aspect of ecological colonization that was largely beneficial to indigenous societies. This position has now been nuanced and it is recognized that there were losers, too, when the horse arrived. Those who lost status in societies where wealth and influence were now measured by horses included women and the poor. Warfare on the plains escalated as nomadic peoples raided for horses and fought for hunting territory and control of trade. Most catastrophically, the arrival of the horse—a competitor for pasture—and the rise of the horse-mobile nomad—whose livelihood depended on hunting—signaled the beginning of the end for the bison. These themes are explored most effectively in Hämäläinen 2003 and McGinnis 1990.

Abbass, D. K. “Horses and Heroes: The Myth of the Importance of the Horse to the Conquest of the Indies.” Terrae Incognitae 18 (1986): 21–41.
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This is a reassessment of the role of the horse as a factor in the original conquest of the New World. The author argues forcefully that both terrain and climate severely limited the utility of the horse and that Native American opponents understood and exploited those limitations effectively.
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Ewers, John, C. The Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture. New York: Random House, 1955.
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This seminal study by the ethnologist Ewers provides a compelling analysis of the extent to which the acquisition of the horse transformed and sustained the lives of a nomadic, buffalo-hunting people of the North American Great Plains, including in their conduct of warfare.
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Gregson, Ronald. “The Influence of the Horse on Indian Cultures of Lowland South America.” Ethnohistory 16 (1969): 33–50.
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Gregson suggests that equestrianism did not have the marked transformative effect that many interwar and post–World War II studies had posited. In relation to warfare, for example, he argues that the horse was adopted because of a preexisting propensity for conflict, rather than, in itself, stimulating new, predatory military strategies.
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Hämäläinen, Pekka. “The Rise and Fall of Plains Indian Horse Cultures.” Journal of American History 90 (2003): 833–862.
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This article is a challenge to those who have concentrated on the beneficial aspects of the rise of the Great Plains’ equestrian cultures. Here, the author emphasizes the social dislocation, disruption of gender relations, growth of inequality, escalation of warfare, and ecological catastrophe that followed the arrival of the horse.
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Hämäläinen, Pekka. The Comanche Empire. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
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The author emphasizes the role of the horse in Comanche life, noting the short-term gain and longer-term instability associated with the acquisition of the animal, while the scope of his analysis illuminates the full extent of agency achieved by the equestrian cultures of the Great Plains in shaping “frontier history.”
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McGinnis, Anthony. Counting Coup and Cutting Horses: Intertribal Warfare on the Northern Plains 1738–1889. Evergreen, CO: Cordillera, 1990.
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McGinnis agrees with those who have argued for the significance of the development of nomadism and equestrian cultures in affecting patterns of conflict and points to the growing “complexity” of warfare, associated with the escalating rivalry for control of lucrative trade with Europeans and Americans.
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Mishkin, Ralph. Rank and Warfare among the Plains Indians. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1940.
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Focusing on the conduct of, and motivations for, conflict, Mishkin demonstrated how the military use of the horse by the Kiowa linked the pursuit of individual social status with wider communal economic motives, such as access to hunting grounds, that had previously been ignored by anthropologists.
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Secoy, Frank Raymond. Changing Military Patterns of the Great Plains Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
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Secoy posited a dynamic model of cultural change on the Great Plains, and he argues for striking transformations in the conduct of warfare via two innovations penetrating the Plains: equestrianism, from the Spanish Southwest, and the use of the gun, from the English, French, and Americans, from the Northeast. Originally published in 1953.
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Military Activity and the Horse in Africa

Although the horse had long been familiar in North Africa, its presence south of the Sahara, where both climate and disease militated against both the breeding and the maintenance of large horse stocks, was more problematic. Small, hardy breeds do seem to have been established early on, as Heidorn 1997 has suggested for the Dongola region of Sudan. However, most scholars have argued that it was the arrival of larger breeds and advanced tack carried south by Islamic armies and traders in the late medieval and early modern periods that allowed for the creation of cavalry armies, which quickly established a military dominance on the savannah and fueled the growth of new equestrian empires, such as Mali. Webb 1993, for example, writes of a “cavalry revolution” in 15th-century Senegambia. Elbl 1991, too, sees the military employment of horses in this period as crucial to state formation in the region. Others have been more cautious; although he notes the importance of the larger breeds particularly for slave raiding (see also Webb 1993 on this subject), Humphrey Fisher sees the horse itself as being of little intrinsic military significance and questions its putative role in state formation (Fisher 1972). Robin Law, in both articles and a monograph (Law 1975, Law 1976, Law 1980), advances a similar argument, noting, for example, that even in the Oyo Empire, which boasted a large cavalry arm by the 16th century, the cost of importing and maintaining the national herd proved such a burden that it probably retarded the development of a strong, central authority. Legassick 1966 makes a similar point, noting that the difficulties of maintaining a large national horse herd ensured that cavalry could never dominate the army of Samori Ture as it did other Islamic militaries.

Elbl, Ivana. “The Horse in Fifteenth-Century Senegambia.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 24 (1991): 85–110.
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This article charts the importance of the horse in warfare in Senegambia during the 15th century as foreign suppliers made the mobilization of large cavalry armies feasible. This would tip the regional balance of power as the hinterland states of Fuuta Tooro and Kaabu rose to eminence.
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Fisher, Humphrey J. “He Swalloweth the Ground with Fierceness and Rage: The Horse in the Central Sudan Part I: Its Introduction.” Journal of African History 13 (1972): 367–388.
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Fisher suggests that the crucial development in the military use of the horse was in the acquisition of appropriate equipment, best used with the larger breeds that arrived as part of the medieval trans-Saharan trade. Fisher thought horses, in themselves, long had little intrinsic military significance in the region. See also “Part II: Its Use.” Journal of African History 14 (1973): 355–379.
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Heidorn, Lisa. “The Horses of Kush.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 56 (1997): 105–114.
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By establishing the presence of “Kushite” horses, cavalry, and chariotry units in the Assyrian army, and by examining the evidence for equestrianism in the Dongola area into the medieval period, Heidon argues for both the considerable antiquity and continuity of a horse-breeding tradition in this region of the Sudan.
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Law, Robin. “A West African Cavalry State: The Kingdom of Oyo.” Journal of African History 16 (1975): 1–15.
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700014079Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Law suggests that the kingdom of Oyo began to make effective use of cavalry in the 16th century. However, the difficulty of procuring and maintaining a large national herd proved a considerable economic burden that may have prevented the establishment of effective monarchical autocracy. Available online by subscription.
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Law, Robin. “Horses, Firearms and Political Power in Pre-colonial West Africa.” Past and Present 72 (1976): 112–132.
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Law argues that from the 14th century onward, the introduction of larger horses gave rise to states based around effective cavalry armies. The cost of maintaining horses meant that they had to be physically dispersed and thus could not serve as a catalyst for the growth of a central, political authority. Available online by subscription.
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Law, Robin. The Horse in West African History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.
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Law develops the themes he had explored in his previous articles about the impact of the introduction of larger horses into West Africa in the 14th century. He cautions against overexaggerating the impact of the horse, both on the battlefield and in the creation of powerful, centralized states.
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Legassick, Martin. “Firearms, Horses and Samorian Army Organisation 1870–1898.” Journal of African History 7 (1966): 5–115.
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Although cavalry horses were an important component of the army of Samori Ture, the author argues that their high cost and the difficulty of replacing them meant that they could form only an auxiliary arm. The Samorian army was, thus, predominantly organized around an infantry armed with firearms.
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Webb, L. A. “The Horse and Slave Trade between the Western Sahara and Senegambia.” Journal of African History 34 (1993): 221–246.
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Following a “cavalry-revolution” in 15th-century Senegambia, Webb argues that the horse and slave trades became closely intertwined in the “desert-edge political economy,” as the African “cavalry empires,” such as Mali, raided for slaves and traded them across the Sahara for high-quality North African horses. Available online by subscription.
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Horses and the Modern Military

The most useful texts here are those that simply emphasize the absolute centrality of the horse to the conduct of war from 1789 (the start of the French Revolution) and continuing into the 20th century. Although frequently overlooked both by conventional military historians of the “drums and trumpet” school, whose emphasis is usually upon generalship or new technologies, and by scholars of the “new military history” and the “war and society” schools, whose focus is on administrative and institutional histories, horsepower has been the engine of modern war. The procurement of horses, their care, and their physical characteristics are factors that have shaped war at every level: strategic, as Ramsdell 1930 has demonstrated for the American Civil War; logistical, as DiNardo 1991 has shown for the Wehrmacht in World War II and Iarocci 2009 for the Canadian army in World War I; and tactical, as Jones 2010, in the author’s discussion of the battlefield mobility of American Civil War artillery, details. The scale of horse use in modern war, and its significance as a factor in the economic mobilization for “total war,” is well illustrated in Roche 2008, for the revolutionary government of France, and Singleton 1993, in the author’s study of the British Empire’s mobilization of horses during World War I. It is particularly interesting to note the recognition by scholars of counterinsurgency, such as Durand 2007, that the horse continued to demonstrate its military utility, in some operational contexts, long after the end of World War II. The scale of the suffering inflicted upon animals mobilized for war is no less striking, as Swart 2010 reminds us in the author’s study of the Second South African War.

DiNardo, R. L. Mechanised Juggernaut or Military Anachronism? Horses and the German Army of World War II. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1991.
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A seminal work in which, in revealing the dependence of the German army on horses during World War II, DiNardo simultaneously overturns notions of Hitler’s army as an instrument of mechanized warfare and also reveals the extent to which the horse remained vital to the conduct of military operations.
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Durand, Pierre. “La cavalerie à cheval pendant la guerre d’Algérie, 1956–1962: Survivance ou résurrection?” Guerres Mondiales et Conflits Contemporains 57 (2007): 81–91.
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Durand notes how the terrain and lack of a developed transport infrastructure in Algeria led the French army to revive the use of mounted units in the 1950s to exploit the agility, hardiness, and stamina of the North Africa Barb horse in counterinsurgency operations. Available online by subscription.
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Green, Ann Norton. Horses at Work: Harnessing Power in Industrial America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.
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Here, the author challenges the technological determinism underpinning much modern history. She includes a very valuable chapter on the American Civil War in a work that demonstrates that the new industrial machinery that transformed both warfare and manufacturing did not displace horsepower, but was dependent upon it.
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Iarocci, Andrew. “Engines of War: Horsepower in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914–18.” Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 87 (2009): 59–83.
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Acknowledging recent work on both horse procurement and veterinary services during World War I, Iarocci seeks to broaden the scholarship by covering in more detail the logistical and operational experiences of horses and mules serving on the western front, with a particular reference to the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
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Jones, Spencer. “The Influence of Horse Supply Upon Field Artillery in the American Civil War.” Journal of Military History 74 (2010): 357–377.
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With most studies of American Civil War tactics focusing on the theoretical technological performance of cannon and rifled muskets, this is a welcome and persuasive counterperspective that argues that inadequate horse supply and the poor condition of gun teams were the crucial factors in determining artillery’s performance during the conflict.
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Phillips, Gervase. “Writing Horses into American Civil War History.” War in History 20 (2013): 160–181.
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A consideration of the experiences of horses during the American Civil War, informed by both contemporary records and modern equine science, which attempts to demonstrate both the possibility, and the desirability, of according due attention to “animal soldiers” in the writing of military history.
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Ramsdell, Charles W. “General Robert E. Lee’s Horse Supply, 1862–1865.” American Historical Review 35 (1930): 758–777.
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This is an undeservedly neglected work that ought to be read by anyone with a serious interest in the American Civil War’s eastern theater. Here, Ramsdell demonstrates the centrality of the crisis caused by insufficient supplies of remounts and draft animals in determining Confederate strategy in the East.
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Roche, Daniel. “Les chevaux de la République: L’enquête de l’an III.” Revue d‘Histoire Moderne & Contemporaine 55 (2008): 82–121.
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In the “Year III,” the revolutionary government of France conducted an urgent inquiry into horse procurement. Drawing on the evidence of this inquiry, Roche highlights the structure, geography, and both the strengths and weaknesses of the national breeding program under the strain imposed by a “war economy.”
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Singleton, John. “Britain’s Military Use of Horses 1914–1918.” Past and Present 139 (1993): 178–203.
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By charting the growth in the employment of horses over the course of World War I, from 25,000 in 1914 to a high of 591,000 in 1917, John Singleton demonstrates the centrality of horsepower to the British Empire’s war effort. Available online by subscription.
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Swart, Sandra. “Horses in the South African War, c. 1899–1903.” Society & Animals 18 (2010): 348–366.
DOI: 10.1163/156853010X524316Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Focusing primarily on the horrific mortality rate of horses during the Second South African War, or the Second Boer War (1899–1902), this essay examines the material and environmental contexts for the massive equine mortality associated with this conflict, including the impact of Britain’s scorched earth policy in devastating the rural economy.
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Winton, Graham. Theirs Not to Reason Why: Horsing the British Army, 1875–1925. Solihull, UK: Helion, 2013.
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This is the fullest treatment of the remount services of the modern British army, covering both riding and draft horses, sensibly discussed in the context of domestic and international horse supply, veterinary care, horse-mastery in the field, and the demands of the mobilization from a small peace-time imperial constabulary to an army capable of waging warfare against a continental opponent.
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Mules

If modern military historians have largely neglected the horse, they have generally completely ignored the unglamorous but tough and hard-working mule. Both Arnold 2008 and Essin 1997 seek to do justice to this often wrongly maligned creature. Those interested in the very extensive British use of mules during World War I should also see Galtrey 1918 (cited under Veterinary Services), the author of which is also at pains to pay tribute to this stoical campaigner.

Arnold, Watson C. “The Mule: The Worker That ‘Can’t Get No Respect.’” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 112 (2008): 34–50.
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Although Watson is concerned primarily with highlighting the contribution of the strong and hardy mule to the development of American transport and agriculture as a whole, he notes, too, its remarkable qualities as a military campaigner in difficult terrain from the Spanish-American War through World War II.
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Essin, Emmett M. Shavetails and Bell Sharps: The History of the U.S. Army Mule. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
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Essin’s detailed and scholarly narrative history of the US Army mule covers 125 years of service, culminating in the final “mustering out” of service in Colorado in 1956. Besides illuminating the particular qualities of the mule, this book sheds much additional light on military procurement, logistics, and supply.
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Dogs

The exploitation of dogs for military purposes is another neglected field. However, a number of excellent and, from the researcher’s perspective, valuable first-hand accounts by dog handlers from the world wars and Vietnam are available, including Richardson 1920, probably the leading authority on the subject in the early 20th century. Some of the memoirs from Vietnam, such as Burnham 2003, have been published as part of a campaign for public commemoration of the military service of war dogs, and should thus be considered alongside the works of Cooper 1983 and Gardiner 2006 (cited under Overviews and Surveys) in the United Kingdom as indicative of the theriophilic tendency now shaping wider social attitudes toward animals and, increasingly, making itself felt in the writing of history. Karunanithy 2008 has made a valiant attempt at an overview of the subject and should be congratulated on the thoroughness with which the author has chased down references to the premodern military employment of canines. Campbell 2006, Johnson 2009, Murphy 1996, and Skabelund 2008 are thought-provoking studies that refocus attention away from animal heroics and public memorialization toward an altogether darker history, namely, that of the exploitation of the dog in the waging of the racial conflicts of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Burnham, John C. A Soldier’s Best Friends: Scout Dogs and Their Handlers in the Vietnam War. New York: Carrol & Graf, 2003.
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Burnham’s memoir illustrates the role of the dog in locating the wounded, detecting booby traps and underground bunkers, and giving warning of ambushes. Like all such memoirs it also emphasizes the strong psychological bond that handlers forged with their dogs and their unease when their canine comrades were abandoned in Vietnam.
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Campbell, John. “The Seminoles, the ‘Bloodhound War’ and Abolitionism, 1796–1865.” Journal of Southern History 72 (2006): 259–302.
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Campbell chronicles the use of dogs for tracking fugitive Native Americans and runaway slaves. Abolitionists referred to the Second Seminole War (1835–1842), waged against the Seminole people and their “maroon” (runaway slave) allies, as the “Bloodhound War,” thereafter making images of the animal a central feature of antislavery propaganda.
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Johnson, Sara E. “‘You Should Give Them Blacks to Eat’: Waging Inter-American Wars of Torture and Terror.” American Quarterly 61 (2009): 65–92.
DOI: 10.1353/aq.0.0068Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Here, the author chronicles the use of dogs as instruments of torture and terror in the Americas during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Cuban dogs were used against black combatants during the Haitian Revolution (1791–1803), the Second Maroon War (1795–1796) in Jamaica, and the Second Seminole War (1835–1842) in Florida.
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Karunanithy, David. Dogs of War: Canine Use in Warfare from Ancient Egypt to the 19th Century. London: Yarak, 2008.
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This is a bold attempt at a comprehensive survey of the use of dogs in warfare from antiquity through the 19th century and thus lacks any real competitor text. Profusely illustrated, this is a sound introductory text, although inevitably its chronological breadth limits the depth of analysis.
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Lemish, Michael G. War Dogs: Canines in Combat. London: Brassey’s 1996.
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This is a narrative history of “the K9 Corps,” the dogs that have served in the US military in the 20th century. Besides covering the usual gamut of canine duties the author also discusses the darker, and thankfully abortive, project during World War II to use dogs to deliver explosive charges against fortifications.
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Murphy, Douglas. “Dogs of Destiny, Hounds from Hell: American Soldiers and Canines in the Mexican War.” Military History of the West 26 (1996): 35–48.
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This essay chronicles the use of hunting dogs by American forces during the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). These were mostly well-bred animals, privately owned by officers, whose primary function appears to have been to help their masters forage for game while on campaign.
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Murray, Mary Kathleen. “The Contributions of the American Military Working Dog in Vietnam.” Honolulu, University Press of the Pacific, 1998.
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In this succinct volume, the author traces the military use of canines from the earliest deployment of American sentry and scout dogs in 1960, initially to assist the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, through to the increasingly widespread use of such animals by the US armed forces as they became more directly involved in the conflict.
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Richardson, Edwin Hautonville. British War Dogs, Their Training and Psychology. London: Skeffington, 1920.
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Richardson began training dogs for both the army and the police in 1898 and had supplied animals to both the Russian and Spanish militaries before 1914. This account primarily covers his war service as commander of the War Dogs Training School for the British Expeditionary Force in France.
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Skabelund, A. “Breeding Racism: The Imperial Battlefields of the ‘German’ Shepherd Dog.” Society & Animals 16 (2008): 354–371.
DOI: 10.1163/156853008X357676Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article examines how the “German” shepherd dog, although most strongly associated with Imperial and Nazi Germany, became a powerful symbol, as protector, deterrent, and enforcer of social control, of wider imperial aggression and racist ideologies, including that of the Japanese. Available online by subscription.
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Elephants

Many military historians, such as Michael Charles, have tended to regard the elephant as an unreliable weapon, prone to stampeding on the battlefield, but a useful draft animal (Charles 2007). Kistler 2007, in the only book-length general survey of the military exploitation of the elephant, argues that the animal was formidable both on the battlefield and in supporting logistics, at least until the arrival of gunpowder weapons. The analysis of the use of elephants in war by classical Greece and Rome in Scullard 1974 would tend to support this view. Digby 1971, too, sees a strong relationship between possession of war elephants and military potential in the author’s study of the Delhi Sultanate. Gommans 2002 lays greater stress on the war horse than on gunpowder weapons in explaining the declining battlefield use of elephants but also emphasizes its significance not only to logistics but also as a symbol of power.

Charles, Michael B. “Magister Elephantorvm: A Reappraisal of Hannibal’s Use of Elephants.” Classical World 100 (2007): 363–389.
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In considering the use of elephants by the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War, Charles challenges the view that Hannibal was a tactical innovator and suggests that his use of large numbers of elephants on the field of Zama demonstrates his willingness to take risks on the battlefield.
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Digby, Simon. War-Horse and Elephant in the Delhi Sultanate: A Study of Military Supplies. Oxford: Orient Monographs, 1971.
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Digby notes the elephant’s importance as a draft animal but suggests that it was primarily valued for its battlefield role and that a sharp decline in the supply of war elephants during the late 14th century signaled the sultanate’s military eclipse.
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Gommans, Jos. Mughal Warfare. London: Routledge, 2002.
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In this, the most recent and thorough treatment of Mughal warfare, Gommons suggests that the elephant ultimately lost ground to the horse in terms of its battlefield use but that it retained significance as a symbol of power and authority and as a beast of burden.
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Kistler, John. War Elephants. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.
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This is the first attempt to write a full narrative of the use of the elephant in warfare, from the ancient world to US experiments in air lifting pachyderms in Vietnam and thus fills a conspicuous gap in the literature of the military use of animals.
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Scullard, H. H. The Elephant in the Greek and Roman World. Cambridge, UK: Thames & Hudson, 1974.
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This book examines the use of the elephant by the Greeks, Macedonians, Macedonian successor states, Carthage, and Rome. The elephant’s exploitation for military purposes is well covered, with Scullard demonstrating how a skillful commander, such as Pyrrhus, could use elephants in combat to good effect.
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Camels

It is, perhaps, indicative of the ethnocentricity that still characterizes much military history that the bulk of the scholarly literature about the military use of camels has not concerned Africa or Asia, where it has been of the greatest importance, but rather the brief and abortive experiment by the US army in the mid-19th century to utilize the animals in the arid American Southwest. The fullest treatment is in Faulk 1976, which stresses the construction of the railroad as one significant factor in the failure of the experiment. Others, such as Nabhan 2008, argue that the experiment was going well but was curtailed by the Civil War. Connelly 1966 points out that no agreement was ever reached on the intended use of the camels and that the whole project had actually collapsed before either the Civil War or the arrival of the railroad. Those wishing to research the wider employment of camels will find some useful first-hand accounts, such as Gleichen 1888 and Robertson 1938. In addition to these sources, it is often a case of tracking down references in more general texts, such as Murphey 1999 for the Ottoman Empire or Gilliam 1965 and Holder 1987 for brief remarks on the poorly documented use of camels by the Romans.

Connelly, Thomas L. “The American Camel Experiment: A Reappraisal.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 69 (1966): 442–462.
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Connelly argues that the experiments in the use of camels by the US military in the 1850s were a muddle from the start, with no agreement on the precise use that was to be made of the animal and no real understanding of its particular characteristics or capabilities.
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Faulk, Odie B. The U.S. Camel Corps: An Army Experiment. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.
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This treatment is the fullest account of the American experiment with camels. The project enjoyed some influential patronage but failed because camels could not be used alongside horses and mules and the packers were unsure how to load them correctly. Finally, the construction of the railroad rendered their role redundant.
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Gilliam, J. F. “Dura Rosters and the Constitutio Antoniniana.” Historia 14 (1965): 74–92.
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Evidence on the organization, strength, and use of Roman dromedarii units is limited; this article examines two duty rosters from Dura-Europas, which suggest that these particular units were relatively small in size, from twenty to thirty-five men, were raised from the infantry, and were attached directly to infantry centuries.
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Gleichen, Count Edward. With the Camel Corps up the Nile. London: Chapman & Hall, 1888.
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Gleichen’s vivid first-hand account of his service in the Sudan, on the Gordon Relief expedition of 1884–1885, gives clear evidence on the importance of the camel in the conduct of desert warfare prior to mechanization.
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Holder, P. A. “Roman Auxiliary Cavalry in the Second Century A. D.” Archaeology Today 8 (1987): 12–16.
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Although primarily concerned with horse-mounted units, Holder offers some evidence on the dromedarii formations raised in the East by the emperor Trajan, which suggests that these were either composed entirely of camels or could serve as part of a cohors equitata cavalry unit.
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Murphey, Rhoads. Ottoman Warfare 1500–1700. London: UCL Press, 1999.
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The author devotes much attention to the logistics of early modern Ottoman armies and, in doing so, provides brief but useful notes concerning the beasts of burden that were employed on campaign, including oxen, water buffaloes, and, most important, camels. This includes details of numbers mobilized, cost, and load capacity.
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Nabhan, Gary Paul. “Camel Whisperers: Desert Nomads Crossing Paths.” Journal of Arizona History 49 (2008): 95–118.
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This article tells the story of Hadji Ali, a Syrian Arab, who was recruited in Turkey to purchase and transport camels to the United States for the experiment in which the animals would be used to help supply military forts in the Southwest in the aftermath of the war with Mexico.
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Robertson, John. With the Cameliers in Palestine. Dunedin, New Zealand: A. H. and A. W. Reed, 1938.
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This is a first-hand account by a New Zealander, who served with the Imperial Camel Corps in Palestine in 1918. It provides a telling testimony to the importance of the camel, both as a beast of burden and as a mount for combatants, in the desert campaign against the Ottomans.
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Pigeons

Those interested in the military use of pigeons should consult McCafferty 2000 in addition to Cooper 1983, Harfield 1989, and Lubow 1977 (all cited under Overviews and Surveys).

McCafferty, Garry. They Had No Choice: Racing Pigeons at War. Stroud, UK: Tempus, 2000.
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A narrative, popular history of the sterling work of British carrier pigeons and their handlers during the two world wars primarily in maintaining battlefield communications, this is the only book-length treatment of the subject.
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Veterinary Services

Paralleling the growing size and effectiveness of medical and sanitary support services for armies on campaign, specialist veterinary corps developed over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Again, the subject has been largely neglected by academic historians. The catastrophic consequences of attempting to wage a major war without proper veterinary support are well illustrated in Heiss 2005, a study of the American Civil War. That some progress was evident elsewhere is clear from the account in Robins 2009 of the influence of veterinary science in the British army. The contribution to the British official history made by Blenkinsop and Rainey 1925 is comprehensive and very detailed but also dry and highly technical. It also includes valuable primary materials, including copious diagrams, illustrations, and a useful appendix made up of contemporary documents, reports, and technical pamphlets issued during the war. Clabby 1963 continues the narrative until the post–World War II period, but largely lacks the technical detail and contemporary material. Corvi 1998 offers a more accessible, but necessarily brief, study of the subject, which, in common with much modern work, also stresses the importance of the psychological relationship between the soldier and, in particular, the horse. Galtrey 1918 is largely anecdotal but contains much detail about the day-to-day care of the horses and mules of the British Expeditionary Force of 1914–1918.

Blenkinsop, Sir L. J., and J. W. Rainey. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents: Veterinary Services. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1925.
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This covers all theaters of operations and addresses such topics as the organization of veterinary services, the training of personnel, the wartime role of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, animal diseases and surgery, animal transportation, and the disposal of animal carcasses.
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Clabby, J. The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1919–1961. London: J. A. Allen, 1963.
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This is a narrative history that takes up the story of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps during the interwar years through World War II and after, demonstrating the continued importance of its work even during the period of mechanization.
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Corvi, Stephen J. “Men of Mercy: The Evolution of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps and the Soldier-Horse Bond during the Great War.” Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 76 (1998): 272–284.
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Corvi outlines the development of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps and its growth to 18,000 men during the Great War. He is interested in more, however, than the organization and technical aspects of the corps’ work, which are thoroughly covered in Blenkinsop and Rainey 1925, in also stressing the emotional bond that developed between horses and those who cared for them during the war.
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Galtrey, Sidney. The Horse and the War. London: Country Life, 1918.
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A slim volume primarily concerned with the remount and veterinary services that supported the British Expeditionary Force on the western front. Galtrey includes much material on the work of the BEF’s draft animals, including the North American light draft horse, which he calls “the true equine hero of the war.”
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Heiss, Walter. Veterinary Service during the American Civil War. Baltimore: Publish America, 2005.
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Although a slim volume, this privately published work is a sound introduction to a neglected topic: the care of horses and mules during the American Civil War. Heiss demonstrates that the paucity of qualified veterinarians and poor horse mastery in the field were major contributors to a cruel wastage rate of horses and mules.
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Robins, Colin. “A Note on Veterinary Surgeons in the Crimea.” Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 87 (2009): 214–220.
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Although only a brief research note, this succinct article offers a useful perspective on the place of veterinary surgeons within the British army in the 19th century and charts the transformation of farrier duties into an established and specialized medical discipline.
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Animals, Ecology, and Warfare

Partly in response to shifts in human attitudes toward animals and partly as a result of the growing interest in ecological and environmental history, it is likely that the historiography of animals and the military will develop to reflect not simply their exploitation, but also the impact that human conflict has upon them and their natural habitats and, furthermore, upon the role of militaries (particularly in Africa, Asia, and South America) in protecting them. Henk 2006 and Chase and Griffin 2009 are examples of what might emerge as a strong trend in this field. Oxford, et al. 2005, which considers an animal population as a vector for disease in a vulnerable war-time human population, also raises intriguing possibilities for those scholars willing to move beyond the anthropocentric concerns that have been central to both conventional “military history” and the “war and society” school.

Chase, Michael J., and Curtice R. Griffin. “Elephants Caught in the Middle: Impacts of War, Fences and People on Elephant Distribution and Abundance in the Caprivi Strip, Namibia.” African Journal of Ecology 47 (2009): 223–233.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2028.2008.01017.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Using evidence gathered by aerial surveys, in conjunction with historical records and telemetry studies, the authors of this article suggest that civil war has had a negative impact on the abundance and distribution of elephants in the Caprivi Strip since the first aerial survey was conducted in 1988. Available online by subscription.
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Henk, Dan. “Biodiversity and the Military in Botswana.” Armed Forces and Society 32 (2006): 273–291.
DOI: 10.1177/0095327X05277907Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
For almost two decades the professional and capable military of Botswana has been deployed to safeguard large wild animals from the threat of poaching in the country’s national parks; it has been a largely successful experience that the author, with some reservations, argues could be replicated elsewhere on the continent. Available online by subscription.
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Oxford, J. S., R. Lambkin, and A. Sefton, et al. “A Hypothesis: The Conjunction of Soldiers, Gas, Pigs, Ducks, Geese and Horses in Northern France during the Great War Provided the Conditions for the Emergence of the ‘Spanish’ Influenza Pandemic of 1918–1919.” Vaccine 23 (2005): 940–945.
DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2004.06.035Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This tentative study suggests that the British base camp at Étaples in northern France, where large number of domestic animals, including pigs and poultry, were kept alongside overcrowded barracks and mutagenic gases, may have served as the origin point of the influenza pandemic of 1918–1919.