The battle of Wauhatchie, featured in a post yesterday which may be read here, is primarily remembered in Civil War lore for a minor incident that occurred during the fight. The Confederate Hampton Legion, led by General Wade Hampton, of Longstreet’s Corps, apparently was disordered briefly by a stampede of Union mules and that allowed the Union to plug a gap in the battle line. Union troops waggishly suggested after the fight that the mules be breveted as horses. Here is the poem by that endlessly prolific author Anonymous:
Half a mile, half a mile, Â
Half a mile onward,
Right through the Georgia troops Â
Broke the two hundred.
“Forward the Mule Brigade!
 Charge for the Rebs,” they neighed.
Straight for the Georgia troops Â
Broke the two hundred.
“Forward the Mule Brigade!”
 Was there a mule dismayed?
Not when their long ears felt Â
All their ropes sundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to make Rebs fly.
On! to the Georgia troops Â
Broke the two hundred.
Mules to the right of them,
Mules to the left of them,
Mules behind them Â
Pawed, neighed, and thundered.
Breaking their own confines
Breaking through Longstreet’s lines
Into the Georgia troops Â
Stormed the two hundred.
Wild all their eyes did glare,
Whisked all their tails in air
Scattering the chivalry there, Â
While all the world wondered.
Not a mule back bestraddled,
Yet how they all skedaddled —Â
Fled every Georgian,
Unsabred, unsaddled, Â
Scattered and sundered!
How they were routed there Â
By the two hundred!
Mules to the right of them,
Mules to the left of them,
Mules behind them Â
Pawed, neighed, and thundered;
Followed by hoof and head
Full many a hero fled,
Fain in the last ditch dead,
Back from an ass’s jaw
All that was left of them, — Â
Left by the two hundred.
When can their glory fade?
Oh, what a wild charge they made! Â
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made!
Honor the Mule Brigade,
 Long-eared two hundred!
I’ve always loved this story, I think I first read of it in “Hard Tack and Coffee”.
Since we are one EMP attack from being transported back to the 19th century (or at least the early 20th) I wonder if our military planners have a mule breeding program on tap.