She is the author of Stonewall Jacksons warhorse little , an Unlikely Hero of the civil war. Post Sharon B Smith was a police beat reporter, covered the texas state legislature, and was a weekend anchor. Share and then worke went east aere she worked as legislative reporter. And after espn went on the air she moved into sports journalism. She anchored sportscenter, and stretch, down the the first weekly Horse Racing Program on Cable Television. She anchored the kentucky derby, the breeders crown, and the to lookian, which i had up before i gave this talk. She is the author of several books on horse racing, training, and the civil or, including retraining, teaching previous new skills to old horses. Why are you writing books if you know so much about betting on horses . War a guidecivil for travelers, and most recently, Stonewall Jacksons little sorrell an Unlikely Hero of the civil war. Please welcome Sharon B Smith. [applause] sharon yes, i did write a book on betting on horses and read and my main advice is, keep her money in your pocket. Dont do it. [laughter] i do love horses, obviously. Ive been interested in the civil war for many, many years. So, i wrote a book about a horse. You see it right there, Stonewall Jackson source. Write achallenge to book about a single worst because they tended not to write their memoirs, and they are not particularly prolific letter writers. In the case of little sorrel, in the two years of his ownership owner, he wasmous owned by men who did not live long enough to write his memoirs. Ahere was a markable remarkable amount of Information Available that this horse, and that is why could be told. I will tell you why i started on this story. It is little bit strange, because i am in connecticut, and what could that possibly have to do with Stonewall Jackson or resource. It was. Is what the 169 towns in the state of connecticut have a state Historical Commission marker. To local town was permitted choose the wording in the state pay for the construction. This was done in the 1970s and 1980s. And when they went to the tiny town of summers, the town chose these writings. In addition to a bonnet making factory and a grist mill, about halfway down, the information is that Stonewall Jacksons favorite or horse, little sorrel in summer,d connecticut. There are quite a few connecticut places connected to the civil war. I came across the sign and said, that seems preposterous. Thinking about revising that book and updating it, i went back to the story and thought, could this possibly be true . I will tell you a little about the history of trying to find out if indeed, little sorrel was oaled and connecticut. Summers is a tiny town in a tiny state that was bypassed by the interstate highways and it is a long drive to get there, depending on the fact that no place in connecticut is that long, to get to. But summers is up there on the massachusetts border, making it more likely that a confederate war horse could have been born there. Summers is a beautiful little town, largely rural, best known now as the site of the states only phone, maximum security prison. When you live in the other part youhe state like i do, dont want to say to your neighbor i was up visiting a friend in summers and they will certainly wonder about the summer you about the company you keep. Jackson,stonewall one of the most famous unaccomplished generals of the had a reputation of being, and it was indeed, eccentric is the most polite word. Another. Might be he was not known for his appearance. He didnt care what kind of uniform he wore. He didnt care what kind of horse he rode, but he was a military genius. And, in choosing little sorrel, he picked a similar course. Peculiar and his behavior. He was not impressive to look at. But he was kind of a military genius come as a warhorse. If you havent seen the upgraded murals, the restored murals downstairs, or upstairs, rather, in the military mural room, this is Stonewall Jackson aboard little sorrel. The historian spoke to people saw jackson s little sorrel. D clar lewis andk the best rendition of little sorrel, who was small, known to be alert during battle, sleepy the rest of the time. Will get into, is probably not sitting in the saddle like he really would have during the war. There is a lot of ascriptions of him as a horseman, generally concluding that he wrote with too short, and rode forward in the saddle. A method of writing we would not find unusual today, but certainly was back then. So, where did he get that method riding . Jackson was born in clarksburg grew up, as a young man and a teenager, in jacksons mill, where his uncle maintained a race course. Jackson, Thomas Jacksons uncle, maintained a race course and Thomas Jackson, as a boy, road resources. That is where he got rode racehorses. Got the shorthe stirrups. 1840s, has athe s there,wing of rider and you see an up right writer with very long stirrups. I believe he actually got that style in mexico. Two veryft, these are thatsed thousand of riding developed for military use in the early 15th and 16th centuries in europe. A style and on the right is a different style, from an italian book. These styles developed in spain. On the right, this is the style that the knights a shining armor with very long stirrups, leaning back in the saddle. On the left is the style with much shorter stirrups. This writer isnt leaning r is in this ride leading forward, but this is the style that the conquistadors primarily brought to mexico. The style was still in use in the 1840s when jackson was on duty in mexico city, right after the mexican war. He bought an expensive horse ng on and wrote about ridi the paseo with the aristocrats of mexico city, and i believe that is where jackson got his riding style. This is what a military officer of that area should have ridden like. That is sort of a classic military seat of the 1860s, back in the saddle, long stirrups, the toes are not pointed up like they would be today. That is not what Thomas Jackson look like when he rode a horse to war. I think this may be what he looked like, as i looked everywhere to find a picture of a military officer in uniform, writing will be called modern short seat, short stirrups and leaning forward. This is a cavalry officer from the italian army in the 1960s. Jackson, although some of his observers described him as writing so close to the horses mane that they thought if the horse threw up his head, he would break his nose. Very short stirrups. Rode more likey this. , to jackson,rward style,s peculiar riding arriving in Harpers Ferry in 1861 is a major of the virginia volunteers. , butet confederates virginia volunteers, just after the legislature voted for secession. He had retired from the regular army. To man then the duty garrison, the virginia garrison, not confederate, at Harpers Ferry, which was a critical place. The canal they are, the bnr railroad coming through, it turned out impossible to defend. He was not there long area but he needed horses. He needed primarily artillery horses, but he needed a horse or two, for himself. John a harman of stanton who he made his quartermaster, was tasked for finding horses for the virginia garrison at Harpers Ferry. He rounded up some heavyduty draft horses around the country, not able to find ,ome in the countryside suitable riding horses for jackson. So the troops stop a baltimoreandohio train that had begun in the lower valley in southern ohio, and was headed to baltimore. It was not a federal train, it was an entrepreneur, livestock person who had put these animals on a train, a car of forces with of horses andar several cars of beef. So the train was halted and John A Harman looked at the horses and found two for his commander, Thomas Jackson. Is an 1863 picture, two years later, but this is the only wartime picture of the horse that Thomas Jackson capped, to go to war. This is little sorrel of two sorrells. Meeting chestnut, this is the little one. 15 hands, and 15 hands is rather tall for a man of six feet, which jackson was. People look at it is an odd choice of his, for a warhorse. Not to be adered, suitable amount for, especially a general. He was too short. The color was fine, but there were confirmation characteristics of him, that they basically felt that jacksons seat in the saddle was peculiar. His head was too big. The ankles were a little small. Felt, by experts, were wrong. Look where the tail is and go up from the tail to the top of the hip, called the crew. In little sorrel, the little sorrel. Sloping, not something desirable in a horse. Also, the shoulder is quite a bit higher than the hip, also horseitable for a riding for virginia gentleman, or a virginia officer, in 1861. In reality, there was nothing wrong with the confirmation, other than the fact that he would not have been a horse a virginia gentlemen would have been looking at. This was a horse whose intermediate gates, between a walk in a run, was a pace. And heres a look at a pacing horse from the mid19th century. And you can see, in the case of horse, the legs go front and backward at the same time. Almost every fourlegged animal you can think of, does the opposite. The right leg and the left hind leg would go forward at the same time. It. S is a side, lateral ga looking your dog the next time across the room, this is not what quadrupeds do, other than camels and some breeds of horses. Here is a look at a modern one. Ae primary pacer today is standard resource, and you can see the legs on the one side of the body go back and forward at the same time you is actually a faster gait than the trot and can be very comfortable to ride, but it is not what was common in virginia in the mid19th century. Of people think what john picked up the train was a harman. And this was just before the incident of the odd looking little pacing horse coming off the train. And you can see this is a completely different looking type of animal. Drawn by somebody who had contact, if not the original morgan, then the first and Second Generation afterward. Heres a look at a real morgan, which was philip sheridans favorite horse, also known as little sorrel onewis and clar the left. Reality, his withers were a lube than his hip. The other thing about little sorrel is that he has an unusually long form, the part of the leg between the chest of the knee. And that is also typical of a pacer. So i think what we have here is a pretty good example of a horse that is not a morgan, but is something else. Littlet indeed was sorrel . Scots irish cleric, this man, was sent to rhode island from england, and the reason he fits into this is because he wrote the best description of the narragansett pacer, which developed in southern rhode island. The state of of rhode island, a map of the counties of rhode island. And you can see the yellow at the bottom is the land of the narragansett taser. The narragansett pacer. Pacer wasansett acording to james mcferrin, narrow pacing horse with tremendous endurance, described as being able to work all day in the field and then pace a very rapid couple of miles to church, in the evening. He was a great admirer of this breed. It had become extinct premuch by the time little sorrel was born, but he do believe little sorrel was 100 or mostly narragansett pacer. And that story fits in find with the story that fits in fine with the story that little foaled in somers, connecticut. The site is supposedly the road that goes off to the left, and it is about maybe, halfmile down that road where a man named noah collins supposedly bread little sorrel. Get the story to about where the story came from noahnoah collins in 19 little in 1850, bred sorrel. People at the Historical Society and the general answer was, Everybody Knows its true. Not quite enough. [laughter] finally, wonderful woman who is the historian for the congregational church, the very Old Congregational Church of somers. With a typescript, dated from the early part of the 20th century. Whoas written by a man described who lived in the house is in somers and it described bred generallins jacksons horse. It was named american traveler. Noah able to find out that a horse namedn american traveler, but it did not fit the description of little sorrel. His original name may have been american traveler, but it can guarantee it. , written inipt nearly 20th century, was written by a man had bought a house across from noah collins at the time that little sorrel was supposedly foaled. The man was not just a near neighbor but a close relative of collins, and hes is the origin of the story in the mid19th century. The story was out while the principles were alive. Noah collins was alive, his wife was alive, his children were alive, so that is pretty good evidence. But not proved. Have come to believe that it is perhaps true and here is some of the things that make me think it is perhaps true. This is wayne collins. He is the brother of noah collins and about 1850, he moved to southern ohio. We have heard that before, where the worst came from. And he is in his union army uniform. Thought, this is it. William collins mustve seen little sorrel, and wrote back to his brother and said, guess who Stonewall Jackson is wr riding . Tol, he never came close Stonewall Jackson, but he had a very good friend who was involved in the Shenandoah Campaign, and was actively at Harpers Ferry in september of 1862, when jacksons army took fact camerry, and in facetoface with Stonewall Jackson, on his horse, ask his black servants not be confiscated by the confederacy. And i believe that did happen, that his regiments servants were spared from that. So, william trimble, very close to win collins, they were business partners, they went to the same church, they were active in together in ohio. He could have been the source of the story, and a quebec to we them collins i got back to noah collins, that that is where the horse came from. Here is another interesting picture. Nameds a pacing mare pocahontas. She has more white but she was a very famous racehorse in southern ohio in the 1850s. You can see the confirmation characteristics. So she wasthers, largely a narragansett pacer, as well, i believe. And that was indeed in southern ohio, near hillsboro, where William Collins lived. So i think it is probably true that he did come from summers but the truth but the proof is not there. So, this little horse that jackson called fancy, but everybody else referred to as little sorrel, the first place was a skirmish at a place known as Falling Waters in early july 1861. Supposedid what he was to do, it was a delaying action when a union force came across the Potomac River. It was a sharp fight. I dont know if little sorrel was there. Neither jackson or the horse was famous enough, at that point, to have anyone know whether he was there. About jacksonry sitting under a tree writing a dispatch, with a horse to him, with enemy fire breaking branches off the tree and covering them both with branches and neither of them was moving, which sounds like little sorrel a little later in the war. So i have a feeling he may have used him in this battle, by and i am not sure but i am not sure. Later, atf weeks first manassas, jackson brought his troops into the location on the railroad. You can see on this map here, the manassas gap railroad. The battle took place, it was a tremendous victory for the confederacy, so important event in the 1940s, they met at a statue of jackson and the horse, placedsorrel, and it was at the site where jackson got his name, stonewall, he and his stonewall brigade got the name there, too, because they stood firm against the union onslaught. And the sculptor was given directions to include little sorrel and jackson. And we know that at first manassas he was not on little sorrel, but he was on a borrowed horse. Maybe it was because little sorrel did not get there in time, because of transportation. But he is honored on the henry else i, with this magnetic and ill site, withell this magnificent statue. He moved up to winchester, virginia, little him and itwith was very clear that it was his primary horse. In an interesting event happened in winchester while he was waiting for further action. He was hooked up with a man named jim lewis. , theis the black man second from the left in this picture. This drawing is an imaginary scene that to place a year later, but it is the only known of lewised rendition that exists. Lewis was a slave, not jacksons slave. Thes actually older than man shown here, because it looks like a boy but he was an adult. He was the camp servant for jackson for the rest of his life. What is jobs, in addition to sewing and cooking and packing camp gear, he had the care of jacksons forces. Was geared forel by jim lewis, the black man, who was devoted to jackson and really devoted to the horse. He did his best to protect him throughout the remainder of the war. Just after the first of the campaign,n the romney a Winter Campaign to attempt to take a small outpost in romney, virginia. Terribly difficult, through ice and snow, and this is what they had to cross to get there. This is not the specific scene, but it is typical. And this is the spot where jackson became, according to m s. Jackson later, became extremely fond of little sorrel. Other horses were slipping and sliding in little sorrel was extremely surefooted. According to mrs. Jackson, this was in the winter of 1862 were devoted,ecame nowStonewall Jackson became devoted to little sorrel. The first battle of the Shenandoah Valley campaign was the only loss for jackson, in the campaign. Town, in in kearns march. Attacked on bad intelligence about how many federal troops were st