“So I have one rule”: Horses, Race, and Cruelty in the Civil War Letters of Charles Francis Adams, Jr.

Mary Tefft White Cultural Center, University Library

Charles Francis Adams Jr., grandson of President John Quincy Adams, is not a well-known historical figure compared to others in his illustrious family. Like his ancestors though, he left a large written record, especially from his time as an officer in the 1st and 5th Massachusetts Cavalry regiments during the U.S. Civil War. Adams's letters to his family frequently mention his regiment's horses and provide key insights into the human-equine relationship in wartime. I argue that Adams, like many soldiers in his time and place, believed in showing kindness towards animals, but the demands of the war forced him to put aside these values. Horse training manuals and laws from the Antebellum era show that Northerners were moving away from the idea that man had natural dominion over animals and that cruel treatment was increasingly unacceptable. Adams's letters, which chronicle his horses' many sufferings during campaigns, show that he was sympathetic to the animals' plight but believed that his duty to prosecute the war trumped his duty to treat the horses with kindness. His cruelty was not confined solely to horses either. When Adams took command of the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry in 1864, he frequently denigrated his Black soldiers and compared them with horses, drawing on a long history of racist rhetoric equating African Americans and animals.