Below is the beginning of this story. The whole story is on the Iowa History Site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE PALIMPSEST EDITED BY JOHN ELY BRIGGS VOL. XII ISSUED IN SEPTEMBER 1931 NO. 9 COPYRIGHT 1931 BY THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Famous War Horse Written by O. A. Garretson In the spring of 1864 the Fourteenth Iowa Infantry participated in the Red River campaign. The Second Brigade, of which the Fourteenth Iowa was a unit, was commanded by Colonel William T. Shaw of the Fourteenth, while Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Newbold of Hillsboro, Iowa, was in command of the regiment. When General N. P. Banks organized his expedition to ascend the Red River and capture large stores of cotton which the Confederates had assembled at various ports along the river, Colonel Shaw's brigade was ordered to join the other forces in Louisiana. On the tenth of March, Colonel Shaw's brigade left Vicksburg as a part of the First Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps, and proceeded to Alexandria, Louisiana, encountering some resistance on the way. After a brief rest, the detachment broke camp at Alexandria and marched to Cotile Landing up the Red River, where it embarked on transports and was conveyed to Grand Ecore. On April 9th the brigade reported to General Banks at Pleasant Hill. During this campaign, the horse that Colonel Newbold was riding got infected eyes and it was feared that he was going blind. On the twenty-mile march from Alexandria to Cotile Landing, a squad of soldiers of the Fourteenth from Hillsboro, Iowa, neighbors of Colonel Newbold, were out on a foraging expedition. In the course of their search for supplies, they arrived at a very aristocratic plantation and decided at once to see what they could find. In the barn they discovered a beautiful white horse. Here was a real prize, just such a horse as the colonel needed to take the place of the one he was riding. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ IAGENWEB: Special History Project: http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm Gerischer Family Web Site: http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/