Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

Remount Station 304
When America entered WWI, the Remount Service
was organized under the transportation branch of the
Quartermaster General’s Office. At the time, perhaps due
to the advent of the small automobile, only a handful of
regional breeding facilities provided horses and mules to
the Army. The infrastructure to provide the million or
more animals required for the war effort did not exist in
the pre-war Army.
Maj. Peter F. Meade, a nephew of Maj. Gen. George
G. Meade, the camp’s namesake, was the officer in charge
of Camp Meade’s Remount Station #304, one of 39
remount stations quickly organized to supply animals to
the war effort.
Remount Station #304 consisted of buildings and
multiple paddocks which covered more than 25 acres.
The station also included a school for blacksmiths.
The soldiers assigned to Camp Meade’s station were
tasked with purchasing tens of thousands of horses
and mules along with the forage required to feed and
maintain them. Once purchased, the station trained and
conditioned the animals, often having to break them in
before issuing them to the troops who would use them in
a variety of capacities.
The Camp Meade station held up to 12,000 horses and a
total of 22,000 horses passed through station throughout
the war. Remount soldiers searched for the endless
supply of horses and mules all over the country, shipping
thousands from the western United States to fulfill their
mission, and much like their soldier counterparts, the
journey of the war animals was only half over upon
arrival at Camp Meade.
The U.S. Army remount service had six classifications
for horses and mules in WWI: active horses from 950
to 1,200 pounds for cavalry, strong active horses from
1,150 to 1,300 pounds for light artillery, powerful horses
from 1,400 to 1,700 pounds for siege batteries and draft
mules, wheelers above 1,150 pounds, leaders above 1,000
pounds and those suitable for use as pack mules. The
number one use for horses in WWI was to move artillery
and ammunition through areas trucks could not go.
By December 1917, the Army faced a crisis in supplies.
WORLD WAR I YEARS
By Barbara Taylor
Most of the Army’s regulation equipment had been issued
to the horses and men leaving immediately for the front.
Lack of equipment forced Camp Meade stable sergeants
and their men to resort to using burlap bags to groom their
horses and to attempt to train the horses bareback with
halters instead of bridles. Local newspapers in Maryland
ran articles requesting patriotic farmers, or anyone with
old bridles, bits, saddles, grooming curry combs and
brushes, to donate their excess stable accessories to Camp
Meade’s remount as their support for the war effort.
The largest logistical supply challenge the Quarter
Master corps faced was the need to supply fodder for the
thousands of horses needed in the war effort. Each horse
required at least half a bale of hay per day, which meant
mountains of feed, upwards of 6,000 bales per day, had
to be on hand to provide for the 12,000 horses at Camp
Meade.
The demand for hay was an additional logistical
challenge which led to the requirement that cantonments
be built in close proximity to railroads–to move men,
horses, mules and the supplies they required. At the time,
railroad box cars were nicknamed "40 & 8", because each
car either held 40 men or eight horses.
Of course, what goes in must come out. Thousands
of horses meant thousands of pounds of manure. The
mounds of horse waste joined with the open vats of raw
human waste which accumulated before the camp’s sewer
systems were fully complete. The odorous offal created
clouds of flies which aggravated soldiers and civilian
neighbors in nearby communities.
In the years prior and during the war, animals were
considered tools and their use and care often bordered on
abuse. Their treatment during the war did not improve.
The top three causes of horse and mule deaths in WWI
were, 1) shrapnel, 2) thrush; a disease that rots the hoof,
and 3) starvation, caused by the practice of not feeding the
animals during any period in which they were considered
"on duty." It is estimated that millions of animals were
lost during the conflict, perhaps more horses and mules
than humans died on the battlefield. The poor treatment
did not go unnoticed. Reports of starvation, disease and
43