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Among other Army contractors of high and low degree at or about Washington during the war was one who purchased, as the highest bidder, the dead horses of the Army of the Potomac, for which he paid $1.76 each, delivered at his "establishment." They averaged, in the winter, fifty a day, and were thus disposed of: First, the shoes were pulled off; then the hoofs were cut off; then the manes and tails were sheared. The animal was then skinned, and the carcass was boiled that the tallow might be extracted, the best of the bones were sold for knife handles, and the remainder to be ground for fertilizers. The total result was these different parts of the dead hag were worth, when prepared for market, at least $25 a head, and the profits of the contractor were consequently very large. |