Answer Man: A Horse Is a Horse

I understand there is a standard of how a war hero is portrayed in a statue, such as if the person died on the field of battle, he is shown on a horse in motion, and if he died after the war, the horse is at rest. Can you explain further?

Tim Loftus, North Potomac

On the Civil War statues in Washington, what is the significance of whether or not the person memorialized is on a horse, and if so, whether the horse has all four hooves on the ground, or one or more raised in the air?

J.R. Hughes, Manassas

Here's how this supposedly works:

If a person is depicted on a horse that has all four of its hooves firmly on the ground, the soldier was not injured. If the horse has one hoof raised, the person was wounded in battle but did not die or died later from his wounds. And if the horse has two hooves off the ground, he was killed in battle.

Advertisement

(All hooves off the ground? It's a statue of Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek myth.)

We agree that it would be a handy guide for remembering the fates of various mutton- chopped Civil War generals, but it doesn't have any connection to reality.

For example, the statue of Brig. Gen. James B. McPherson in McPherson Square has the horse raising its right hoof. But if the hoof-rule applied, two hooves would be raised: McPherson died in 1864 during the Battle of Atlanta.

Andrew Jackson, while not a Civil War soldier, is memorialized in Lafayette Park on a horse that rears high on its back legs, supposedly signifying a gallant battle death. He died of the rather unglamorous disease dropsy.

But there are exceptions that prove the rule. Or disprove that there isn't a rule. Maj. Gen. Philip Kearney was killed during the Second Battle of Manassas, and his bronze horse at Arlington National Cemetery has, appropriately, two hooves in the air.

Advertisement

The horsy myth arose in Gettysburg, where statues honor the Civil War dead of both sides. By blind coincidence, said Katie Lawhon, spokeswoman for Gettysburg National Military Park, the first equestrian statues erected there adhered to the "rule."

"It was pure chance," Lawhon said. "Then it became a popular story."

It became so popular that when Glasgow, Va., sculptor Gary Casteel was commissioned to create the equestrian monument to Confederate Gen. James Longstreet, he found himself in hot water.

It's a striking work of art. Longstreet is yanking back on the reins, and his horse, Hero, seems to be slamming on the brakes. One hoof is raised, a touch, Casteel says, that helped with the artistic flow of the piece.

But it was not without controversy.

"From Day One when I designed the piece -- and six years afterward during the fundraising -- I constantly had remarks about that raised hoof," Casteel said. "I had threats. I had nasty phone calls."

Advertisement

That's because Longstreet survived the battle unscathed. Many people felt his horse should have been firmly earthbound. But Casteel, a meticulous historian as well as a sculptor, said earlier Gettysburg artists didn't employ any secret symbolism when they created their works. They just wanted the technical challenge of getting two feet off the ground, or the aesthetic impression of a single raised hoof.

Why make an equestrian statue at all? Well, if you want something on a heroic scale, nothing beats sticking a person on a horse. Nearly all equestrian statues feature high-ranking officers, since they're the only soldiers who would be mounted. (Besides cavalry, of course.)

Since I had a bona fide sculptor on the line, I asked Casteel how future generals will be honored. Norman Schwarzkopf, for example.

Advertisement

Not on a horse, Castell said.

"And the reason for that is then you tend to mislead the viewer," he said. "It's like, 'Well he didn't exactly ride a horse into Kuwait.' He walked or rode, which doesn't mean you show a Jeep."

What you do is show the individual in a heroic stance with other clues to his eminence, such as weapons or a fancy uniform.

"The days of the horse are pretty much over," said Casteel.

Which is kind of too bad. Every sculptor worth his or her salt, said Casteel, yearns to do an equestrian sculpture. He feels lucky to have done one.

Bakery Boo-Boo

Thomas Albert of Winchester pointed out that the famed bakery in Southeast that I mentioned last week was Stephanson's, not Stephenson's. To prove it, he e-mailed a photo of one of the bakery's distinctive checkerboard boxes. (Want to see it? Go to www.washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.)

Advertisement

While we're on the subject, several people have asked what was meant by "shortening with some animal fat" in the tea cookie recipe. Never having had the original cookies, I confess I don't know what they're supposed to taste like. I'd try lard, an ingredient that has fallen from favor in these health-conscious days. For "hard wheat flour," another inscrutable ingredient, copy editor extraordinaire and amateur baker Jeff Baron suggests using bread flour.

Researcher Alex MacCallum contributed to this report.

Have a question for Answer Man? Send it to answerman@washpost.com, or mail it to John Kelly, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZK6zr8eirZ5nnJ6zpr%2FTsqOeZ2JlfXV7j2xma3Fflru0w8SrZKaZnmKubrTOq6qeZZmoeqJ5x6iprJ1fa692rZZwm21lYmmAeXmTm5mcZWmbhXd5l21wnZqTZ6%2BnhZFrZg%3D%3D