Three Thousand Horses and Mules Create Havoc Among the Soldiers at Tampa, Fla.
Washington, June 17.-A special to the post from Tampa, Fla., says: At ten o’clock Thursday night 3,000 horses and mules broke from the corrals and stampeded through the camps of Gen. Carpenter’s brigade. It was so dark and the excitement was so great in the District of Columbia camp it was impossible to learn if any men were hurt. The panic among the men was terrible. Officers tried to get their companies into line, but the army of wild horses made that impossible. Many men began shooting at the excited animals, but this only excited them more. It seemed impossible to stop the stampede. The horses seemed to be attracted by the tents and they rushed through the brigade of three regiments and then back again, taking a different course each time. They have destroyed many tents, kitchen and camping paraphernalia.
It is not known what started the animals on their wild rush. Taps had just sounded in all the camps and the bands had played their good nights. The men were hardly asleep when a loud cracking like the firing of Gatling guns startled them. It was the breaking down of the corral fence, a high wooden affair. In the next moment the infuriated and panting horses rushed into the New York camp, which was nearest the break in the fence. The rush sounded like a thunderstorm. The guard hurried out but it was useless, as the animals were then rushing over everything in their path. In half an hour the camps had been stampeded three times and there seemed to be no hope of driving the beasts away from the breach. Forty men were mounted by 11 o’clock and they were able to check the rush some little or at least to steer the horses from the camp.
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