05/27/2025
Here is a unique tribute for this Memorial Day. Thank you Fran Jurga for your effort in compiling this list.
It's Memorial Day, a time to honor those who gave their lives to defend our country. I'm here to tell you about the men who did it with aprons on...and show you the names of the ones who never made it home.
Please consider this a first draft of a very important list. I hope one day there will be a memorial to American farriers who died in wars, going all the way back to Simeon Wheelock, who shod horses for American forces in the French and Indian Wars and the Revolutionary War, before being killed serving the Massachusetts militia during Shay's Rebellion.
This list is especially poignant because, in many situations, farriers were not armed (unless you count hammers, and there are some great stories about that!) and yet they were under fire. I hope this document, as it grows, will help people trying to trace ancestors, and to anyone who wishes to honor these men.
Did you know that five farriers were awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in the Civil War and, later, the Indians Wars?
PS Please read the second post on the Hoofcare page, which adds some more farriers who died in the Civil War, including two who were prisoners of war, and one who was a farrier for the Confederacy.
