12/14/2025
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Happy National Horse Day!
A special breed of South Carolina horse, commonly known as the Marsh Tacky, played a major role in during the American Revolution. It is a unique breed descended from Spanish colonial horses brought to North America in the 1500’s. Today, the Marsh Tacky is one of the most endangered horse breeds in the world.
During the Revolution, horses were an indispensable resource. Everyday people used horses for travel, hunting, and farmwork. Armies relied on horses for cavalry operations, hauling wagons, moving cannons, and other tasks. General Francis Marion, the famous “Swamp Fox” and his men rode the Marsh Tacky during the war. Smaller and more agile than the European horses commonly used by the British cavalry, it proved a superior mount in the low country marshes when compared to the larger, heavier horses used by British cavalry. Smart, levelheaded, and cool under pressure, the Marsh Tacky was an outstanding war horse.
When the British Army and Navy landed on the Georgia and South Carolina coastal islands in December 1779, Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s cavalry were without mounts. Heavy storms during the voyage south had sunk the transport ships carrying the horses. Tarleton needed horses for his troopers and issued orders to gather horses and stated “in order to collect…from friends and enemies, by money or by force, all the horses belonging to the islands in the neighborhood…” In all likelihood, Tarleton would have included the Marsh Tacky in his effort to remount his British Legion troopers.
As late as World War II, the Marsh Tacky was being ridden on the Carolina coastline by American soldiers. The Coast Guard mounted men to patrol the beaches and spot German U-boats and mounted some men on the venerable South Carolina Marsh Tacky.
United States Coast Guard Image from the Library of Congress image collection.
