Herb, most of my reading and research has been concentrated on the Trans-Mississippi Army. Over here on this side of the river, just about every rule in the book was broken or circumvented at one time or other. I don't know if the same held true in Georgia or not.

Regarding mules, in fact I have read accounts of some men being mounted on mules rather than horses. Also, many troopers lacked saddles and other accoutrements.

Horses captured from the enemy were usually used to mount men who had lost their own horses, but they were sometimes ordered to be turned over to artillery batteries or, more often, to the quartermaster and commissary departments for use as wagon teams. I have records of courts-martial of officers who were charged with sending captured horses home for personal benefit.

One rule that, surprisingly, seemed to be almost universally carried out was compensation for the loss of horses. Even in the last, dark days of the war, the records contain numerous receipts for compensation. And the compensation appears to have been fair, too. Of the dozens of receipts I've seen, only one record included an appeal for larger compensation. In most cases, at least in the Trans-Mississippi Army, the company commander was the one who assigned a valuation on the lost horse.