Billy's Portrait

One day recently Mr. Fields took an excellent portrait of Billy, the late Dr. Chas. H. Lothrop's old war horse. It is nearly a perfect picture, and as the old horse pokes his nose affectionately toward Mr. Ben Bitner, who holds his bridle rein, it seems as if both would step from the picture and walk away.

Old Billy came into the possession of Dr. Lothrop in 1865, when the animal was five years old. He is now thirty and still lively. He was the Doctor's sixth horse. He is a cross between the blooded Texan horses and the mustangs, was originally a racer, and many of the boys of the First Iowa will recollect how Billy did up ''Company K's horse" in a square race.

Billy was purchased in 1865 for a sum in gold equivalent to five thousand dollars in Confederate scrip. He is a horse possessed of a wonderful memory, and never forgets his friends. The animal was never shod but once, and then they were obliged to take the shoes off, as he had not been accustomed to them.

SOURCE: Charles H. Lothrop, A History Of The First Regiment Iowa Cavalry Veteran Volunteers, p. 351-2