This week, we remember Old Baldy, the battle-hardened horse of Union General George G. Meade and one of the most wounded, loyal, and resilient animals of the entire war.

A Horse or a Fighter?

Old Baldy wasn’t a show horse. He was a sturdy bay gelding with a broad white blaze and an awkward gait. Originally purchased by General Meade in Washington, D.C., Baldy was named after that distinctive bald-faced marking. What he lacked in elegance, he made up for in guts.

Meade rode Baldy into some of the most brutal fighting of the Civil War. The two became nearly inseparable — and Baldy proved himself just as brave and determined as the general on his back.

Old Baldy was wounded in five different battles (although some people say he was wounded fourteen times), yet kept returning to service. Here’s a record of his injuries:

First Bull Run (1861): Hit in the nose by a shell fragment.

Second Bull Run (1862): Shot in the right hind leg. Antietam (1862): Shot through the neck and left for dead. He was later found grazing alone in a field, injured but alive.

Fredericksburg (1862): Received a minor wound, but continued on.

Gettysburg (1863): A bullet passed through General Meade’s trousers and lodged in Baldy’s stomach. For the first time ever, Baldy refused to charge forward and Meade thought his friend wouldn’t survive.

But he did. He carried that final bullet in his body for the rest of his life.

A Hero’s Retirement

After Gettysburg, Meade reluctantly retired Old Baldy from field service. The general sent him to a quiet farm near Philadelphia, where he could live out his days in peace. But Baldy wasn’t forgotten. After the war, he joined Meade again for parades, veterans’ gatherings, and remembrance events.

In 1872, when Meade died, Baldy walked riderless in the funeral procession a silent salute to the man he had served for years.

A Strange But Lasting Memorial

Old Baldy died in 1882 at the age of 30. But even in death, his legacy endured.

Veterans from Meade’s former command had Baldy’s head preserved and mounted as a memorial. Today, his remains are displayed at the Grand Army of the Republic Civil War Museum in Philadelphia. Some might find it strange but to those who rode beside him, it was the least they could do.

More Than a Horse

Old Baldy wasn’t just a mount. He was a soldier. A survivor. A witness to history. He carried one of the most important Union generals through some of the darkest and bloodiest moments of the war and came back again and again.

That’s why he’s this week’s Friend of the Blue and Gray.