She gathered in under the admiralty flag so many steamships from the mercantile marine that those which were found most expensive to operate were soon turned back into the channels of trade.

With the many hundred steamers that she commandeered she set about transporting everything needed, including horses, from over the ocean.
The French bought their horses by the thousand in Texas and contracted at good prices for their shipment to Bordeaux.

Steamship rates became almost prohibitive, and the horses arrived from their long journey in poor condition.

England inspected the horses in America, paid for them, and then put them in charge of her own men on her own ships, and landed them by the shortest routes in England and on the Continent, in prime condition.
Although Germany had been buying liberally of horses in Ireland as early as March, when the long arm of Great Britain reached out there was no failure in her mounts for the cannon and cavalry divisions.

For good horses at home and abroad she did not hesitate to pay as high as $350.
Americans should not forget that this war has brought about the greatest contraction in ocean tonnage that has ever been seen.