Horses shot at Glenrowan during the battle.

In response to a reader's feedback enquiry about the horses of the
Kelly Gang at the Siege of Glenrowan, Dave White replied with: "As with
all facets of the Kelly story there are disputing facts about the fate
of horses belonging to the gang." How true this is! Below is an article
wherein I attempt to compare differing published accounts concerning the
steeds of Glenrowan.

THE STEEDS OF GLENROWAN


The siege of Glenrowan not only affected the people involved, but ponder
on the season of terror it was for the highly-strung, gentle-natured
horses literally caught in the crossfire (and sometimes in the
crosshairs). A horse can smell fear and most horses (i.e. those not
trained/desensitized for military or police work) are terrified by loud
noises. A horses' first instinct is to flee when frightened! Imagine
those tied or paddocked during the ordeal. But I am getting ahead of
myself here, putting the cart before the horse so to speak...let's
rewind a bit...

The first horses came to Australia in 1788. There were seven in number.
Within the next century, the horse had become a very important part of
day-to-day life in Australia and their numbers flourished.

When Ned Kelly and Steve Hart entered into Glenrowan on the night of
Saturday, June 26, 1880, they had seven horses with them. After the
execution of Aaron Sherritt, Joe Byrne and Dan Kelly arrived in
Glenrowan after having rode the 40 miles to arrive there. As Joe told
Curnow: "we rode hard across country, often up to our saddle-girths in
water.." They were on two horses and the packhorse carrying their armour
brought the total of horses with the gang to ten. (In 'A Short Life' Ian
Jones stated that the gang prepared at least 10 horses: 4 mounts, 4
remounts, and 2 packhorses.) The packhorse Ned and Steve had with them
carried a container of blasting powder, a coil of fuse, and implements
to shoe horses. It was left tied to a fence behind McDonnell's Hotel and
would be found later after Ned's capture. The packhorses were wearing
saddles that had belonged to Lonigan and Scanlon. Charles White says
that one of the packhorses was wearing a saddle from the slain officers
at Stringybark Creek. Some of the horses were put into the stables
behind McDonnell's and some were put in the paddock and yard behind the
Glenrowan Inn.

The gang made much use of the horses throughout the early part of the
siege. They rode the horses to bail up people all during the day on
Sunday, the 27th. Ned and Joe donned armour and got on horseback to go
to Constable Bracken's home to take him back to the Inn as a prisoner.
Someone had caught and saddled Bracken's horse and Ned put a halter on
it saying (according to Curnow): "I can't trust you with a bridle,
Bracken." Bracken replied: "If I hadn't been in bed all day, you
wouldn't have taken me so easily..if this horse I'm on is what it used
to be, it would take more than you to keep me prisoner." As an amusing
aside, Frank Clune had said: "In the police-station, amazing to record,
was only one constable, an elderly married man named Bracken, who at
this time was ill in bed." Elderly??? He was FORTY!!!!!!!

Meanwhile, word of Aaron's murder had gotten out and telegrams summoned
the designated parties who were to board the police "special" train.
Around 1:30 AM on Monday, June 28, 1880, Superintendent Hare, along with
7 troopers and a civilian named Rawlings boarded the train at Benalla.
Seventeen police horses were put into two carriages (or trucks) on the
train and they were soon on their way.

Back in Glenrowan, Mr. Curnow had been allowed to take his family home
and after doing so was out harnessing his horse to go carry a warning.
Whilst harnessing, he heard the train coming and stopped, he then
grabbed the candle, matches and scarf and began to run down the railway
line. The train was stopped and warned and was thus proceeding slowly to
the station (in order to more easily unload the horses), meanwhile Ned
and the gang had heard the whistle blow and knew something was wrong.
Ned and another gang member went out and rode on horseback to see what
was going on. They came back to the Inn but not before Ned tethered his
mare in the bush behind the paddocks. (Jones in 'A Short Life' says she
was tethered 100 yards from the Inn.)
Once the train stopped at the station, according to Jones, Rawlings told
Hare they should go to the stationmaster's house as "we are sure to hear
of the Kellys at the railway gate, because of the horses having to
cross.." After Mrs. Stanistreet had been spoken to, Hare and Rawlings
went back to the station and the troopers began to unload all the
horses. The scene was a noisy and chaotic one. A horse was said to be
stuck in the carriage/truck door and police were occupied with that just
as Bracken, who had escaped, ran up to Hare and informed him of the
whereabouts of the gang. Hare said "let the horses go and follow me" but
not all heard in the din.

Bracken decided to ride for reinforcements. In one report, Bracken grabs
an already saddled police horse and gallops towards Wangaratta down the
railway line. But Clune tells us that "catching one of the police horses
which had been turned loose from the trucks, Bracken saddled it, mounted
it and set off.." When he arrived in Wangaratta he was met by Sgt.
Steele, he dismounted and gave the information and Clune says that
Steele mounted the horse himself to go alert the troopers at the
barracks "putting Bracken on foot for the half mile journey." At the
barracks, Bracken was given a new mount and the 6 men (Steele, 5
troopers and Bracken) rode the ten miles towards Glenrowan in haste when
they could have taken the train instead! A couple of foot constables,
also from Wangaratta arrived on the train about the same time as
Steele's party.

The siege was in full swing by then. I read in 'A Short Life' that just
after Ned had been injured and he had shot Hare, that he saw the signal
rockets going off so he went to where his mare was tethered in the bush
and got in the saddle and rode off towards Morgan's Gap to warn the
sympathisers off. But in 'Ned Kelly: Man and Myth' Jones said that "The
rockets were fired...Ned Kelly was outside the hotel at this stage. He
had previously mounted Music, the grey mare, to ride down the line, and
on his return he dismounted and turned Music into the horse paddock.
Seeing the rockets, he apparently mounted her again with some difficulty
and left-presumably by the back-gate of the horse paddock-to head
down around the lower slopes of Morgan's Lookout....to head off the
sympathisers.." Frank Clune says Ned went to where the mare was tethered
and untied her and drove her away so the police would not see her and
shoot her.

Ned presumably later returned to the Inn in time to see Joe being shot.
He then left again. In one report it says that around 6 AM that Ned went
out to the paddock and tried to mount one of the horses, but she reared
and he was unable to mount and she broke through a sliprail and escaped
into the bush. In this account it says that all this was seen by
Constable Gascoigne who shouted that the gang were trying to escape and
thus they shot all the horses in the yard and paddock. Clune states that
were 5 horses in the yard and paddock but Jones says that the next day 8
horses lay dead there, some belonging to prisoners in the Inn (and those
people would make compensation claims for their lost property). Jones
states that there were at least 2 actual Kelly horses among the 4
outlaws' horses shot by police. In writings by Charles White, I read
that Senior Constable Kelly and Constable Arthur saw 4 horses tied up at
the back door of the Inn saddled and ready for use and that they shot
them at once to prevent escape of the outlaws. Then in the Sketcher I
read that just after the burning of the Inn, that "in a small yard at
the rear of the buildings four of the outlaws' horses, which had been
purposely fired on early in the day, were found and were killed at once,
to put them out of their agony. They were poor scrubbers....The police
captured Byrne's horse, a fine animal."

Not all injured horses were finished off, since in the Victorian
Archives I found that Constable Cornelius Maloney had put in a
compensation claim for 6 pounds payment "for a chestnut filly injured by
the police during the attack on the outlaws at Glenrowan on 28th June
last." He withdrew the claim in December of that year as he had taken
back his horse. But once again I am getting ahead of myself..

Ned,  badly injured, was afoot when he decided to do an attempt to
return and rescue Dan and Steve. As he was drawing the gunfire, it is
said that Music appeared and tried to put herself between Ned and the
combatants. The police expected him to try to mount her and escape, but
he just let her pass. A policeman was said to have fired at her and she
fell. Yet, later she could not be found anywhere, despite George Allen
(the reporter) searching for her and there were numerous inquiries. Ian
Jones says that the appearance of "Ned Kelly's grey mare" in the show
that Jim and Kate put on in numerous places, might explain her fate.
(but the night of Ned's execution, no horse appeared with them at the
Apollo)

Once Ned was captured, the events of the day moved on, someone tried to
run off the police horses and the ever-present Rawlings intervened. The
alleged shooting of the injured horses I wrote of earlier supposedly
occurred and then the decisive moment came when Constable Johnson was to
fire the Inn. Charles White wrote that Johnson had obtained a bundle of
straw (from McDonnell's stables) and got some kerosene and "he then
pretended to the people about the railway station that he was going to
feed the horses in the railway paddock" and that he went that way and
detoured around to sneak back to the Inn and doing so he ran into some
armed sympathisers. He asked them "did you see two horses (a grey and a
brown) pass here recently?" They replied no and he went on his way and
set the Inn on fire.

After the siege, also according to Charles White, Detective Ward
discovered 5 of the gangs' horses in the McDonnell Stables. (other
accounts say he found 4). White said that these horses included the 2
stolen from the Ryan's and the third was the packhorse stolen from Mr.
Fitzgerald and that Ned Kelly's mare was also caught. Yet, we already
know that Joe's horse was found and photographed the day before! (As an
aside about McDonnell's stables, these stables were still standing until
1966 when they were finally demolished.)

The police took the remaining horses into custody and those that were
not claimed were recommended to be sold at the Benalla pound (as a
police telegram stated "..the horses...are in the police paddock. Here
since they were recovered and no one has claimed them. The grass is
rather short in the police paddock. it would be well if these horses
were disposed of. 6/9/80)
The horses, "supposed to belong to the Kelly gang of outlaws" were
described as a roan mare with a star on forehead, one bay cob horse and
a grey horse branded EJ...they were sold out of the Benalla pound on
August 13, 1880.

So what did happen to Music and Mirth? Oddly, I read in Max Brown's
'Australian Son" that "Ned's grey mare, Mirth, bought at auction in
Benalla trotted between shafts in Melbourne pulling popular actor George
Seth Coppin around." Were one or the other on stage with the Kellys? Or
were they purchased on behalf of George Coppin, who was also a theatre
owner, and put on the stage in Melbourne?

I have read so many differing reports on the Kelly horses that I
am more confused now than when I started! No wonder I have not found a
page online where someone is attempting to sort all this out! I do not
have access to many Kelly books or archival or newspaper reports, so
there may be more and varied findings out there. I did find that some
authors have not touched on the horses of the siege theme at all. So, if
anyone can shed any light on all this, please feel free to leave
feedback. All I was able to do was relate what I had found in my limited
resources, NOT what I consider to be gospel truth.

Speaking of what or may not be true, this is something odd from
the Ovens and Murray Advertiser newspaper dated August 22, 1882 (and
which Dave has on the Relics of the Inn page). This news item pretty
well shows how fantastic some of these stories concerning the horses can
actually be:

RELICS OF THE KELLY OUTLAWS.

Among some of the relics which have been preserved of the Kelly gang
after their destruction at Glenrowan are Ned Kelly's compass and
bridle. These are in the possession of one of the constables who took an
active part in searching for the gang, and also at the fight at the
hotel, says the "Telegraph." The compass is a brass and without any
ornamentation, and is convenient to carry in the bush. This instrument,
said Kelly, on one occasion guided him through almost unknown forests,
by which means he so often evaded the police. The bridle is of the
ordinary description for riding purposes, and was taken from his
favourite mare at Glenrowan. The same constable has the four hoofs of
Dan Kelly's horse that was accidentally shot at Glenrowan. The most
interesting thing in connection with these is that the shoes were
fastened on by the chief of the outlaws, and the rough manner in which
the work has been done fully illustrates the fact that the workman was
unskilled in the art. It is singular to relate that the hoofs of this
noble animal, so faithful to its master, carried the outlaw over
hundreds of miles, across plains and over mountains, from dangers, and
ultimately to destruction, now ornament the chimney-piece of one who was
a school companion of the outlaws, joined in their boyish sports and
revelries, but who, was their greatest enemy in subsequent years, and
who fired the first shot at Glenrowan. It is stated that these relics
may at no distant date find a resting place beyond the seas in Mr
Barnum's show in America.


RESOURCES USED--

A Short Life-Ian Jones

Australian Son-Max Brown

Ned Kelly-Frank Clune

History of Australian Bushranging (Volume 2)-Charles White

Ned Kelly: Man or Myth?-introduced by
Colin Cave/various authors (1967 symposium papers)

Australasian Sketcher

Ovens & Murray Advertiser