10/09/2026
From the Mule Shoe to the Hitching Post: A Horse Theft, a Sentry, and a Court-Martial
ECW welcomes guest author David C. Moore
On the sweltering morning of July 3, 1865, Caspar Nauman, a Regular Army cavalryman serving as a messenger, hitched his mount to the rack outside the War Department building in Washington, D.C. Less than an hour later, he was informed that a stranger was riding his horse up Pennsylvania Avenue. Nauman’s reaction was swift. He ran into the street, commandeered another horse, and galloped after the thief. He overtook the culprit, recovered his animal, and hauled the man before the authorities.
Ten days later, a different man stood trial relating to the incident. A tribunal of seven officers turned its attention not to the thief, but to the man who had been assigned to guard the hitching post. Private George Henhoeffer Jr., pronounced “Hen-heff-er,” was a sentinel from the Veteran Reserve Corps (VRC), and this was not his first court-martial.
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