Fact check: No evidence image of soldiers posing in formation is tribute to horses killed in battle

The claim: Image shows World War I soldiers paying tribute to horses killed in action

This year marked the first time in two decades the United States celebrated Veterans Day without troops engaged in active conflict overseas.

As President Joe Biden paid tribute to the nation's veterans at Arlington National Cemetery on Nov. 11, some social media users shared an image on Facebook showing a group soldiers forming the shape of a horse's head.

"World war one soldiers paying respect to the horses killed in the conflict," reads text above the picture. 

The image was shared more than 1,200 times in one week. Several users commented as well, agreeing that the purported tribute to horses was a good way to commemorate their role in the conflict.

"Aww beautiful pictures to remember this (sic) great animals," one user commented.

"What a wonderful tribute to the horses that worked hard in the war. Great photograph," another one wrote.

While the image shows real U.S. soldiers from around the time of World War I, there's no evidence the picture was a tribute to all warhorses, according to experts.

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USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who posted the claim for comment.

Image depicts an officer's horse

By the end of World War I in 1918, millions of horses and mules had been sent to the battlefield, according to the World War I Centennial Commission.

Horses, along with other animals such as dogs and pigeons, were "absolutely essential" to the war, the commission says. Horses served in two ways: pulling guns, supply wagons and other vehicles; and as saddle horses for daily use by officers and in rare occasions as cavalry horses in battle.

Almost 60,000 horses and other animals died during the war and its aftermath, according to the commission. After the war, animals were a commodity no longer needed and since their care was costly, the U.S. implemented efforts to dispose of nearly all animals still in Europe after the armistice was signed, including selling them to the French government and butchers.

The image shared on social media depicts one specific horse: The Devil, according to the Library of Congress, which has archived the image.

The Devil was a saddle horse ridden by Maj. Frank G. Brewer, who commanded an Army remount – where horses and mules were trained and conditioned – at Camp Cody, New Mexico, according to an obituary.

The picture, taken by photographer Almeron Newman in 1919, depicts 650 officers and enlisted men from the Auxiliary Remount Depot No. 326 at Camp Cody in "a symbolic head pose" that recreated the horse's head, according to the original image's caption.

More:The first Veterans Day: Lasting images of World War I celebrations that created the holiday

The Library of Congress didn't immediately return USA TODAY's request for comment about the image potentially being a tribute to all horses used during the war. But it told the Agence France-Presse that the library knew "of no evidence of the formation being a tribute."

"In addition, we see no reason to question the caption on the original photo," the library said. 

British military historian Lucy Betteridge-Dyson, whose research at the University of Wolverhampton focuses on the use of horses in 20th-century warfare, agreed with the Library of Congress.

"There is no evidence to suggest this photo was taken in tribute to the millions of horses who served in the Great War," Betteridge-Dyson wrote on her personal website in May 2019. "I only hope that in time the myth that accompanies the picture on Twitter and Facebook ... will die out and we can use the shot to bring attention to the history of Camp Cody and the interesting work of the U.S. remounts."

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Betteridge-Dyson said the concept of "living photography," the technique of using people to create scenes and objects, was popular at the time. 

Two photographers, Arthur Mole and John Thomas, were well-known for their travels across the country arranging thousands of soldiers into designs related to World War I.

Some examples, archived at the Library of Congress, include a 21,000-person portrait of then-President Woodrow Wilson, a 25,000-person Liberty Bell in New Jersey and a 12,500-person American eagle.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that an image shows World War I soldiers paying tribute to horses killed in action. The image depicts an officer's horse at a training camp in New Mexico, but there's no evidence it was part of a tribute to all the horses that were killed during the war, according to an expert and the Library of Congress. At the time, "living photography," which grouped people to create large shapes and objects, was popular and frequently used to depict patriotic themes about the war.

Our fact-check sources:

• New York Times, Nov. 11, Biden Marks First Veterans Day in Two Decades Without Troops in Active Combat
• USA TODAY, Nov. 11, 'The best of America': Biden honors military members at Veterans Day ceremony
• World War I Centennial Commission, accessed Nov. 18, Horses and Mules
• World War I Centennial Commission, accessed Nov. 18, Introduction
• World War I Centennial Commission, accessed Nov. 18, By The Numbers (And Afterwards?)
• Library of Congress, accessed Nov. 18, 650 officers in horse formation picture
• World War I Centennial Commission, accessed Nov. 18, The Remount Service (early days)
• New York Times Archive, Oct. 25, 1948, Maj. Frank G. Brewer
• AFP Fact Check, April 9, Photo shows soldiers posing in the shape of one US officer's horse
• Army Center of Military History, accessed Nov. 18, Camp Cody, NM
• UK National Army Museum, June 4, British Army Horse Power in the Great War
• Lucy Betteridge-Dyson, May 21, 2019, Hold your horses and check your sources
• The Art Institute of Chicago, accessed Nov. 18, The Human Liberty Bell
• Library of Congress, accessed Nov. 18, "Arthur Mole" search
• Library of Congress, accessed Nov. 18, Woodrow Wilson portrait
• Library of Congress, accessed Nov. 18, Liberty Bell
• Library of Congress, accessed Nov. 18, American eagle

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