This is the story of the last mounted American troops to see action in battle, when, in late 1941, 600 men and their horses held off the Japanese invasion of Luzon in the Philippines just long enough to allow General Douglas MacArthur's forces to withdraw to Bataan. On Bataan the 26th continued to fight on horseback until late February 1942 when, tragically, they were ordered dismounted and their horses and mules transferred to the Quartermaster's center and slaughtered for food for the defenders. It is on record that the 26th troopers refused to accept meat rations from their animals, regardless of their own state of starvation. This stirring account of a little-known aspect of the Philippine campaign is military history at its best.

Author Biography

A lifelong horseman, Raymond Woolfe, Jr. was a professional steeplechase rider by the time he was sixteen. A licensed trainer, manager of horse farms, and designer of racecourses and thoroughbred facilities, he is the author of the bestselling Secretariat. He lives outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.