Dogs And Boys, The Hairy, Slobbery Friendships At HQ, 1864

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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This may not be any army headquarters nor is this small boy in uniform. Nothing much changes in Doggie World, as Jerome Bonaparte Stillson reports in his 1864 article entitled simply " Dogs ", explaining " An army has its whims... " Boys and Dogs. They managed to find each other at war, too.

Bumped into this, New York special correspondent Jerome Bonaparte Stillson taking time from troop movements and marches to scratch a few ears. Stillson may have been with a heavy artillery regiment- a journalist of note post war, tough to find due to multiple name spellings. In this report from the war he throws himself and all the other dog smitten boys in range under a hairy, slobbering, affectionate bus.

@LoyaltyOfDogs . you tend to be way ahead of things, may already have this article?

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Household pets, it seems, found homes with armies. You can't tell me North and South, large boys were any different.

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Stillson names a few- here's Pete

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Introducing- Rover, next post. You can't make this stuff up and thank you, Jerome B.

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Interestingly, the 153rd New York with apparently just one of their dogs....
 
This is wonderful, @JPK Huson 1863! Considering how beautifully Mr. Stillson captured these dogs' characters and the affectionate bonds they enjoyed with their soldiers, it's surprising I've never seen it in some anthology of dog stories. Thanks for bringing it here!


He included a little more. It was just such a delightful piece, you could see that HQ, dogs as snoozing backdrops. Hear a bit of regimental dogs, hadn't seen a portrait of all these together. Thank goodness for writers following armies around.

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Love the eyes! .....' piteous afterthought ', don't we all know that look? What a terrific writer.

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Saved from the middle of a battle!

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I think these 2 are post war; the story continued. Thank you, Jerome Bonaparte Stillson
 
He included a little more.

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Saved from the middle of a battle!

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It was just such a delightful piece, you could see that HQ, dogs as snoozing backdrops. Hear a bit of regimental dogs, hadn't seen a portrait of all these together. Thank goodness for writers following armies around.... Thank you, Jerome Bonaparte Stillson

Poor Winne! Maybe he missed his old home, or maybe he was still traumatized by his experience under fire. He surely couldn't understand his luck at being rescued by the orderly. But we can hope that the officer's and Old Stam's friendship eventually helped him to recover from his sorrow. A brief account of Jerome Bonaparte Stillson's early career as a news correspondent explains, I think, why he so deeply appreciated the companionship of the dogs who accompanied the army. According to "The Bohemian Brigade: Civil War Newsmen in Action," he was a "fragile" young man who seemed, at first, ill-suited to the new field of combat journalism. Knowing, as we do, that dogs' own perceptive natures make them sensitive to the emotional needs of the people around them, I'm guessing that the dogs sought him out as much as he sought them. Thank goodness they had one another.
 
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Our little Westie Eli loves to attend events. He knows all his commands in formation and on the march. I was surprised that as a wee pup, he was able to distinguish who belonged in camp and who was someone new to camp. When he is a Johnny Reb, he only associates with Confederates. When he does Federal, he associates well with the Boys in Blue but still pals around with Johnny Reb.
 

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Our little Westie Eli loves to attend events. He knows all his commands in formation and on the march. I was surprised that as a wee pup, he was able to distinguish who belonged in camp and who was someone new to camp. When he is a Johnny Reb, he only associates with Confederates. When he does Federal, he associates well with the Boys in Blue but still pals around with Johnny Reb.


That's wonderful! Thanks for including him, in a thread on camp dogs. Perfect!

You give up wondering ' How do they know ? '. It's a little worrying! What if they're all a lot smarter than all of us, and consequently too smart to let us see it? Really, when you think about it, for all the stick throwing who really does ' fetch ' for whom? Last time I dragged a 20 pound bag of dog food up the front steps, no helpers.
 
Disclaimer: I love Dogs and if you remember I had to put my 13 year faithful companion Buffet down a few months back and there is NOT a day that goes by that I don't think of him or see something that reminds me of him. During the CW dogs in a yankee prison camp didn't last long.

THE DOG THAT "WAS EAT,"
H D. Foote (Company G, First Mississippi Cavalry), writes: '•Seeing Comrade Cliristian's mention of Comrade Page's report in the February reminds me very forcibly of the dog incident. Well do 1 remember the time and circumstances. The dog—a line, large, fat, black setter—followed the coal wagon into camp, but did not return with it. It think it was more of a thrust at Captain Sponable than real meanes that caused the dog to be killed, although it was most assuredly eaten, I will always remember the cry for bread and meat made by the camp on General Hooker"review, and how Captain Sponable punished us with a three-days" fast. Soon after that he lost his dog. One day the dog was missing; the next day an ad. appeared on the bulletin board, with the little epitaph. While this was being read, the dog's meat and bones were boiling in the big kettle, and it made a fine" dish of stew. The next day the pit cleaner found the head and hide of the dog. Then the wrath came, and who suffered the penalty';' Every cook in the camp was carried to headquarters. Between two hundred and three hundred men were made to stand in line for three days, and Captain Sonable said they knew who killed his dog. and they had to tell or take the punishment every day while they remained there. On the third day one man stepped forward and owned up. The Captain asked for the names of others who helped him, when Johnnie said: ' Captain, it is not in me to tell on other;; I will take the punishment.' When Reb was threatened with a ride on ' Morgan's ninie " if he did not inform oi; rill' others, he said: ' do any kind of punishment you may, I I would suffer deat before I would tell on others.' With this resolute and determined answer, he was ordered to the dungeon. In a day or so all owned up to the good dinner they had on dog meat and how they had killed him. After some days" punishment in the dungeon, they were turned out, with ball and chain as companions.
and not for killing the dog. "Perhaps I R Connelly, of Compiany K. Third Kenincky (Cieneral l)uke"s regiment), can give a correct account of this incident; or .\be McMurdy, Joe Arnold, of the same company, if living, could remember more distinctly than I. who was only sixteen years old at that time."
 
I have had two dogs, one passed almost 2 years ago. My current little girl is my avatar. She always wants to be with me. Whines when I go, and is all over me when I come home, barking and licking me, my hands and face. Then I get on the couch she is right next to me. She sleeps next to me or between my lady and me. She loves us. I adopted her from a rescue place. I am sure dogs were no different before, during, and after the war. Dogs needed people and soldiers were people who needed them. The unconditional love which both needed. Boys needed dogs and dogs needed the love and attention.
 
So, I guess the cats mainly stuck to ships then huh?

When I was growing up we had a toy poodle. She only really liked my Mom, but she would tolerate me, because my Mom nd I sound alike. She was almost catlike in her grooming. She was black, and kept in show coat most of her life. She was good company. I think she lived to be 13, but my memory is a bit fuzzy.

I’m now owned by a cat.
 
@LoyaltyOfDogs , they keep appearing in camp! Stillman could be writing of most camps? From the building, looks like City Point? Two dogs! Little guy, back row and happy dog, front and center.

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Good catch, @JPK Huson 1863! I don't recall having seen this picture before and wouldn't have spotted the little fellow in the background, who looks so much like @Dave Hull's Eli. (BTW, I saw Eli in the Gettysburg parade. It's nice to have a name, now, to put with his face.) Yes, the buildings in the picture do look like the ones at City Point. And I think I recognize the young man who's sitting cross-legged. He looks very much like the man in this close-up from the series that includes General Ingalls's Dalmatian.

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Disclaimer: I love Dogs and if you remember I had to put my 13 year faithful companion Buffet down a few months back and there is NOT a day that goes by that I don't think of him or see something that reminds me of him


Really, really could not let this pass without saying I'm SO sorry! Hard to like the eating dogs part- but gee whiz, we're still flattened from losing our old boy last year. Leaves an awfully large hole, and a painful one. All the best to you and your family.
 
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