1863, Newspaper Writer Goes Wooofy About Dogs At War

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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8th Regiment, NY Militia, at Arlington, 1861:dog:
HAD to, no apologies! Get it? Goes woofy, no? Gee whiz. Ruff crowd. :giggle:

Delightful article albeit long. Jerome, our forgotten writer could use some help bringing home his several points- like 2-D cheerleaders, thought illustrating them would be helpful.

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To be cont'd next post....

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USS Miami officers and 2 Admirals- or they thought so. :dog:

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Photos Ebay, LoC, National Archives and Pinterest
 

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USS Miami officers and 2 Admirals- or they thought so. :dog:

Thanks for sharing this, @JPKHuson! Five to 20 dogs per regiment! I'm picturing every mess with its own dog sitting more or less patiently (some, probably much less patiently) waiting for scraps from dinner. These photos are great, and in this one it appears the two "Admirals" have some company. A stowaway, perhaps?

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Thanks for sharing this, @JPKHuson! Five to 20 dogs per regiment! I'm picturing every mess with its own dog sitting more or less patiently (some, probably much less patiently) waiting for scraps from dinner. These photos are great, and in this one it appears the two "Admirals" have some company. A stowaway, perhaps?

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No way! Missed that little guy, what a good eye you have! If this dog was typical of other small dogs I've met, he or she out ranked the Admirals anyway.

One of the LoC pics above, a soldier and his dog featured a girl- presumably his girlfriend on the facing side of the dag. case. What is hysterical is, size! The soldier and dog- normal size, guessing he carried this with him. Sweetheart?
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I don't think she is happy about the arrangement.
 
Thanks for sharing. I figured there would be some dogs, but never expected there to be so many. No mention of cats? Not surprising.

Did you all know that Winnie the Pooh bear started out as a military mascot? He was put in the zoo when his person was deployed overseas( WW1), and could not bring him. Last years Caldecott award winning book..Geek..geek...
 
Fine looking animals. I use to have the picture of Custer and his dog as my desktop background:

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I try to study to appearance of dogs from this era, because in these times dogs tend to have heredity problems from harmful breeding, not as bad as it was back then. Take the German Shepherd for instance:

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The pug:

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Or even the English Bulldog:

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Right? @Tennessee_Mountainman , thanks for that. It's not off thread, either. Have frequently wondered how different our dogs may have been? ( and how annoying is it, to do that to them? ). Stories of dogs not breathing well and eye sockets too shallow for eyeballs- breeding towards highlighting ' attractive ' aspects is cruel. They've done it to horses, too. Arabs, gee whiz. Concentrating on teeny noses and small, dainty hooves may look pretty. Like Pugs, they have a less easy time breathing. Hooves cannot maintain large enough frogs- push blood back up legs.

Our German Shepherd cross had that very low hock- he was massive. What a great dog. We lost him in October. He was indeed very old but what got the old guy was his back legs. Those dumb, long hocks just became so weak he could not manage them; they just have such an unnatural angle to maintain, they sink. Wish breeders would not fixate on what is held to be hallmarks of breeds. As you so beautifully illustrate, it was not always the case.
 
If JPK Huson okay with it, could this be moved to Four Footed Friends Forum.
So many great photos and info on the dogs.


Goodness, Donna, please do! I've been meaning to gather all the animal threads here- quite a few, to hand over to some poor moderator with this request. Little busy, up to our ears in buttercream wedding preparations. Will do links in a few weeks, swear.
 
The Pictorial Book of Anecdotes and Incidents of the War of the Rebellion, by Richard M. Davis [1866] gives us another glimpse of our Civil War mascots, with special tribute to the canine variety.

"They had the strangest pets in the army — such as nobody would think of taking to at home, and yet they were little touches of the gentler nature as gave one some such cordial feeling, when seeing them, as it is said residents of Bourbon county, Ky., habitually experience at so much a gallon. One of the army boys carried a red squirrel through "thick and thin" over a thousand miles, "Bun" eating hard tack like a veteran and having the freedom of the tent. Another's affections overflowed upon a slow-winking, unspeculative little owl, captured in Arkansas, and bearing a name with a decidedly classical smack to it — Minerva. A third gave his heart to a young Cumberland mountain bear.

"But chief among camp-pets were dogs. Riding on the saddle-bow, tucked into a baggage wagon, mounted on a knapsack, growling under a gun, were dogs brought to a premature end as to ears and tails, and yellow at that; pug-nosed, square-headed brutes, sleek terriers, delicate morsels of spaniels — Tray, Blanche, Sweet-heart, little dogs and all.

"A dog, like a horse, comes to love the rattle and crash of musket and cannon. There was one in an Illinois regiment — and perhaps regarded as belonging to it, though his name might not have appeared on the muster-roll — that chased half-spent shot as a kitten frolics with a ball of worsted. He was under fire, and twice wounded, and left the tip of his tail at the battle of Stone River. Woe to the man that had wantonly killed him! But there was a little white spaniel that messed with one of the batteries, and delighted in the name of "Dot," who was a special favorite. No matter what was up, that fellow's silken coat must be washed every day and there was need enough of it, for when the battery was on the march, they just plunged him into the sponge-bucket — not the tidiest chamber imaginable — that swings, like its more peaceful neighbor, the tar-bucket, under the rear axle of the gun-carriage — plumped him into that, clapped on the cover, and Dot was good for an inside passage."
[p.583]
 
Right? @Tennessee_Mountainman , thanks for that. It's not off thread, either. Have frequently wondered how different our dogs may have been? ( and how annoying is it, to do that to them? ). Stories of dogs not breathing well and eye sockets too shallow for eyeballs- breeding towards highlighting ' attractive ' aspects is cruel. They've done it to horses, too. Arabs, gee whiz. Concentrating on teeny noses and small, dainty hooves may look pretty. Like Pugs, they have a less easy time breathing. Hooves cannot maintain large enough frogs- push blood back up legs.

Our German Shepherd cross had that very low hock- he was massive. What a great dog. We lost him in October. He was indeed very old but what got the old guy was his back legs. Those dumb, long hocks just became so weak he could not manage them; they just have such an unnatural angle to maintain, they sink. Wish breeders would not fixate on what is held to be hallmarks of breeds. As you so beautifully illustrate, it was not always the case.

Definitely! It might be too late, but I think there needs to be more enforcement on this issue, I see it as semi-animal cruelty on a mass level. They are suffering.
 
The Pictorial Book of Anecdotes and Incidents of the War of the Rebellion, by Richard M. Davis [1866] gives us another glimpse of our Civil War mascots, with special tribute to the canine variety... But there was a little white spaniel that messed with one of the batteries, and delighted in the name of "Dot," who was a special favorite. No matter what was up, that fellow's silken coat must be washed every day and there was need enough of it, for when the battery was on the march, they just plunged him into the sponge-bucket — not the tidiest chamber imaginable — that swings, like its more peaceful neighbor, the tar-bucket, under the rear axle of the gun-carriage — plumped him into that, clapped on the cover, and Dot was good for an inside passage." [p.583]

Poor Dot! From another book and author, here is the rest of Dot's story and its sad end:

"One day the battery crossed a stream and the water came well up to the guns. Nobody thought of Dot, and when all across, a gunner
looked into the bucket; it was full of water and Dot was as dead as a little, dirty door-mat. Departed, mourned and buried, it is time to put a dot to his story.

~ From ”Pictures of Life in Camp and Field,” by Benjamin F. Taylor, 1875
 
Ouch- I'd come across poor Dot too. It's always a toss up for me whether or not to read ' dog in camp ' accounts. It's the Old Yeller conundrum. Writer gets you attached to some nice dog, describes it, tells endearing stories of the dog then kills it off.
 
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