- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
- Location
- Central Massachusetts
In another thread, I mention a gunboat on the Mississippi that kept for a time a pet alligator, that “at last, like other Southerners, became so unmanageable that he had to be thrown overboard."
It seems there was quite a lot of alligator taming attempted by northern men stationed for the first time in the “moister” regions of the Southland. Baby ‘gators are manageable, and seem quite tame -- and, how ‘bada*s’ can you get? But such an infatuation could not last. The critter’s personality issues become more obvious as they grow -- and grow they do. Some, however, do seem to have lasted long enough to be taken home after the war. We have, for instance, a notice from July 15, 1865, that “A Naval Officer from Jersey City has very kindly informed the police that a ‘pet alligator’ of his is at large in that city. He forbids all persons from harboring the runaway.”
Young ones could also be consigned to Adams Express: "A lady in Bridgeport, Conn., recently received by express a young alligator ten inches long. It is said to be a love of a beast." [N.Y. World, May 29, 1863]
A letter in the June 2, 1863 Boston Traveller, from a soldier on Seabrook Island, S.C., noted that: “The Alligator fever is raging just now, and if we stop here long, every man in the regiment will have his pet alligator to tote on the march. ‘Sogers’ take to pets as naturally as crinoline at ‘sweetsixteen’ takes to moonshine and poetry.” He also notes “this would be a big field for an enterprising Saint Patrick to go into the snake-banishing business. For the variety, size, and number of snakes it beats all the places I have ever seen. I have looked at the ‘dirty cusses’ wriggling and squirming until I’m all of a squirm myself.”
I have reported at length of this leviathan in another thread.
Finally, of a rather different nature, something from the Confederate side. The Cleveland Plain Dealer of 26 Feb. 1862, prints a letter purportedly written by a “North Alabamian on Dog River, below Mobile.” It is a long letter, telling of the first appearance of camp fever, (one symptom of which is “a mighty fear of gunpowder”). and reporting that “every officer has six servants and seven cooks,” and when on drill “they do cavort around beautiful” in their feathers and braid and fancy uniforms, until they get “down on brandy,” whereupon they become “mean and mullish.” Towards the end, the writer has to report some sad news:
It seems there was quite a lot of alligator taming attempted by northern men stationed for the first time in the “moister” regions of the Southland. Baby ‘gators are manageable, and seem quite tame -- and, how ‘bada*s’ can you get? But such an infatuation could not last. The critter’s personality issues become more obvious as they grow -- and grow they do. Some, however, do seem to have lasted long enough to be taken home after the war. We have, for instance, a notice from July 15, 1865, that “A Naval Officer from Jersey City has very kindly informed the police that a ‘pet alligator’ of his is at large in that city. He forbids all persons from harboring the runaway.”
Young ones could also be consigned to Adams Express: "A lady in Bridgeport, Conn., recently received by express a young alligator ten inches long. It is said to be a love of a beast." [N.Y. World, May 29, 1863]
A letter in the June 2, 1863 Boston Traveller, from a soldier on Seabrook Island, S.C., noted that: “The Alligator fever is raging just now, and if we stop here long, every man in the regiment will have his pet alligator to tote on the march. ‘Sogers’ take to pets as naturally as crinoline at ‘sweetsixteen’ takes to moonshine and poetry.” He also notes “this would be a big field for an enterprising Saint Patrick to go into the snake-banishing business. For the variety, size, and number of snakes it beats all the places I have ever seen. I have looked at the ‘dirty cusses’ wriggling and squirming until I’m all of a squirm myself.”
The Camden Democrat of Jan. 4, 1862 reports:Finally, of a rather different nature, something from the Confederate side. The Cleveland Plain Dealer of 26 Feb. 1862, prints a letter purportedly written by a “North Alabamian on Dog River, below Mobile.” It is a long letter, telling of the first appearance of camp fever, (one symptom of which is “a mighty fear of gunpowder”). and reporting that “every officer has six servants and seven cooks,” and when on drill “they do cavort around beautiful” in their feathers and braid and fancy uniforms, until they get “down on brandy,” whereupon they become “mean and mullish.” Towards the end, the writer has to report some sad news:
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