Fightin' Felines and Other Civil War Cats

If there was only one rooster, it was the alarm clock. Cats are great for keeping the mice and rats down to a reasonable level. I know when my cat was younger, he was the terror of the neighborhood rodents. He’d hunt chippers and squirrel!! And yet, he is the snuggliest bug you’d ever hope for. Now that he is 19/20 or so, he no longer hunts, and he’s decided that my son is “His Boy”...
 
This is an old thread but I got a question or two. Wasn't there a character named Tom in the book where Lee's horse, Traveller, gives his account? And isn't there some "legend" of sorts about a cat in one of the Monitor's cannon muzzles?
 
Thanks for sharing this awesome article on cats of the Civil War! We have a cat here at home in North Carolina, her name is Angel. She is about 15 years old and getting lazy. We have had cats since we have been married.

View attachment 321592
Just an update Angel in this has passed away last year but now we have two more! Angel 2 on the bottom, Misty Meadows on top!
605ECAE6-01D2-472A-8FC8-46FEAAF832DE.jpeg
 
This is an old thread but I got a question or two. Wasn't there a character named Tom in the book where Lee's horse, Traveller, gives his account? And isn't there some "legend" of sorts about a cat in one of the Monitor's cannon muzzles?

Yes, the book is mostly Traveller talking to Tom the Cat. A really wonderful book; my daughter and I read it together.
 
Here are the lyrics to ¨Poor Kitty Popcorn.¨ Brace yourself - it´s a tearjerker:
Oh she had a happy home beneath a southern sky,
But she pack'd her goods and left it when our troops came nigh,
And she fell into the column with a low glad cry, Meyow!

Round her neck she wore a ribbon—she was black as jet—Meyow!
And at once a gallant claim'd her for a soldier's pet—Meyow!
All the perils of the battle and the march she bore,
Climbing on her master's shoulder when her feet were sore,
Whisp'ring in his ear with wonder at the cannon's roar, Meyow!

Now the "cruel war is over" and the troops disband —Meyow!
Kitty follows as a pilgrim in the Northern land—Meyow!
Ah! But sorrow overtakes her, and her master dies,
While she sadly sits a gazing in his dim blue eyes,
Till by strangers driven rudely from the door, she cries, Meyow!

So she wanders on the prairie till she sees his form—Meyow!
Carried forth and buried roughly 'mid the driving storm—Meyow!
Oh! Her slender frame, it shivers in the northern blast,
As she seeks the sand mound on which the snow falls fast,
And alone amid the darkness there she breathes her last Meyow!

Poor Kitty Popcorn!
Buried in a snow drift now.
Never more shall ring the music of your charming song, Meyow!
Never more shall ring the music of your charming song, Meyow!
 
I printed the sheet music for ¨Poor Kitty Popcorn.¨ Now you guys have me learning it. This is a Henry K Work tune, the composer of ¨Year of Jubilo¨ and ¨Grafted into the Army.¨ He was quite the activist. Any chance it´s meant to be an allegory of veteran´s treatment?
 
I printed the sheet music for ¨Poor Kitty Popcorn.¨ Now you guys have me learning it. This is a Henry K Work tune, the composer of ¨Year of Jubilo¨ and ¨Grafted into the Army.¨ He was quite the activist. Any chance it´s meant to be an allegory of veteran´s treatment?
Link?
 
I printed the sheet music pages as full page photos and they came out in a very readable form. It´s in B-flat originally, but I think G is a better key for folk singing. There´s a good youtube video of a woman singing it as printed with piano accompaniment that recreates the song in period style very well.
 
I printed the sheet music pages as full page photos and they came out in a very readable form. It´s in B-flat originally, but I think G is a better key for folk singing. There´s a good youtube video of a woman singing it as printed with piano accompaniment that recreates the song in period style very well.
Thank you! That’s fun. And sad..wish I could get our chorus to sing this.
 
Thank you! That’s fun. And sad..wish I could get our chorus to sing this.
It´s soooooooooooooo maudlin - it´s really over the top. But the Victorians ate that kind of syruppy melodrama up! I got sucked into the Tater Tot saga last summer, so I don´t know if I´ll ever be able to sing this song without tearing up.
 
Very nice indeed … thank you very much. Sounds like light opera fare … Gilbert & Sullivan come to mind… very witty and certainly inviting the audience to join in on the chorus.

As a dweller of both a dog and cat world it is good to see the feline shine in their ah what do you call it? Mystique or plain bad attitude.

The Bohemian Rhapsody done by a cats chorus is a tail that catches the eye. The exquisite and exotic vocalization is the cats meow.
 
View attachment 258858
Two kittens with members of General Ulysses Grant’s staff at City Point.

Familiar companions of home and farm, cats were among the favorite pets of Civil War soldiers in Blue and Gray. Though they only rarely appear in photographs with their soldiers, many cats survive in soldiers' memoirs and other writings. Like dogs and other animals who were adopted as unit mascots or an individual man’s pet, cats helped to raise soldiers' and sailors’ morale by providing a cheerful diversion from the stress of campaigning and the boredom of camp or shipboard routine.

View attachment 258859
A cat (and a chicken) with sailors of the USS Lehigh.

View attachment 258861
The full image of the USS Lehigh’s crew.

View attachment 258862
The full image of General Grant’s staff at City Point.


Cats appear in accounts of combat and camp life, and they were mourned like comrades when lost in action or to other misfortune. It’s likely that when soldiers’ thoughts turned to loved ones at home, beloved pet cats accompanied family members in their memories, as they sometimes did in pictures.

View attachment 258863

A pensive young lady and a beloved feline friend.

Some anecdotes about Civil War cats shed an illuminating light on the humanity of famous people like General Robert E. Lee and President Abraham Lincoln, among others. Some treasured feline companions were honored in art, like Clara Barton’s Tommy and the apparently fictional Kitty Popcorn, whose sad tale must have been inspired by an actual bond between a soldier and his cat.

View attachment 258872
Sheet music to a sad ballad.

Cats appear in numerous threads on CivilWarTalk, as members ensure that the cats, like the soldiers and other era individuals they accompanied, will not be forgotten. Below are a few popular threads, but this list is not comprehensive. I look forward to adding new links as I find other existing threads.

This new thread can serve as a place where we can post new pictures and mentions of Civil War cats, and to add links to other past threads as we rediscover them. Please also continue to give cats new threads of their very own in the Four-Footed Friends forum and, if you like, to add their links to the list of Civil War cat sightings we’re building here. Thank you!

Among our threads are:

We All Need Somebody To Lean On; Furred, Feathered And Less Fluffy Love:
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/we...furred-feathered-and-less-fluffy-love.137338/

Robert E. Lee's Cats, Baxter, Tom "the Nipper" and Tom Tita:
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/robert-e-lees-cats-baxter-tom-the-nipper-and-tom-tita.89490/

Ship’s Cat finds his way Home: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/ships-cat-finds-his-way-home.151438/

Tom Cat, the Confederate Mascot: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/tom-cat-the-confederate-mascot.26402/

Mules (and Cats) for Another War:
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/mules-and-cats-for-another-war.147922/https://civilwartalk.com/threads/mules-and-cats-for-another-war.147922/

Mark Twain’s Cats: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/mark-twains-cats.144821/

Civil War Animals & Mascots: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/civil-war-animals-mascots.138431/

Mascots: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/mascots.88916/

“He is but an Old Gray Cat…” (not a war cat, a civilian cat): https://civilwartalk.com/threads/he-is-but-an-old-gray-cat.134976/

Clara Barton, animal-lover: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/clara-barton-animal-lover.134833/

Kitten at the Battle of GreenBrier: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/kitten-at-the-battle-of-greenbrier.92570/

Abraham Lincoln and 3 stray kittens: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/abraham-lincoln-and-3-stray-kittens.90813/#post-732157

Abraham Lincoln and his love of cats and other critters:
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/ab...f-cats-and-other-critters.104611/#post-960139

Cat lovers: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/cat-lovers.131335/#post-1474373

Seward’s menagerie: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/sewards-menagerie.134157/#post-1531264

President Lincoln and his love of animals and children:
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/pr...ve-of-animals-and-children.71381/#post-438088

Dogs and other animals, etc., at Gettysburg (other than horses): https://civilwartalk.com/posts/1321836

USS Lehigh: https://civilwartalk.com/posts/545390/

Trivia 1-31-18: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/1-31-18.142655/#post-1746178

Shaffer: Civil War cat bewitches gunboat In Kinston:
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/sh...witches-gunboat-in-kinston.80128/#post-583371
From my personal collection, I can’t say it is a Civil War fighting feline but it certainly is a period feline.

47C22EBD-DE0C-4D5F-A681-107107FC8F79.jpeg


C2692FC5-54B6-4920-A299-2664F4CEC846.jpeg
 
Back
Top