Some Canine Anecdotes

[John Hartwell]

"While the Reg. was here by the (Appomattox) river, a 'liver and white' pointer dog used occasionally to get between the Union and Confederate lines in Mr. John Hare's field, and mistaking the flying bullets for bees, would run hither and thither, giving up the chase of one when he heard the hum of another, tacking and darting after them every which way for an hour at a time — a clear case of ignorance proving to be bliss."
-- 13th New Hampshire Regiment. Millett Thompson. p.414


Feb. 7, 1865:"During the battle Lieutenant Colonel Edwards noticed that his men had ceased firing in one place They were helping the Seventh Wisconsin men bury their pet dog which had followed them from camp to field and was always sharing his chances in battle with the men knowing no fear. This day a minnie ball killed him and the men suspended their shooting long enough to give their pet dog an honorable but hasty burial amid showers of bullets from the enemy."
-- A History of the Twenty-Fourth Michigan,Known as the Iron Brigade, Orson B. Curtis. 1891. p.292


"There is a Captain Young who is famous as a Rebel Scout and always goes attended by a large white dog, who is a terror to their men. He spends his nights between the lines, and has caught many of their attempted deserters. He spends his time spying out our lines, and General Meade, it is said, has offered a large reward for his capture. Last night the dog, who is his precursor, was seen by two of our pickets. I immediately took five of our men and set out in pursuit. We prowled around between the lines an hour or so, and not meeting him or finding any trace, we had to give it up as a bad job."
--Recollections of the Civil War; with many original diary entries and letters written from the seat of war. eds: M. W. Tyler and W. S. Tyler, 1912. pp.321-22

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I'm always torn with these, thinking about the dogs who were around the regiments. We love them and still present bones to them 150 years later. It's just so hair raising thinking about them, out there chasing bullets, in harm's way. Like children someone decided it was ok to have around dangerous machinery. It's ridiculous feeling this way- they've all been dead for a gajillion doggie generations.

 

[AUG]

- Val C. Giles, "Old Company B, Fourth Texas Regiment, Hood's Texas Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia, and What Has Become of Them," in Unveiling and Dedication of Monument to Hood's Texas Brigade, comp. F. B. Chilton (Houston, 1911), 292-93.

 

[donna]

So sad about Candy. These stories make me cry. Such a sweet dog. Know he in dog heaven.

 

[John Hartwell]

Richmond Examiner, January 21, 1864:-

"WARNING TO DOGS"

"According to a statement of A Citizen, who writes us on the subject, Belle Isle, the depot of the Yankee prisoners in Richmond, is unhealthy for dogs especially well-conditioned dogs. The Yankees eat them; and this our correspondent knows from facts that have come within his knowledge. Several gentlemen on that lone barren isle have lost, recently, their favorite heel-companions, and our correspondent affirms that it is well known to the guard that the Yankees caught, fricasseed, and eat [sic] them! And that, moreover, the Yankees have begged some citizens to let them have their dogs to eat. Horrible! We are advised, if we doubt the statement of our correspondent, to visit the island and take a dog along, and we will come away alone, and convinced. All we have to append to this dog story is, that we never did admire Yankee taste in anything; but if they prefer a steak of canine meat to the rations of beef, bread, potatoes, and soup, furnished them from the Commissary Department by the prison officials [!] it is to their liking, not ours. Some animals of a carnivorous nature rather like the flesh of another animal of a like nature. In the above case it is dog eat dog, perhaps."

 

[John Hartwell]

"A Canine Messenger proves Disloyal

"A Federal officer who came up from City Point, Virginia, one October's day, to Washington, was observed to have with him an ugly-looking specimen of the genus canine, which he guarded very carefully on a short leash. The dog, it appears, had been a great pet with both the Union and Confederate pickets in front of Hancock's corps. The animal had been trained to carry messages from time to time between the pickets. A southern paper would be placed in his mouth, and he would scamper off to the Union lines, deliver up the paper, and then return with a northern paper. He would at other times be entrusted with packages of coffee and tobacco, which he always delivered promptly and safely. The secessionists, however, after a while undertook to make use of him for transmitting information from one portion of their lines to another, and the four-legged messenger having been caught with one of these contraband messages, he had to suffer the penalty of such disloyalty by being confiscated and brought North, well away from temptation."
The pictorial book of anecdotes and incidents of the war of the rebellion, civil, military, naval and domestic, by Richard M. Devens (1866) p. 510-11

 

[John Hartwell]

Anecdotes of the War, T.H. Brown (1864)​

 

[John Hartwell]

Brattleboro, Vermont Phoenix, Aug. 21, 1862:

 

[John Hartwell]

The Augusta, Me. Gospel Banner, and Maine Family Visitant, January 17, 1863: From "The Childrens' Corner"