The dog that helped the 1st Wisconsin soldiers scam farmers

SWMODave

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History of the First Wisconsin Battery Light Artillery by Dan Webster and Don C Cameron

One morning there was a large Newfoundland dog in camp, he having followed a party of the boys home from a raid on his master's chickens. It was thought that the dog was convinced that he would get nothing to eat at home while the soldiers staid in that vicinity, so he followed them to camp. Be that as it may, he remained with the Battery until on the retreat from Cumberland Gap he was either killed, lost, stolen or sold by some one. ......

Another tells the dog episode thus: One night Freeman and Hitchcock took seventeen geese from under a house in which a family was sleeping, and carried off the big dog that was supposed to defend feathered treasures. Jack! Who can forget his pleasant, intelligent face and handsome coat and form? He ran a hog through the first rebel battle line we ever saw, and rejoined the center section on the fly. And Heenan, the bow legged fice? At Oak Hill, Ohio, the boys, not having been paid returned, in months, sold Jack several times to visiting farmers, but he returned, until one time he was sold once too often, and we all mourned. One night at Louisville Jack came into a tent just at taps, covered with mud, and lay down on Billy Adams's blankets. The boys left him there and put out lights, chuckling over the scene to ensue upon Billy's advent. Billy stumbled in from guard at 11 o'clock and groped his way to his blankets, when the boys heard: “Why, here is old Jack. Yes he was going to sleep with Billy, wasn’t he? Fine old fellow.”And the pair of muddy comrades slept until the next relief.

(William Adams from Neoshonoc, Wisconsin joined Sept 2, 1861 and mustered out October 11, 1864. No further mention is made of Jack or Billy in the book.)
 
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