Thursday, August 13, 2009

Dogs of War

Ok, I had to somehow get a picture of my Black Lab "Shiloh" into the blog.
Yes his name is a tribute to the Civil War. It started as a joke. We wanted to find names and I said to my son...Let's call her Getty, for Gettysburg or something. Truly it was a joke. Quick as a rabbit he said "How about Shiloh?" The entire family loved it. Shiloh was suppose to be a yellow female lab but as it turns out is a black male. That is another story....

Shiloh age 14 weeks

I digress though. There really is a link to the Civil War.

Some of the most loyal soldiers didn’t wear uniforms!

LT George Custer, Brig Gen William Gamble, General Rufus Ingalls and Brig Gen George Stoneman Jr were just some of the Civil War soldiers who had a dog with them during the war. Sadly many regimental pets did die in war but some survived and given honorable burials. Cats, too were taken with regiments. There is a CW period song called “Kitty Popcorn” about a cat. The May 2009 issue of America’s Civil War magazine has an article with several pictures of canines. A new book is out called “Loyal Hearts: Histories of Civil War Canines by Michael Zucchero.

Custer and Friend



Unknown Group with their canine




Chief Quartermaster General Rufas Ingalls and his dog. There is a similar picture with the dog sleeping in it.

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