Sallie...the ultimate mascot

It was the summer of 1986 and my parents took me to Gettysburg to learn more about the battle that I had come to love and study. During our trip we took the audio cassette tape tour of the battlefield. My readers may or may not know this but at the battlefield you can tour the battlefield by car and listen to a documentary like description of the battle and the monuments that occupy the grounds.

I remember listing to narrator Peter Thomas has he described one of the most famous military mascots in history named "Sallie". Sallie was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and was the offical mascot for the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Given to one of the officers as a four-week old puppy, Sallie grew up among the soldiers learned their tendencies and they all became her master. She provided inspiration, comfort to the men and a unconditional bond of love was quickly formed.

Sallie followed the men on marches and to the battlefields on which they fought. Her most famous display of devotion was after the first days battle at Gettysburg in which the 11th was engaged in a fierce struggle with Richard Ewell's Confederates. As the 11th was pushed off of Oak Ridge, Sallie became seperated from the unit and like all dogs returned to the place from which was recently familier atop Oak Ridge. Around her the dead and dying of both sides littered the grassy hill and it was here that she stayed for the rest of the battle. Sallie licked the wounds of the injured and watched over lifeless bodies of the 11th.

After the Confederate retreat she was found and returned to her regiment after enduring several days without food or water. Her devotion and love were never forgotten by the men who served with her and after the war they dedicated part of their regiments monument to her along with a marvelous statue of her.

Even though Sallie survived the fierce struggle at Gettysburg she would not survive the war. During Grants Overland Campaign (May 1864) she was shot in the neck but survived with just a scar. Legend has it that upon returning to duty she tore the pants off of a 11th soldier who tried to run away from combat.

At the battle of Hatchers Run, Sallie was killed when a bullet struck her head. This event occured on Feb. 6, 1865 just two months and three days before Lee's surrender. Sallie was a true hero and make sure that you visit her monument at Gettysburg. Today many tourists place milkbones on her life-sized statue. I loved visiting this monument in 1986 and again in 1989 when I returned to Gettysburg with my dad on a father-son vacation.

"Sallie," a brindle Staffordshire Bull Terrier, was the regimental mascot for the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Given to 1st Lt. William R. Terry as a four-week old puppy, Sallie grew up among the men of the regiment. Sallie followed the men on marches and to the battlefield. At the Battle of Gettysburg, the dog got separated rom he unit. Unable to find her way, Sallie returned to the Union battle line at Oak Ridge, where she stood guard over the dead and wounded.

The dog continued her faithful service through February, 1865, when she was struck by a bullet to her head in the battle of Hatcher's Run, Virginia. One solder of the 11th wrote, “Poor Sallie fell in the front line in the fight…a bullet pierced her brain. She was buried where she fell, by some of the boys, even whilst under a murderous fire.” For her devotion to the men, Sallie is memorialized at the 11th Pennsylvania monument erected at Gettysburg in 1890. Just make sure that when you find the 11th's monument that you park, get out of your car and walk around to the other side of the monument's base. There you will find the statue of Sallie.

Some of Sallie and the 11th's battles were:

Battle of Fallen Waters (versus Stonewall Jackson) 1861
Second Bull Run (1862)
Antietam (1862)
Fredricksburg (1862)
Gettysburg (1863)
Spotstlyvania (1864)
Hatchers Run (1865)


Photos are credited to Pennsylvania State Archives and to Mr. R.G.
Blakeslee

More infomation at:

http://www.nycivilwar.us/index.html

http://www.nycivilwar.us/sallie.html

A short history of the 11th can be found here:

http://www.11thpvisallieann.com/unithistory.html

Confederates buried at Arlington

Few who visit Arlington National Cemetery know of a spectalur monument to the enemies of the Union. Yes, the Confederacy has a monument in their honor at the place where so many American heroes are buried. The memorial is located in Section 16 of the cemetary and is a great part of the tour. When I visited Arlington in 1986 I was unaware of such a memorial and it has only recently come to me attention.Arlington National Cemetery rests on the grounds that Mary Custis Lee inherited from her father and was the home of both her and Robert E. Lee. The North started to bury their dead at Arlington in 1864 after the Federal government aquired the land because the Lee's failed to pay back taxes.

As of 2006, more than 320,000 people are buried at Lee's former estate. Ironically, the first soldier buried at Arlington was a Confederate prisoner of war! The overwhelming number of military deaths in 1864 caused many Confederates to be buried at Arlington not far from their former enemies. After the war the family members of these troops were not permitted to visit the graves of their loved ones or to decorate them. By 1900 the ill feeling that followed the war had died away as the reunited country fought Spain and the government opened to doors of Arlington to the former Confederates. By the end of June Congress authorized that a section of Arlington National Cemetery be set aside for the burial of Confederate dead. Southern dead was transferred from cemeteries around Washington and buried in a special section of Arlington National Cemetery. It was hoped that a Confederate memorial would finalize the peace between both North and South.Around 482 soldiers from the south are buried at this famed resting place. Among the persons buried there are 46 officers, 351 enlisted men, 58 wives, 15 southern civilians, and 12 unknowns. This pretty much represents the fighting force of the Confederacy on the battlefield and the homefront. They are buried in concentric circles and their graves are marked with headstones that are distinct for their pointed tops. Some resentment never dies and legend has it that the pointed tops were created so "the yankees can't sit on them".

Southern leadership led by the United Daughters of the Confederacy petitioned to erect a major monument to the Confederate dead. On March 4, 1906 Secretary of War William Howard Taft signed the necessary documents to allow the construction of a Confederate monmument at Arlington. The memorial was placed in the center of the concentric circle with the rebel gravestones stretching in every direction. The Confederate Monument was unveiled before a large crowd of northerners and southerners on June 4, 1914, which was the 104th birthday of Jefferson Davis. President Woodrow Wilson addressed the huge gathering and veterans of both the Union and Confederacy placed wreaths on the graves of their former foes. This symbolizes the feelings of reconciliation between the North and South, the memorial's central theme. Also, Bennett H. Young (1843-1919) who was a Confederate officer who led forces in the St Albans raid was present at the dedication.

The monument was sculpted by Moses Ezekiel, a Confederate veteran who is now buried at the base of his marvelous piece of craftsmenship. Moses resembles me a lot and I find that really fascinating. Exekiel's creation is 32 feet high with the statue of a woman at the top that symbolizes the south. Her head is crowned with olive leaves, her left hand extends a laurel wreath toward the South, acknowledging the sacrifice of her fallen sons. Her right hand holds a pruning hook resting on a plow stock. These symbols bring to life the biblical passage inscribed at her feet: "And they shall beat their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks." The plinth on which she stands is embossed with four cinerary urns symbolizing the four years of the Civil War. A frieze of 14 inclined shields represents all 13 states of the Confederacy including Maryland which supported the Southern cause. Other pictures on the monument show the woman (the south) being held up by Minerva, Goddess of War and Wisdom. Also, the good that came out of the war is also depicted. A soldier kissing his baby as she is held by a mammy, a young officer standing alone, a former slave following his former master and a young lady binding the sword and sash of her soldier.The inscription on the memorial reads:Not for fame or reward,Not for place or for rank,Not lured by ambition,Or goaded by necessity,But in SimpleObedience to DutyAs they understood it,These men suffered all,Sacrificed all,Dared all--and died. Later three final Confederates were brought to the cemetary and are buried at the base of the monument with Ezekiel. They are Lt. Harry C. Marmaduke who served in the Confederate Navy, Capt. John M. Hickey of the Second Missouri Infantry and Brig. Gen. Marcus J. Wright who commanded brigades at Shiloh and Chickamauga. The Confederate Memorial at Arlington is open for the public to visit today. I urge you to take a peek at it if you are in the area or planning a trip to Washington D.C. because it was a token of peace and respect between two sections of the country that still don't see eye to eye on many things. Perhaps it can help everyone heal and foster good feelings for years to come.

Sources and further infomation:

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/visitor_information/Confederate_Memorial.html

Visit Ezekiel's grave here: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2999

Peters, James Edward. Arlington National Cemetery: Shrine to America's Heroes. Woodbine House, 1986.http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/pphome.html

Respect my brother!

The leader of the 15th Alabama, Col. William C. Oates had a brother named John who was killed during the assualt on Little Round Top. After the war, William Oates had trouble seperating himself from the loss of his loved one and he couldn't get over the Confederate loss at Gettysburg. In his 1902 memoirs Oates would write "Lieutenant John A. Oates, my dear brother, succeeded to the command of the company, but was pierced through by a number of bullets, and fell mortally wounded." In fact John was wounded by six bullets and would die soon afterwards. After the war, Oates tried in vain to get the Parks Commission and the Federal government to errect a momument to the gallentry of the 15th Alabama. At the time, the Confederates had no momuments to their efforts at Gettysburg. Oates failed in his many attempts to honor the 15th Alabama and he died in 1910. No Confederate momument honoring any Confederate unit until the Virginia momument was errected in 1917. Today, there is still no momument honoring the 15th Alabama at Gettysburg just Little Round Top that stands as a natural reminder to the loss of Lt. John Oates and many of the men of the 15th Alabama.

Oates even offered to pay for the momument in full but was refused. He did write out words to be placed on the momument. Here are the words that William C. Oates felt would best honor his comrades

To the memory of Lt. John A. Oates
and his gallant comrades
who fell here July 2nd, 1863.
The 15th Ala. Regt., over 400 strong,
reached this spot, but for
lack of support had to retreat.
Lt. Col. Feagin lost a leg
Capts. Brainard and Ellison
Lts. Oates and Cody and
33 men were killed, 76 wounded
and 84 captured
by
Ge. Wm. C. Oates who was Colonel of the Regiment

Sources:

The photo is William C. Oates in 1864

LaFantasie, Glenn W., Gettysburg Requiem: The Life of William C. Oates, Oxford University Press, 2005.

Oates, William C., The War Between the Union and the Confederacy (New York and Washington, D.C.: The Neale Publishing Company, 1905).