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Post by Paws on Aug 23, 2004 6:59:45 GMT 12.75
Picked this up fromone of my re-enactmentgroups. Anyone have any background, sing out. (Sure wish one of you guys would get Shiloh over here!) ;D
Hey compatriots, I was wondering if any of you have ever heard of hordes of wild hogs that followed both Yank and our armies during the War for Southern Independence? I've seen a few references to them in era newspapers and magazines, especially after the battle of Shiloh. What I read said these hogs shadowed the armies all the time, moving in en masse at night to kill the wounded and eat the dead. The newspapers said these "armies of the night" were smart enough to stay away at times when foragers were hunting, and smart enough to wait till night when no snipers dared fire lest the fire from their muzzle be fired upon. What do yo think? BS or true? It's really been bugging me, as I lost two ggranddads in combat and a gguncle at a POW camp in Ohio. Richard Fulgham, rlfulgham@hotmail.com SCV Camp Lt. Col. John H. Archer Havre de Grace, MD
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Post by RogueWarrior1957 on Aug 23, 2004 7:39:42 GMT 12.75
I only have the shadowed memories of a kid sitting around the fireplace listening to the grown-ups tell stories in the wintertime in an era when TV and computers didn't occupy everyone's time. Yes, I have heard these stories, and believe that there is probably some truth to them. Hogs (or dogs, for that matter) are opportunist eaters, have little fear of man, and are relatively intelligent creatures. Having been chased by an irate hog and having placed a double-bitted ax between it's eyes to avoid my own mutilation, I have a healthy respect for these critters.
I heard a story when I was a kid about an elderly man falling into the hog pen, knocked unconcious, and being mostly consumed by the time the rest of the family started looking for him. I know first hand of a couple or more barn kitties that took a wrong turn though the pig pen and didn't come out. Same story for a few of Mom's laying hens.
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Post by Paws on Aug 24, 2004 7:49:35 GMT 12.75
Yes, it is true. Not only were there hogs, but wild dogs, wolves, and various other vermin such as skunks, rats, racoons, etc. that would live well on the leavings of the armies as they moved, and hang around battlefields. Hogs and wolves were known to dig-up shallowly buried bodies for many weeks after the battles.
The soldiers and area residents around some battlefields, especially those in remote areas, wrote grizzly accounts of such doings. At Chickamauga, for instance, residents recounted the howls of foraging wolves for weeks after the battle there ended. The same was said of Shiloh. Back then, farmers did not fence their livestock in, but rather fenced them out of fields. So, fields that were meant for crops had fences around them to keep hogs, horses, cattle, etc. out. These animals were allowed to wander at will throughout the woods and non-fenced fields, only to be rounded up at slaughter time. The underbrush was always eaten by these animals to the hight of a horse's or cow's raised head. This is how large conflicts could be engaged in what we today see as dense underbrush. Also, regular forest fires burned back then and cleaned out the ground cover.
After Shiloh, residents and souvenir hunters reported discovering bodies so shallowly buried that arms or feet were sticking out of the soil. And, it was a common sight to discover a corpse that hogs or dogs had unearthed and fed upon by night, to retire as daylight brought down flocks of crows and buzzards. As reported also, the stench of decay, even around the "cemeteries" was so overpowering that people became ill, or had to hang herbs or perfumes around their necks to stand the air. People were reporting the aroma of decay while Lincoln issued the Gettysburg Address at that cemetery several months after the battle.
Many soldiers were never even buried. Many crawled off to die alone, forever a "MIA" casualty. My grandfather told me of a tale from his early years, around 1920, when crumbling remains and brass accoutroments of a Confederate soldier were discovered by a farmer near Franklin, TN. These were likely plowed up as a farmer cleared a overgrown field. But, he also reported that my own gr-grandfather had discovered another skeleton a few years after Franklin was fought. Franklin was a small town, but it still was a populated area mainly full of farms, so one can imagine how many bodies and shallow graves were in the remote receses of the South or West. In the 1960s-1970s, a local here in Murfreesboro was digging under his porch to make himself a basement. He dug into a mass-grave from Stones River. There were remains of 11 soldiers jumbled up together. Mostly these were Yankees as evidenced by the amount of US buckles and buttons, but there were enough CS buttons to make it probable that at least 1 soldier was a Confederate. These are now in a mass grave in the Stones River Nat'l Cemetery. Think about that. A mass grave, with a house built un-knowingly right atop it, sits for 100-110 years before someone happens to decide to dig a cellar!
I know for afact that there are 2 Yankees and an ex-slave buried someplace near Gordonsville, TN on the property once owned by my direct Civil War ancestor. Family lore has always told the same tale of my ancestor, Richard Gibbs, catching 2 foraging Yankees stealing from his family's corn crib. He killed them both, secretly burying them "in the weeds" on his farm. He also killed one of his slaves that the Yankees ordered him to set free, after catching the ex-slave back on his property a few days later. He buried him "in the weeds". There are countless shallow forgotten graves around this country. --Shiloh
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shiloh, August 23, 2004 11:15 AM
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Post by shiloh on Aug 25, 2004 3:56:44 GMT 12.75
Aha! I see I have been copied and pasted here already! ;D
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Post by Paws on Aug 25, 2004 4:39:02 GMT 12.75
...and quoted as well! ;D
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Post by RogueWarrior1957 on Aug 26, 2004 22:11:41 GMT 12.75
I posed this question to Phil and he suggested that I ask it here for ideas and input: The other day, Griz said: Dan, Is that like "Went to crap, and the hogs ate 'em" ? In the mind frame of our discussion in Sutler's Row the other day, I wonder if that is where this expression came from? That expression is one I have heard all my life and never gave it a second thought until we got to talking about the hogs and the Civil War.
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Post by shiloh on Aug 27, 2004 0:59:30 GMT 12.75
Idunno. Interesting thought.
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Post by Paws on Aug 27, 2004 1:05:03 GMT 12.75
I did a Google and while not finding an origin or source it is obvious that this phrase is widely known and used. The numbers blew me away. ;D
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