War and Dog - Stories of Dogs in the Fires of War

Author: Brian Hamer
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-08-01
Features: Early American War Dogs
Throughout early American history, Americans did not consider dogs to be an important weapon in the arsenal. In fact, the military did not take seriously the suggestions made by several outstanding Americans to train dogs. Benjamin Franklin suggested training guard dogs and attack dogs to combat Native Americans in 1755, and John Payne did the same in 1764, but their suggestions were not adopted by the authorities. The earliest record of the U.S. military using dogs in war dates back to the Second Seminole War in the 1830s, when American troops used Cuban Bloodhounds to track Native Americans in the swamps of western Florida and Louisiana. Native Americans were intimately familiar with their local dense thickets and swamps and often used the terrain to ambush American soldiers trying to capture them. The Bloodhounds' keen sense of smell and ability to navigate through the dense vegetation of the swamps made them invaluable trackers.
Later, the U.S. military again used dogs during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Generally, the American troops had an easy time defeating their opponents, but patrolling the Cuban jungle on horseback was a different story. In the jungle, guerrillas often hid in the bushes to ambush American soldiers. Eventually, a cavalry commander discovered a surefire way to deal with the guerrillas: he always brought a dog named "Don" with him on patrol. With Don leading the way, the patrols were no longer ambushed.
Early on, dogs were very successful in guarding and tracking enemies. However, during the American Civil War, none of the dogs fighting alongside American soldiers were officially trained as war dogs. Most of the dogs during the Civil War were family pets from farms, and their owners were very fond of them and could not bear to leave them behind, so they took them to the battlefield. Although they had not been trained for war or prepared for the horrors of battle, many dogs still demonstrated great loyalty and extraordinary courage during the war. P11