Bloodhound

of white canvas. In previous visits to the orchard, soldiers had discovered a kennel of “bloodhounds,” ferocious animals trained for the pursuit of enslaved people and believed by the soldiers to have been used in the apprehension of Union soldiers who escaped from Confederate prison camps. A man named Butler, the owner of the orchard, had threatened peach-seeking soldiers with the dogs. The 22nd, 28th Iowa regiments had been encamped on Shultzer’s Hill with another Iowa regiment, the 24th, since May 19. This high ground…

By 1865, bloodhounds were seen as a weapon by which the planter class oppressed not only slaves, but white unionists and northern prisoners of war. The savagery of the bloodhounds illustrated what Northerners considered to be the true brutality of the culture of the Southern planter class. In the war’s second year, newspapers in Iowa began to discuss the new use of bloodhounds in the Southern states as literal instruments of control over Southern Unionists. Dogs were indeed deployed by the…

By the outbreak of the Civil War, the image of the “bloodhound” had become an explicit representation of the domination of slaveowners over the enslaved and implicit emblem of the power of the “slavocracy” over the country as a whole. The use of the term “bloodhound” as it was used by anti-slavery forces in the United States traces its roots not to a particular breed of dog, but to their occupation and perceived origin. Beginning in 1796, the term came into vogue as the critic’s term for the…

Our family conflict over the last year has been if we should get a dog or not. I am a dog person. I have always had dogs and I think of them as a part of the family. My husband is a cat person. He has never had a dog and knows nothing about dogs. We have discussed this topic at length over the course of a year, but more significantly within the last two months. Eventually, my husband softened to having a conversation about his reservations behind getting a dog. He admitted that the thought that…

Have you ever wondered why a dog does what it does and wished you knew what they were saying? The basic body signals that dogs use to communicate are often misread by humans. If we keep correcting our dog for giving warning signals and properly communicating his unease, he will eventually skip all the warning steps and go straight into an attack the next time he feels threatened. Because of this misunderstandings, approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every…

By 1865, Union soldiers perceived the bloodhound as a weapon by which the planter class oppressed not only slaves, but white unionists and captured Union soldiers. The savagery of the bloodhounds illustrated what Northerners considered to be the true brutality of the culture of the “Southern chivalry.” In the war’s second year, newspapers in Iowa began to discuss the new use of bloodhounds in the Southern states as literal instruments of control over Southern Unionists. The Confederate…

On the afternoon May 22, 1865, a small band of soldiers from the 22nd and 28th Iowa regiments left their camp. There had been a heavy rain the night before. Their destination was a large peach orchard not far from the rows of white canvas. Some of the men had visited the orchard before. They had discovered a kennel of “bloodhounds,” ferocious animals whom they knew were once used in the pursuit of enslaved people and believed had been placed on the trail of Union prisoners of war. The owner of…

This project will be produced in concert with an honors thesis in history at the University of Iowa. This work produced for publication in the Annals of Iowa will be primarily focused on the accounts of the Iowa soldiers and their motivations for killing the bloodhounds. The wider project will go farther in incorporating the story into the history of Reconstruction South Carolina relying upon the important connection of the same Robert Butler, whose bloodhounds were killed in 1865, being a chief…

I think people should train dogs to be helpful and be of service. Dogs can help disabled people, help find missing bodies and be companions to shut-ins. Dogs are animals that can not only be used as pets but also can be trained to help people in needy situations. This is why I think dogs should be trained to help people. The first reason dogs need to be trained is help people who are in need some type of assistance. Disabled people who are blind, has a seizure disorder, mental illness,…

pursued by sixteen bloodhounds and twelve men. He would remember later that it was after his capture when Mr. Holly “set the dogs to worry and bite me.” At least some dogs of a Butler had come to the attention of Union military authorities by early 1865. On January 17, Major General John Foster, commander of the Military District of the South headquartered at Hilton Head on the Carolina coast, noted in a report about Confederate defenses that a “man named Butler” lived “between Ashepo and…